Where Is My Nitrate

[djceri_g]

Ive done fishless cycling twice now, and both them times Ive has the ammonia and nitrite dropping to 0 ppm within a few hours, but the wierd thing is, theres never a nitrate reading!! Maybey once or twice I have sad a slight reading but its always on 0 ppm! How wierd! I have 0 ppm reading from my tap but there should be a reading because the ammonia and nitrite should turn to nitrate! Any suggestions? youll be banning your head on a brick wall!

Oh, by the way, I have no plants in the last cycle, also, no nitrate removal spounge (well think i havent in my filter)

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

The ammonia and nitrites will turn into nitrates but just not imediately, give the tank more time to cycle and you should start seeing those nitrates sooner or later as they are the end product of the cycling process and a sign the cycle is complete when there is 0 ammonia and nitrites but some nitrates .

 

[djceri_g]

yes, but for dayz now my ammonia and nitrite drops to 0ppm after a couple of hours (less than 12) Also,, in my mature set up theres no nitrate reading!

 

[JamieBailie]

Maybe your test kit isn't working properly.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

yes, but for dayz now my ammonia and nitrite drops to 0ppm after a couple of hours (less than 12) Also,, in my mature set up theres no nitrate reading!

How long has your mature tank been set up and how often do you do water changes and how much do you take out on average?

 

[Jabba]

It has to have a reading ... what are you cycling with - are you sure ammonia and Nitrite are ever anything BUT 0ppm.

How old is your test kit -- seems odd to me, if you have no nitrate then you have never had Nitrite either .... the two are inseparable, Nitrite converts to Nitrate.

I wouldn't trust your test kit and no mistake -- tell me you aren't using test sticks are you?

 

[djceri_g]

Nope, no test sticks coz they are crap! Im using the best API master kit. The older tank is about a year old, had no problems with that one, but always no nirate! I bought another tank (another Juwel) and mived the fish along with filter media into the new juwel trigon and all seems very well, even my discus has spawned several times!

Then, I went and bought a external filter and have been running it in the old tank, dong a fishless cycling adding pure ammonia (jeyes clean off) I thought i better get this new filter to be able to handle a high bio load because I will be purchasing 5 discus this saturday. Anyways, took all the gravel and decor from the old tank(juwel 96l), run the new filter and started adding 8 drops of ammonia every day. Took just over 2 weeks for the ammonia and nitrite to drop to 0 ppm within 12 hours. now, ive just been feeding the bacteria by adding 6 drops of ammonia every day. Still no nitrate reading! Only once I have changed the water while cycling this new externa filter. I have been dropping ammonia in and then testing water afer 5-6 hours and there is a slight reading on ammnia . Maybey if I add more ammonia every day? maybey 10 drops? or would that stall the whole thing? but I am really baffled as to where my nitrate are!!

 

[Jabba]

Yes too much ammonia can stop the process completely, too much actually kills the bacteria, but since you have had the spikes then you MUST have nitrates or a nitrate sponge in your filter or a dodgy test solution. The ONLY way nitrite in the tank gets to 0 without chemicals is via bacteria and they produce nitrate ..... it has to be going somewhere - did you forget to tell us about the 1 inch deep algae

So pretty much as baffled as you, it's virtually identical to how I do things, I too use the Jeyes, are you able to get replacement bottles of the nitrate test just in case?

 

[eschaton]

Are you adding ammo-lock or do you have some sort of ammonia-absorbing material in your filter?

 

[djceri_g]

no algae! And I have two nitrate testing kits! I can remember taking out the nitrate removal spounges that came with my juwel tank and repancing them with a course spounge. I am also using tetra aqua safe with every water change! So i will not add more ammonia than what im using. one thing i tought of was the jeyes kleen off bottle im using has been opened since april this year,, could it have gone weaker? but that still wouldnt make sence on my mature tank not having a nitiate reading

ohh, and the external filter is a ehimen classic. But if I did have a ammonia absorbing material i would not have had my first reading of ammonia when starting this fishless cycling, even actually i was adding 8 drops per day of ammonia the reading never went above 2 ppm

 

[jayjay]

Nitrate test kits are very unreliable, it's most likely the test kit.

 

[afishdude]

you should be spiking your ammonia to 8ppm not 2

 

[djceri_g]

How many drops of ammonia should I add to bring it up to 5ppm? Its a 96 litre

 

[Jabba]

Depends on the source of the ammonia I think most would be surprised how much - I think for the Jeyes that I uses it is around 5ml per 10 litres of the (Jeyes Kleenoff Ammonia I believe is 7 to 9.5% ammonia and water). I use 1 drop from a clinical pipette per 5 litre to cycle, and 1 drop per 15 litre to maintain the cycle in my hospital tank - Jeyes Kleenoff Ammonia that I believe is 9.5% ammonia 90.5% water - there is nothing stronger available to the public I think due to the hazardous chemical rules.

My advice to you is to get 1 litre of water and add 5 drops of your ammonia, stir well, wait 30 minutes then measure the ammonia using a liquid test kit. With a little simple math your result should give you a doseage using your ammonia source.

 

[djceri_g]

Depends on the source of the ammonia I think most would be surprised how much - I think for the Jeyes that I uses it is around 5ml per 10 litres of the (Jeyes Kleenoff Ammonia I believe is 7 to 9.5% ammonia and water). I use 1 drop from a clinical pipette per 5 litre to cycle, and 1 drop per 15 litre to maintain the cycle in my hospital tank - Jeyes Kleenoff Ammonia that I believe is 9.5% ammonia 90.5% water - there is nothing stronger available to the public I think due to the hazardous chemical rules.

My advice to you is to get 1 litre of water and add 5 drops of your ammonia, stir well, wait 30 minutes then measure the ammonia using a liquid test kit. With a little simple math your result should give you a doseage using your ammonia source.

Cool, i will do that tonihgt and se how long it takes for it to drop to 0 ppm. Will let you know. But im sure this tank is cycled, nut a nitrate mistery!