Alessa

hello... as many of you know i am currently cycling a 5 gal hex for my betta.

i started cycling with pure ammonia on tuesday and seeded some filter media from my other tank. The good thing is that today I am already seeing nitrates (YAY!!!!!) the bad thing is that I believe I added way too much ammonia...

my readings are as follows

ammonia 8.0
nitrite 5.0
nitrate 5.0


Neither my ammonia nor my nitrites are lowering but my nitrates are going up. I did just as it is supposed to be, 5 drops every day until nitrites show then half.

i know I have to do a water change to lower the ammonia, but the only two conditioners i have are prime and tetra aqua safe. Will any of those change my cycle?

I know prime locks ammonia... (not sure if it still available to bacteria, otherwise why people dont use it with biospira). about tetra aqua safe, im not sure...

Shawnie

if you are doing a fishless cycle, conditioner isnt as important....it will dissapear on its own

Alessa

wouldnt the chlorine and the chloramine kill the benefitial bacteria?

Shawnie

depends on how much water you take out...a 10% change only because you think you added too much ammonia will be ok...but otherwise I wouldnt bother with changing water or treating it ...just let the cycle go as you have no fish to worry about and time is on your hands

Alessa

i wouldnt change the water either... but i have heard that when there is too much ammonia, a huge colony of bacteria form which is good until they start needing more oxygen than there is available, which can make the cycle crash.

should i still change the water? or just leave it and stop adding ammonia for a while?

Thanks shawnie

Shawnie

welcome hun..and I would stop both water changes and ammonia addition ..you are soooooooo close with nitrite and nitrate readings..id say the next couple days

Lucy

Great job alessa.......I thought that the chlorine can kill the bacteria, that's once of the reasons we rince our filters and decorations in used tank water.

Alessa

yes, thats why I wanted to do the water change with dechlorinated water, I dont want to risk this record cycle! less than one week and already see nitrates!
thats why i wanted to know if the tetra aqua safe is ok, and does not lock ammonia.

Lucy

I've never put untreated water into an empty tank, I think you should use the tetra aqua safe.
I've used Right Start from Jungle and ummm...whatever dechlorinator API puts out, can't remember the name just now.

Alessa

stress Coat?

Lucy

Yeah what she said.

Alessa

OMG Lucy.... I knew you were gonna say that!!!... I cant stop laughing lol...

Lucy

Alessa

Ok, I did the 50% water change, stopped adding ammonia, and like 2 days later here are my readings:

Ammonia: 2ppm
Nitrite: 5.0+PPM (I think off scale)
Nitrate: 40ppm

Nitrite continues to spike and nitrates are sky high. also ammonia is still at 2ppm which means nitrite will keep rising off scale. any suggestions? another water change? Leave it like it is...


Thx

Lucy

I think it looks good, ammonia's dropping nitrites and nitrates rising.
I might leave it for a day and test tomorrow.

You might want to wait for other opinions.

Alessa

The funny thing is the way nitrates rose, yesterday I was seeing barely 5ppm and I wake up today and it is 40ppm!

Lucy

I think that's a good thing, I bet you'll see your nitrites drop tomorrow.

Alessa

Ok, ammonia finally droped to 0 but nitrites are still sky high, nitrates as well.

how much ammonia should I add to prevent the cycle from crashing but at the same time not overdose it and go trough a mini cycle?

Lucy

Have the nitriates come down at all? I'd probably add only a little bit of ammonia, maybe to .25, enough to keep the bacteria fed.

Alessa

Yes, they have... Its just that I cant see it since they are off scale :P I see them decreasing through nitrates which are like at 20-40!

Lucy

You're so darn close!

Alessa

Ok, shocking update:

Somehow... I dont know but these have been the readings for my nitrates

0ppm
5ppm
20ppm
5ppm
5ppm

I... I dont know how I got that 20ppm reading! I havent done water changes or anyting like that during the nitrite spike. Now, nitrites are not going down and the only thing this makes me think is that I got a false nitrate reading for the 20 ppm... ( I always shake that bottle good)...

Thats it! Im going nuts!

these are my current readings
Ammonia 0ppm
Nitrite 5ppm (off chart)
nitrate... 5ppm (if it really is, it might be 0)

Lucy

did you add ammonia yesterday? If so, what was your reading?

Alessa

when I first tested it was at 0ppm so I added some ammonia and it ended up at .25
today it was also 0ppm so I added ammonia again...

Lucy

Ok, your tank is processed the ammonia in about 24 hrs, so thats good. I'm wondering if you should go ahead and do a big water change to get the nitrites down.
I'm not real sure.

Alessa

*Sigh* I thought the same, maybe it is that there is way too much nitrates and the bacteria cant reproduce...

Alessa

ok... I just did a 50% water change... lets hope this fixes things

Lucy

Yes me too, good luck alessa. Keep me posted.

Alessa

Roger!

Alessa

did 50% water change and nitrite is now 2.0... waiting until tomorrow...