Can't Get My Nitrites Down

So we're on week five of trying to cycle my 20 gallon tank. The initial problem was the ammonia kept going down but nitrites wouldn't show up. Nitrites started showing up and spiked weeks ago, and nothing I do lowers them. My readings, for several weeks now, are 0-.25 ammonia, it's hard to tell with nitrites because the colors are so close, it's either 2 ppm or over 5, and my nitrates are 0-5 ppm but never higher. I'm doing a fish in cycle, and I used Stability as directed the first seven days.

Four days ago I did a complete tank change, not just a water change but also a complete substrate change. I was using sand, as I did in previous tanks I've owned, and I decided it was too messy (I got sick of blowing it everywhere during water changes or moving things around). I moved the fish to a temporary tank, removed all water, decorations, and substrate. I also placed all of my filter media in tank water fully submerged. The tank was basically as if I brought it home from the store, completely empty. I added river rock gravel as the substrate, added the decorations back (few pieces of driftwood and three fake plants), gave the filter media a quick squeeze and put it all back together again.

A few hours later I tested the water and it had .5 ammonia, .25 nitrites, and 0 nitrates. The next day the ammonia was zero, nitrites had spiked again, and 0 nitrates. How could my nitrites spike so quickly with a 100 percent water and substrate change just the day before?

Yesterday I did two 50 percent water changes, this morning the nitrites are still off the charts. I just did another 50 percent water change half an hour ago, I will test later. I'm wondering if it's possible that I got a bad API test kit because this cycle has had all kinds of strange occurrences that I didn't see cycling two previous tanks. Maybe it's the Stability? The fish, a Bolivian Ram and a Honey Gourami, have been fine the entire time. They've been active and eating perfectly fine throughout this entire ordeal. It really does make me think the tank is cycled and I'm just getting erroneous readings. Any ideas?

 

Hi! It seems that, if the test kit is right, that the cycle is almost finished if nitrates are showing up. Changing the substrate could have removed some beneficial bacteria so keep that in mind when you see swings in readings.

However, if you changed 100% of the water when you redid the tank, it doesn't make sense that that much ammonia and nitrite would show up with just two fish in that large of a tank. Are you overfeeding/letting leftovers stay in the tank?

I would suggest getting new nitrogen kits (Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate) and follow the directions to a T. I had a similar issue and it seemed to be better after switching my kits. Also make sure you clean the test tube well and try not to use the same tool to fill the tube (I use disposable pipettes).

I would also recommend live plants if you have the proper lighting, as it helped balance any ammonia spikes. Good Luck, and be sure to dose with some prime to help with any ammonia spikes that are occurring!

 

Hi! It seems that, if the test kit is right, that the cycle is almost finished if nitrates are showing up. Changing the substrate could have removed some beneficial bacteria so keep that in mind when you see swings in readings.

However, if you changed 100% of the water when you redid the tank, it doesn't make sense that that much ammonia and nitrite would show up with just two fish in that large of a tank. Are you overfeeding/letting leftovers stay in the tank?

I would suggest getting new nitrogen kits (Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate) and follow the directions to a T. I had a similar issue and it seemed to be better after switching my kits. Also make sure you clean the test tube well and try not to use the same tool to fill the tube (I use disposable pipettes).

I would also recommend live plants if you have the proper lighting, as it helped balance any ammonia spikes. Good Luck, and be sure to dose with some prime to help with any ammonia spikes that are occurring!

I'll be getting some live plants once I put my new driftwood in, just have to prepare the driftwood first as I found it on a beach and want to make sure it's fine. My lighting is adequate, nothing spectacular but for the plants I'm getting, and the fact that my tank is only 12 inches high, it should be fine.

I've been adding Prime every 36 hours or so to protect the fish from any ammonia and nitrites, which has worked quite well judging by how normal the fish appear to be acting. No way would they be acting so normal in water with nitrites this high for so long if Prime wasn't doing its job.

As far as the food, I've only been adding a small pinch once per day, but I'm seriously considering switching to a bare bottom tank just so I can keep better tabs on exactly how much they're eating.

I forgot to mention that my fake plants had some brown algae on them, and some of the driftwood has had some green algae. Is this because of too much food? High nitrites? I removed the fake plants because as I said previously I'll be adding live plants to the driftwood once I get it in.

 

The algae could be from excess nutrients such as nitrates, however its hard to tell the exact cause without knowing kH or gH. For example, I live in NY with extremely soft water. After adding some agronite sand (calcium, potassium etc), I started getting some green hair algae. Heavily planted tanks, frequent water changes, 7-ish hours of light and proper fertilization will keep the algae down.

I would definitely say your test kits may be inaccurate.

 

If worried about fish-Throw in some nitrazorb temporarily over a bubbler. It won’t mess your cycle but will make water less toxic to your fish as you cycle. It only takes it out of the water column not your substrate or filter where fish wastes break down and bacteria go to work. Also check your tap and don’t clean your filter until cycled so the good bugs can grow.