Nitrogen Cycle...

[azotemia]

How do I know if my tank is finished or has completed the cycle?

 

[Corleone]

Without fish: When you can raise ammonia to 5 ppm and both ammonia and nitrite are down to 0 after 12 hours.
With fish: Ammonia and nitrite are 0 and stable.

 

[azotemia]

Without fish: When you can raise ammonia to 5 ppm and both ammonia and nitrite are down to 0 after 12 hours.
With fish: Ammonia and nitrite are 0 and stable.

How do I bring the nitrite down?

 

[blodhi74]

Read the following ... please

Guide

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Hi there, do you have fish in the tank or not?

if you do then read the link in my sig called 'whats cycling' which explains it all, basically you need to do daily water changes until both ammonia and nitrite stay stable at 0.

if you are cycling fishlessly then just keep adding your 5ppm ammonia daily and the nitrite will spike and then fall by itself as per the instructions in the fishless cycling thread also linked in my sig.



if you give us some more details about your tank then we can tailor some advice to your circumstances, without any more info we can only talk generally.

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, agreed, Miss Wiggle's links should explain either type of cycling.

With fish already in you are the one who must hold ammonia and nitrite to zero (as measured by a liquid-based kit) via water changes (depending on fish load, these water changes may need to be daily.) You will know you are about at the end the the cycling when the filter can hold these "zero" values for two days in a row.

~~waterdrop~~