No nitrites in Boston

[tbirdz83]

Hi Everyone,

I'm on the 10th day of my freshwater tank and things are not going well. I'm seeing climbing levels of Ammonium with 0 ppm of Nitrite. Every time my ammonia readings hit 1 ppm I change 1 gallon of water. My pH is greater than 7.5 and I always use Tetra Aquafresh to treat my water. In the 10 gallon tank I have 6 Zebra Danios.I'm using a 3" gravel substrate. Filtering the system is a Marineland Bio-Wheel. I also have a heater keeping the water at 78 degrees. Two days ago I dumped a package of Marineland Bio-Spira in the tank. Still no luck in bringing up the nitrites. Anyone have some suggestions?

[Slinky_Bass]

Doing PWC's during cycling will only delay the cycling process, but since you're doing a 'fished' cycle it's inevetable as you don't want your Danios dieing (sp?) from Ammonia poisoning.

Just hang in there, Boston gets nitrites like anywhere else ;) it'll just take longer with PWC's preventing that 'spike' in ammonia and then N02 that one looks for in a 'fishless' cycle.

[nikipate]

I can't really tell ya since I'm new also but I just wanted to say Hi and welcome to the forum. I'm sure someone else will be along soon with advice.:thumb:

[jeffs99dime]

welcome to a.c. what is your ammonia level at? if you are fishy cycling then you absolutely have to conduct pwc's. if you're fishless cycling, then it doesn't matter.

[Sasquatch]

It should be anytime now, though the water changes will slow things down a little.

When I cycled my 10 gallon tank, it took around 12 days to get nitrite readings and another 10 for them to spike. I had two platies to do the cycling and everything went fine. Didn't even have to do water changes, though my ammonia spiked at about 2ppm (nitrites, almost 3). Those same platies are still there and, with luck, should even reproduce soon. (If our male can get over his shyness.:41: )

Just be patient and keep checking the water every day or two, it can take as much as 6 week to cycle a tank.

[Lady Hobbs]

Biggest problem in cycling is patience. First you need to produce ammonia eating bacteria before the ammonia will diminish and the nitrites will rise. Then the nitrites eating bacteria will produce and once again, another wait (but even longer) for that bacteria.

You can expect a good 3 weeks for a cycle. Hopefully the Bio-Spira will speed things along IF it was still alive. Once things start moving, it moves rather quickly tho. One day you may high levels of ammonia and just like that they will be at 0.

[Glasstapper]

you're not siphoning your gravel, are you? You don't do that until the tank is done cycling. That little mistake caused my cycle to take 8 weeks. I hadn't started seeing nitrites until the end of week 4. Good luck and keep an eye out for stress.

[Nautilus29]

nice catch. Katelyn cleaned her gravel about 2 weeks ago and now she still isnt seeing any nitrites.

[tbirdz83]

Thanks everyone. I haven't been siphoning from the gravel. I guess I just need to be more patient.

[holbritter]

Yup! That's what I was advised when I first got here too.....and it paid off :)

I had Danio's when cycling also, and it took 4-5 weeks for it to kick in.

[Lady Hobbs]

That's the worse part of cycling with fish. Using ammonia, you have your level needed to start cycling the tank immediately instead of waiting for all those little fishes to produce what you can add in 3 minutes from a bottle. No water changes, no fish dying and no worry.

Turn your heat up to around 80-82 and it will cycle a bit faster. Heat=faster growing bacteria.

[Sin]

everybody has given good advice so far ..the Key thing is Patience...and also try not to feed the fishes everyday while you are cycleing , feed them twice a week or so during the cycling process....and one day you will do the readings and it will yeild the right results you are looking for..good luck

[tbirdz83]

I have good news to report. It's true, there are nitrites in Boston. My tank spiked last night with 0 ammonia. I just needed a little patience. Thanks everyone.

[Lady Hobbs]

Good. Now you have to be just as patient waiting for the nitrite growing bacteria and then you'll get another 0 reading. Nitrite is also toxic to fish so you need to continue with small water changes if it gets too high.