Ammonia 0/Nitrite orange???? :)

[cartmanis]

Okay, so, tank is still cycling. For the first time (after dumping what must be almost a litre of ammonia into it), my ammonia readings were at 0 today when I tested.

Nitrites yesterday were off the chart, a nice dark pink. From past tests, when I didn't have any nitrites, it remained clear. Today, the test went really dark pink to start, then after waiting the 2 minutes it says, it turned orange....? Orange???? what the heck :) That ain't on the chart lol. Ran it twice, did the same thing, so I"m not looking at some weird contamination or something. Anybody have experience with that.

The cloudyness of the bacteria bloom I had start yesterday is much less, which sort of confirms that was what it was.

Still, orange??? :)

[Chrona]

It's like the color coded Terror Alert Watch...... lol

So I'm assuming (since I don't have your test kit) that those colors indicate a nitrite spike? You can cut ammonia addition in half at this point

[cartmanis]

For background. The Nitrite test (hagen - add 5 drops each of the 2 bottles and wait 2 minutes) has readings from almost clear with a touch of pink to really dark pink. I have watched it go from clear (no nitrites) to some pinkness, to off the chart dark pink a couple of days ago. I halved the ammonia at that point.
Since then, I had the bacertia bloom that showed up yesterday, but it still had a high ammonia/nitrite reading. Today, Ammonia was clear, so 0. The Nitrite started at dark pink, like it did yesterday,but instead of staying/getting darker, it changed to orange. lol.

<tongue in cheek>
Maybe that's it, I have microbial terrorists, and the water test is trying to alert me :) D*MN you Osama!!!!!!!!! :) If I see a little leaf crash into my water heater, I'm going to track that b*stard down and beat him into food for someones Oscar.
</tongue in cheek>

[muffin]

I wouldn't be too woried about it. Just sounds like you are getting one step closer to getting your tank cycled... Meh.. but what do I know.. lol.. I wish you luck on the adventure..

[cocoa_pleco]

so, in cycling, the ammonia drops, then high nitrite. That means youre done cycling. do a 40% water change and it'll go down

[cartmanis]

Yeah, if the nitrite had still been high, or gone low, no questions...
The orange was a little weird though lol :)

[kimmers318]

I am guessing that you probably have higher nitrites than what the chart reads.....give it some time to come down to readable levels, but continue your cycling. It takes longer for the nitrite eating bacteria to grow. You will probably also see nitrate readings that are off the charts when you get them. And you will have loads of good bacteria for your tank from the fishless cycling.
When you see zero on nitrites and high nitrAtes THEN do your large water changes to get nitrates to a safe level (don't mess with gravel and filter) and your tank will be ready for fish. If for some reason you aren't ready for fish when your tank is ready, just continue to feed it ammonia to keep it going until you are ready.

[cartmanis]

:) Could be. though as the test seemed to get darker and darker pink as it got higher nitrite readings, I was surprised by orange :)

I've been getting nitrate readings for a while, so I'm just keeping on with the process.

thanks.