Ammonia/Nitrites/Nitrates ... Question

[geowashlaw]

Hey all

I put ammonia in my tank on Friday. It held steady at 5 ppm until today. The Nitrites showed up on Wednesday, but the ammonia was still holding steady around 5 ppm. I was out of the country and my wife also checked the nitrates on Wednesday and they were 0. Ammonia held steady at 5 ppm yesterday and nitrites were around 0.25. Today, ammonia dropped to around 2-3 ppm, nitrites were up to .5 and nitrates showed up big at around 160. Is this normal?

[Lady Hobbs]

That nitrate reading can not be right. The highest chart I've seen only goes to 5. What kind of tester are you using?

Other than that, it looks to me as you are right on schedule. Your ammonia will began to decrease each day as the nitrites increase. Nitrites take longer to drop than ammonia does so you may have a week to watch those nitrites slowly rise before they began to start to drop. Meanwhile, in a few more days, you will see your ammonia has dropped to 0 in a 24-hour period.

Now that you are showing nitrites, drop back on how much ammonia you are adding each day. Like, keep the ammonia level to like 2-3 instead of 5. But only add the ammonia one time each day.

You are growing your ammonia eating bacteria and now you are adding just enough ammonia to keep what you have produced alive. You will have plenty of bacteria to sustain several fish in your tank at those lower levels.

I see about another week to have a finished cycle. When "done" you will have 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites and high nitrates. Do a large water change to bring the nitrates to 20 or less and you are ready to add your fish.

If you can not add your fish right away, continue with just a few drops of ammonia until you can.

[kaybee]

That nitrate reading can not be right. The highest chart I've seen only goes to 5. What kind of tester are you using?

Do you mean nitrite?

Most nitrate test kits register beyond 5.

[geowashlaw]

my nitrite card goes to 5 ppm, my nitrate card goes to 160 ppm... which seems consistent with your sticky post .... which says w/c them to below 20 when the cycle is over ... but, this is my first run at this, so I don't know ...

thanks for answering my questions!

[Lady Hobbs]

Do you mean nitrite?

Most nitrate test kits register beyond 5.

I sure did read it wrong. Not the post, my charts.
:19: Thanks for the correction!