SpectraPure RO/DI System

[funkman262]

Tank is almost done cycling and I am preparing for my first big water change (I have 35 gal RO water on hand).

This morning - .25 ppm ammonia, 0 nitrites, 10 nitrates, pH 7.4, GH 4, KH 5. I check my water parameters daily.

I'm confused. Looking at those numbers, I would say that your tank hasn't even begun cycling yet. The first step is build up of ammonia, which you have. Second step is conversion of ammonia to nitrite with the ammonia eventually remaining at zero and nitrite building up. The final step is the conversion of nitrite to nitrate with the nitrite eventually remaining at zero and nitrate building up. The fact that you have ammonia is odd, especially if your nitrate going into the tank is zero after using RO water. I'm wondering if maybe the ammonia test kit is old or if you're simply slightly color blind (not meant to be an offensive remark; myself as well as many others here have difficulty reading those color charts, especially when it comes to that 0 and 0.25 ammonia).

[gronlaura]

I'm confused. Looking at those numbers, I would say that your tank hasn't even begun cycling yet. The first step is build up of ammonia, which you have. Second step is conversion of ammonia to nitrite with the ammonia eventually remaining at zero and nitrite building up. The final step is the conversion of nitrite to nitrate with the nitrite eventually remaining at zero and nitrate building up. The fact that you have ammonia is odd, especially if your nitrate going into the tank is zero after using RO water. I'm wondering if maybe the ammonia test kit is old or if you're simply slightly color blind (not meant to be an offensive remark; myself as well as many others here have difficulty reading those color charts, especially when it comes to that 0 and 0.25 ammonia).

Master test kit bottles have 2017 expiration dates, so they are fresh.

Second day after adding Safe Start the ammonia jumped to 1.0 ppm and has been dropping every few days. Has been at .25 ppm for the last 3 days and this morning is < .25 but definitely not the yellow color on the card for 0 ( I have been keeping my fingers crossed just about the whole 5 minutes waiting for the result). I had .25 ppm nitrites one day. According to Tetra, it is not unusual to show no nitrates at all when using this product, as the BB convert the ammonia and nitrites - showing only ammonia and nitrate readings is okay.

According to Tetra, cycling with Safe Start is different than cycling with fish or fishless cycling with ammonia. I was a bit intimidated by all the problems people were having with their fishless cycles and decided to talk with my LFS guy (he has degrees in chemistry and biology) as he really knows his stuff regarding water chemistry. A few of months ago, when I told him what city I lived in, he told me to bring in a tap water sample for testing - I did and confirmed his results when I got my master test kit. They sell water to a lot of aquarium owners in Elgin because of the bad tap water.

[Cliff]

As long as you have ammonia, the tank is not cycled. Unless you are doing a lot of water changes to keep the ammonia and/or nitrites down, you should see a increase in the nitrate levels as well. That's just how the nitrogen cycle works. It might take you some time yet before you are done cycling. Your test results will confirm when your cycle is done.

Most problems with fishless cycles is that people do not follow the instructions exactly how they are described or don;t have proper filtration and the cycle takes a little longer.

Edit, I forgot to mention, there is nothing wrong with cycling with fish provided you do it correctly. It looks like you are doing all the right things to keep your fish safe and using bacteria additives / produces can certainly help with that. My only concern would be that your cycle is going to take longer than you expect it to.

[gronlaura]

"According to Tetra, it is not unusual to show no nitrates at all when using this product"

I had a typo in this sentence - should be "it is okay to show no nitrites", not nitrates. Sorry.

[Cliff]

Ah,... now that makes sense.

Thanks for clearing that up.