Not Sure about my cycle

[2tank]

So I started cycling my tank 3 days ago. I followed the guide here and used the calculator to woek out ammonia.
When I did my first test I had a ready of 4ppm
Yesterday ammonia was at 2ppm
And today it had dropped to 0.5
But my nitrate and nitrite tests have been 0 all 3 days is something wrong.

 

[Essjay]

Have you added a bacterial starter to the tank?
Do you have live plants in the tank?

 

[2tank]

Have you added a bacterial starter to the tank?
Do you have live plants in the tank?

Yes as I said um following the guide

 

[Essjay]

If you have live plants in the tank, they take up ammonia and don't turn it into nitrite or nitrate.
If a bacterial starter works as they claim, as soon as the ammonia eaters in the bottle get to work, the nitrite eaters will also get to work and remove the nitrite as fast as the ammonia eaters make it.

Both of these scenarios change the way the fishless cycle works.

 

[2tank]

If you have live plants in the tank, they take up ammonia and don't turn it into nitrite or nitrate.
If a bacterial starter works as they claim, as soon as the ammonia eaters in the bottle get to work, the nitrite eaters will also get to work and remove the nitrite as fast as the ammonia eaters make it.

Both of these scenarios change the way the fishless cycle works.

so the plants are causing trouble.
any way I have started to see nitrate in my tests now so it seems it is working it was just taking awhile.

 

[Essjay]

Plants just change the way the cycle proceeds. Since they take up ammonia, they will reduce the amount of nitrite being made, and with enough plants there won't be any nitrite.

 

[2tank]

My cycle is broken again, ammonia has hit 0 in 24hrs but nitrite is very high and havent seen much change in 2 days.

 

[kwi]

How high is your Nitrite?
It is possible to stall the cycle if it gets too high.

 

[2tank]

How high is your Nitrite?
It is possible to stall the cycle if it gets too high.

On the test it was red which is beyond 1ppm.
As there is no red colour on the test sheet.

 

[Wells]

Think I'm in the same boat as you, about 8 days in with some established media from the other tank and added Dr.Tims bacteria and Dr.Tims ammonia, and my ammonia readings have dropped down to 0.25-0.50 but nitrites are stuck quite high still and have been for about 3 days, unsure of the actual reading as the colours don't change too much after 2ppm by my eyes.

I've done another dosage of ammonia to bring it up to 2ppm and will see what happens from there I guess. Tempted to do a water change to see a more accurate look at the nitrites but don't wanna screw it up if that's how it's going.

 

[Naughts]

Think I'm in the same boat as you, about 8 days in with some established media from the other tank and added Dr.Tims bacteria and Dr.Tims ammonia, and my ammonia readings have dropped down to 0.25-0.50 but nitrites are stuck quite high still and have been for about 3 days, unsure of the actual reading as the colours don't change too much after 2ppm by my eyes.

I've done another dosage of ammonia to bring it up to 2ppm and will see what happens from there I guess. Tempted to do a water change to see a more accurate look at the nitrites but don't wanna screw it up if that's how it's going.

Rather than do a water change you can dilute the sample. Add half tank and half tap. If it reads 1ppm you can be more confident of your tank being 2ppm.

 

[Wells]

Rather than do a water change you can dilute the sample. Add half tank and half tap. If it reads 1ppm you can be more confident of your tank being 2ppm.

That sounds like a great idea, will give it a shot thanks!

Edit: Gave it a go, same colour!

 

[Naughts]

That sounds like a great idea, will give it a shot thanks!

Edit: Gave it a go, same colour!

Higher than 2 then. Try a 25-75 dilution.

 

[Wells]

Higher than 2 then. Try a 25-75 dilution.

This is 1ml tank water to 4ml tap.

Edit: I find the colourss too similar, I maybe need to try one with more distinct colourings, been a while since I had an eye test but I'm colour blind with certain colours and I'm sure it was the pinks and purples which is unfortunate haha.

 

[Essjay]

Stall point is around 15 or 16 ppm nitrite. Since your test kits only reads as high as 1 ppm, you may have to do a 1 in 10 dilution test to get the reading on the chart.