Nitrates lowering without a water change?

[YngUrbanCMH]

Hey Everyone -
My aquarium has been cycleing for about 2 and a half weeks. I've been checking ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates at least every 3 days. Today when I checked, ammonia was finally down to 0ppm (woo hoo!), and nitrates were at 0 ppm . When I checked 2 days ago they were near 40ppm. Is this possible? Could it be my live plants? I haven't done any partial water changes, I've only added water a couple of times to replace what was lost through evap.

Any comments.. or am I crazy

Thanks,
John

 

[smb]

What type of cycling process are you using? Yea, it's possible.

What are your Nitrites right now?

 

[YngUrbanCMH]

5ppm, up from 2 ppm 2 days ago. I'm using cycle.... supposedly contains beneficial bacteria.... something that the lfs packaged with my setup.

Ohhh... and I'm cycling with fish in the tank, not using the fishless method. Misread that part.

 

[smb]

5ppm, up from 2 ppm. I'm using cycle.... supposedly contains beneficial bacteria.

Sounds like you're in the beginning of your nitrite cycle right now. Do you have fish in there right now or is this a fishless cycle?

If you do have some in there, you could do a small water change to help them out. I would wait for others to respond too tho because most people don't like to do a water change while in the process of breaking in a tank. That way you can go with the consensus instead of just listening to me.

 

[dolphin]

HI YngUrbanCMH

The Nitrate levels will have droped, as there is no supply of them in a new tank. Now that your nitrite levels have started to rise, you will soon see the nitrate levels start to rise again.

You can do water changes during the cycle, it will prolong the process, but cause less stress on the fish. It is not a good idea to top the tank up, you should do a water change.