Can't seem to get nitrite down during cycle

I'm 14 days in the cycle and have a good production of NO2 and NO3.
I think I made the mistake of adding a bit to ammonia at the beginning of the cycle as I seem to have a massive amount of NO2 and I can't seem to get it down.

A few days ago, it started to be 1 ppm (which is the highest my test can show) and since then I am unable to get it down...
The bacteria are doing a good job as there's a massive amount of NO3 produced each day.

Today was the 4th day I did a WC. I test the water an hour or so after the WC and every time I still have 1+ NO2 in the water.

I did test the NO2 test on tap water to make sure it was working fine and it is...

I'm also wondering... Is it ok for me to stop adding ammonia for a few days until the NO2 settles down? Or will that kill the bacteria I already have? At the moment I'm still adding ammonia because I don't want to kill of the bacteria I already have...

Here's an overview of the readings of the last days:

Date	NH4 (ppm)	NO2 (ppm)	NO3 (ppm)	Notes
18 Feb	3	1	200	25% WC after I took a reading
19 Feb	0.2	1	200	30% WC after I took a reading
19 Feb	0.05	1	200	Added 3ml of 12% diluted ammonia
20 Feb	0.6	1	60	50% WC + 6ml of diluted ammonia 90min before testing water
21 Feb	0.05	1	200	70% WC after reading
21 Feb	0	1	40
22 Feb	0	1	120	70% WC after reading + 10ml of diluted ammonia
22 Feb	1.5-2	1	50

 

If this is a fishless cycle just let it continue to grow nitrite eating bacteria. At 14 days you are still early in the cycle. Just add ammonia every other day. Your ammonia eating bacteria will be fine if it isn't fed daily.

I don't know what it is but something other than the ammonia is causing your nitrates to spike that high. The amount of nitrates produced depends on the amount of ammonia being processed. This tank isn't processing enough ammonia to be producing this amount of nitrates.

What kind of decor do you have in this tank? I have to think something is leaching nitrates.

 

You shouldn't be taking readings after water changes. Those results are skewed to what your tap water is and not necessarily your own tank water. If I were you id also go get the actual test kits that use drops instead of the strips.

Try doing your water change and wait 24hrs and then do your tests. Also high nitrate isn't a sign of a cycled tank, 0,0,10-20 is the rough signs

 

I believe it is the ammonia as in the beginning of my cycle my ammonia was maxed out on the test... since I started, I didn’t change anything on the decor and I didn’t have such nitrate production. The no3 production came together with the spike in no2

You shouldn't be taking readings after water changes. Those results are skewed to what your tap water is and not necessarily your own tank water. If I were you id also go get the actual test kits that use drops instead of the strips.

Try doing your water change and wait 24hrs and then do your tests. Also high nitrate isn't a sign of a cycled tank, 0,0,10-20 is the rough signs

I am using the drop test...

my tap water doesn’t have no2 so that shouldn’t interfere with the test...

 

How can you only see 1ppm?

 

I believe it is the ammonia as in the beginning of my cycle my ammonia was maxed out on the test... since I started, I didn’t change anything on the decor and I didn’t have such nitrate production. The no3 production came together with the spike in no2

Even if you added too much ammonia to begin with the water changes you have done would have gotten your nitrates down. There is no way your nitrates should shoot up to 200 after the water changes. I have to think something is leaching nitrates or your tests are faulty.

 

How can you only see 1ppm?

The drop test I have only goes to 1. I’m using the JBL test.

 

The drop test I have only goes to 1. I’m using the JBL test.

never heard of that test kit. Most here use API

 

Even if you added too much ammonia to begin with the water changes you have done would have gotten your nitrates down. There is no way your nitrates should shoot up to 200 after the water changes. I have to think something is leaching nitrates or your tests are faulty.

it goes to 200from 60 in 24hours so not immediately...

if it’s something in the decor, what could it be and how could it be that it only activated after a week or later?

never heard of that test kit. Most here use API

don’t think we have apI in Europe...
What’s the range of the apI kit? I’ll go to the store tomorrow and see if I can find one with larger range...

 

don’t think we have apI in Europe...
What’s the range of the apI kit? I’ll go to the store tomorrow and see if I can find one with larger range...

I'm not home atm so hopefully someone else could answer but I know its more than 1ppm

 

it goes to 200from 60 in 24hours so not immediately...

if it’s something in the decor, what could it be and how could it be that it only activated after a week or later?

Even if it takes 24 hours it shouldn't be going that high at all unless you are putting massive amounts of ammonia in there daily. I feel sure you aren't doing that so something else is happening to cause them to get this high. The amount of both nitrites and then nitrates depends on the amount of ammonia a tank is processing. I am still wondering if it is a faulty test.

don’t think we have apI in Europe...
What’s the range of the apI kit? I’ll go to the store tomorrow and see if I can find one with larger range...

The nitrite test goes up to 5, the nitrate test goes up to 160, the ammonia test goes up to 8, low PH ranges between 6.0 and 7.6 The high PH ranges between 7.4 and 8.8

 

I think I'll take a sample of my water to the store so they can test it. This will validate if my test at home is accurate or not... If not, I'll buy a new one. If it is accurate, I'll also ask some advice from them...

All the things in my tank are bought at the local store so they are all ok to put in the tank... There's nothing exotic in... Standard substrate, some plants, some rocks and some wood that I boiled for a long time.

Also... I attached an image of my sheet containing the readings from the start. This shows how both the NO2 and NO3 build up over time

I used a bottle of quickstart (don't know the brand or type) that contains some bacteria.
The filter also had some tablets I had to put in the filter that would kickstart the bacteria.

 

Taking some of your water for testing is a good idea. I always ask about decor. Even though it is designed for an aquarium sometime some things can cause strange readings. One in particular I remember was a lady that couldn't get her nitrites down. Even 100% water changes didn't help. She would do one and the next day her nitrites were through the roof again. We tried every thing. I finally suggested she remove her decor. She did, then did a water change and the nitrites were gone. Her tank had been cycled for a while but the nitrites were telling her it wasn't.

Most of the time these things are aquarium safe but occasionally something in the manufacturing of them cause something like this to happen. That may not be the case here but if your test is not faulty them something is causing the nitrates to spike much more than they should with the amount of ammonia this tank is processing.

 

Based on some online calculators, I seemed to have added 10ppm worth of ammonia at the beginning of my cycle.
Since then, I added a total of an additional 10ppm worth of ammonia.

So in two weeks time, my tank got around 20ppm worth of ammonia. Any idea on how to calculate how much NO3 that would become if everything got converted?

 

Based on some online calculators, I seemed to have added 10ppm worth of ammonia at the beginning of my cycle.
Since then, I added a total of an additional 10ppm worth of ammonia.

So in two weeks time, my tank got around 20ppm worth of ammonia. Any idea on how to calculate how much NO3 that would become if everything got converted?

I am not sure how it is calculated but you also have to consider all the water you have changed that would have removed nitrates and some of the ammonia. In that case you can't just consider the total amount of ammonia this tank has processed since you started the cycle to determine how much nitrate there would be.

 

I'm also adding a liquid fertilizer each day. The documented amount... 5 drops in my tank. I'm not sure but these could add some nitrates but don't think they will add 100ppm... wouldn't be safe to use when there are fish in the tank so maybe just a few ppm max...
The plants also remove some of the nitrates so that probably balances the added nitrate from the fertilizer...

Product like a conditioner to make tap water safe for the tank, do they do something with NO2 or NO3 as I'm adding that as well during water changes...

 

Some ferts will raise the nitrates but I can't imagine it raising this much. You can test it out though by adding some to a container of water outside of your tank. Same with your water conditioner. I've never heard of a water conditioner doing this but testing it is the only way to know for sure. When trying to get to the bottom of anything that seems off testing is the best way to get to the bottom of it.

 

For what it's worth the last tank I cycled got 5ppm ammonia at the beginning and 1 or 2 pppm top offs for a couple weeks.During the last week it got 5ppm daily and I never saw nitrates get as high as yours.I generated around 100ppm nitrates during the last week from a total of apx 35ppm ammonia.Its prob not a horrible idea to do a controlled test and check your ferts.The ones I use give me around 10-15 nitrates at recommended dose but I only use once a week.If I used it daily my nitrates would be pretty darn high.

 

done some more reading on the website of JBL (the manufacturer of the drop test I use) and they mention that if the values are of the scale, you can dilute your sample water with distilled water.
Use 2.5ml sample water and 2.5ml distilled water, you have to multiple the value by 2
Use 1ml sample water, multiply by 5 and use 0.5ml sample, multiply by 10.

I've done that and even on 0.5ml, the scale is maxed out so that means I have 10+ ppm NO2 in the water.
Couldn't that also explain the high amount of NO3 production? If I have 10+ppm NO2 after all these water changes, the bacteria will grow according to the food they get and they have plenty of NO2 to munch upon...
My reading this morning for NO3 was 120 which means they produced +/- 70ppm NO3 in 17 hours.

 

Just got back from the store and wasn't expecting such an answer from them...
They told me that all is fine and I should just give it a few more weeks and it will balance out.
I should be doing smaller water changes every 2 or 3 days and not daily and just leave it as is... Don't worry to much about the values as everything is still settling as I'm still early on in the cycle...

 

Just got back from the store and wasn't expecting such an answer from them...
They told me that all is fine and I should just give it a few more weeks and it will balance out.
I should be doing smaller water changes every 2 or 3 days and not daily and just leave it as is... Don't worry to much about the values as everything is still settling as I'm still early on in the cycle...

It seems they've confirmed what I said In my first post on this thread. Also since this is a fishless cycle the water changes aren't really necessary as long as the ammonia is still being processed. That means the cycle is still moving forward. Right now the main thing this cycle needs is time.

One other thing I would do is stop adding the ferts. With your plants already getting ammonia, nitrites and nitrates they should be fine until this cycle is done without adding anything else for them.

I would have suggested the dilution test but knew you weren't using the API test so wasn't sure how to advise you on the one you have.

If this is a fishless cycle just let it continue to grow nitrite eating bacteria. At 14 days you are still early in the cycle. Just add ammonia every other day. Your ammonia eating bacteria will be fine if it isn't fed daily.

I don't know what it is but something other than the ammonia is causing your nitrates to spike that high. The amount of nitrates produced depends on the amount of ammonia being processed. This tank isn't processing enough ammonia to be producing this amount of nitrates.

What kind of decor do you have in this tank? I have to think something is leaching nitrates.