Nitrite Test Results

[dudleyd]

I'm currently fishless cycling my 64L tropical tank. I have passed the Nitrite spike point (was up at over 5ppm) and the tank is now reducing ammonia down to 0ppm from 4ppm in 12 hours, the problem i have is the Nitrite test has started turning a very light brown (after it had previously been turning very light blue indicating 0ppm).

Any idea why this is? Do you think it could be getting messede up as a result of the nitrates being off the scale?

Using an API master liquid test.

Thanks DD

 

[fishyfeet]

seems strange, have you tried doing a water change and testing again, di

 

[waterdrop]

What's your pH?

 

[dudleyd]

Ph is 8

 

[waterdrop]

I have no idea why your nitrite test is not showing light blue, perhaps some mistake in doing the test or and expiration of the reagent or something. If your pH was going lower I was going to consider the suggestion of a "kicker" water change, which helps sometimes in the 3rd phase of fishless cycling, but with a nice high pH like that you could probably go either way, its mostly just a wait for the nitrite to drop to clearing in 12 hours.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[dudleyd]

Think i'll do a water change, i just tested the tap water as i know this is 0ppm and the test has come back as light blue which is correct for 0ppm. The tank water test is almost the exact same colour as the ph 8 colour (I know what your thinking and i haven't got the tests mixed up).

Will do a WC and post the results up.

DD

 

[rebrn]

Are you using API? I had this happen to me. I had the nitrite spike, then was getting very light blue (indicating 0ppm) then about a week of 0ppm I was getting the brownish colour. It did this for 2 days, despite me repeating the test several times. On the 3rd day I got a purple colour, then on the 4th day I was back to light blue (0ppm after 12 hours) and it stayed that way for the remainder of the cycle. It happened to me about 2 days in to the qualifying week. I am assuming that I had another nitrite spike for what ever reason and the readings were off the chart, as it was back to clearing to 0ppm on the fourth day. I did not do anything, no water changes, nothing, I just waited it out, and it came back to normal on its own. Not sure if this is your issue or not but it sounds very simillar to what I experienced.

 

[dudleyd]

Cheers rebrn, yes i'm using API master, the test was definately coming back as light brown as you say, i have just done a 30% waterchange, left it 10 mins and re-tested, result, nitrite off the scale (purple showing it to be 5.0ppm).

You think it goes brown if you have massive ammounts of nitrite present?

It was definately going light blue before it started to go brown a few days ago.

Just about to dose it back up to 4ppm with ammonia, will wait and see what happens tomorrow i guess.

DD

 

[rebrn]

Yep I think that is definately what it is, the nitrite is off the charts, I was cycling 3 tanks at the time using the exact same bottle of nitrire reagent for all 3 tanks, and only saw the brown colour in one of the tanks, so that is why I think it was that the nitrites were off the chart rather than a problem with the reagent. So you might be experiencing another nitrite spike. Try backing off the ammonia, only dose to 2ppm to give the nBacs a chance to catch up, then when the nitrites are clearing back to 0ppm slowly increase the ammonia dose back up to 4ppm. That is what I was advised to do and it worked great. Also, remember to only dose with ammonia once in a 24 hour period, even if it is clearing to 0ppm every 12 hours, only dose the tank once a day.