Trouble with Fishless cycle

[Wannaknowaboutsand]

just checked the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. The ammonia is at 0 the nirtate is at 5ppm and the I get a reading of .50 on the nitrite!

WHat could happen?

It's a 55 gallon tank with 4 yellow labs in it.

it was cycled in a week and 2 days!

Again what's going on?

 

[Sky042]

just checked the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. The ammonia is at 0 the nirtate is at 5ppm and the I get a reading of .50 on the nitrite!

WHat could happen?

It's a 55 gallon tank with 4 yellow labs in it.

it was cycled in a week and 2 days!

Again what's going on?

sounds like you've got a very small buildup of nitrite. not a huge deal the biological filter probably wasn't 100% complete and ready for the amount of fish your using. it should grow to adapt. At least it got a nice head start on the fishless portion.

 

[Wannaknowaboutsand]

Well I changed the water and guess what. the nitrite went even higher!!

 

[tstenback]

Have you checked your tap water for nitrate. Some water supplies have a healthy dose of nitrate in them, others have phosphate and other chemicals. If your nitrate reading goes up when you do a water change then the water must be the culprit. Also how long after you add the water are you testing. Sometimes just after you add water you can get some pretty strange readings. I usually wait at least a half hour before testing. HTH

 

[rcl]

the nitrate went higher or the nitrite went higher?

if the nitrate went higher, that could be explained if that .50ppm nitrite now reads 0 (converted to nitrate).

 

[Wannaknowaboutsand]

the niTRITE went from .5 to over 3 on my test sheet after a water change.

The niTRATE is still 5ppm.

I tested the tap water and it read 0 nitrite and zero nitrate.

Sorry for the misunderstanding.

 

[gixer]

sounds to me that you have a duff nitrite test kit. i cant see any logical reason that your nitrite level would rise after a waterchange. infact there isnt any reason whatsoever.

i would try and get your test results comfirmed by either using a different test or getting it tested in the lfs.

what test do you use?

 

[Wannaknowaboutsand]

I have the aquatic pharmacuticals fresh water kit. It uses the test tubes with a dropper that turns the water differnt shades of purple.

 

[Sky042]

I have the aquatic pharmacuticals fresh water kit. It uses the test tubes with a dropper that turns the water differnt shades of purple.

They do go bad. I have one that has gone bad right now for my GH it shows perfect water 0 GH all the time. It no longer reacts.