Interpratation of water testing

THese are the results from the past few days. I'm most curious about the Nitrate:

AMMONIA NITRITE NITRATE ACTION TAKEN
12/6 Approx 1.5 OFF CHART Approx 40 Add 1/2 tsp Ammonia

12/6 Approx 5
12/7 Approx 1.5 OFF CHART Approx 0-5 Add 1/2 tsp Ammonia

Thanks for your help

 

Sorry, the way you have this written, I'm kinda lost so I'm not sure what you are saying. You're doing an ammonia cycle, right? What is 1.5, Nitrites? Nitrates are at 40?, oooooh, I think I might understand what is going on. Nitrates at 40 right now is fine. You'll bring these down under 20ppm with water changes before you add fish. Nitrites are at their peak or are peaking, and can take longer for the bacteria that convert the nitrites to nitrates to develop than the bacteria that converts ammonia to nitrites. Since this is a small tank, it will have a limited amount of filter media for the bacteria colonies to develop. You may have room in behind your cartridge media to add a small media bag full of biomax. This will give beneficial bacteria more room to colonize.

Warming the water to 86F and if you add an airstone or drop your water level slightly, it will increase the oxygen content in the water, both of these things can help speed up the production of your beneficial bacteria as well. Give your nitrites another week to start coming down. If they are still sky high, do just a small water change of a gallon or two at the most. I'm pretty sure all is well, these numbers are very common in this type of cycling. If things don't improve let us know, and we'll help you figure out what to do next. Keep us posted at any rate, and if I've totally misunderstood what you were trying to say, please be sure to let me know.

 

Thanks again Toosie, sry I took so long to respond. I cut and pasted the results from my word program, and didn't work out so well. As of now, The ammonia is dropping from a 5 to about 0.25 in less than 24 hrs, the Nitrites are roughly at 5, and the Nitrates are fluctuating. Overall, I'm pretty sure I'm on the right track.
Thanks.

 

Yep, sounds like you are doing fine. Nitrate readings will be wacky until the Nitrite readings are under 1ppm. The Nitrate test converts nitrates to nitrites and tests the total level of both combined according to API and so nitrate readings aren't all that accurate when nitrite readings are high. That's the main reason I suggested not testing for nitrates until nitrite levels drop into the lower levels, it saves using the nitrate solution until it really counts.

 

Sounds like you're doing great. The Nitrite to nitrate stage always seems to be where it gets hung up the longest.

The test kit itself may also contribute to the fluctuating nitrate reading. The #2 Nitrate test solution tends to crystalize in the bottle. That's why it has such a long shake time before even adding the solution to the tube. You really need to be banging that bottle around to make sure you get all the crystals dissolved before adding your 10 drops of the #2 solution to the tube.

Other than that...sounds like you're on the right path, and may have some new fishies for Christmas.

 

Thank you both, I am certainly hoping for fish by christmas. I was thinking of holding off on testing for nitrates b/c the Nitrites are still high , and it is a pain to test. I've been shaking for 1 minute with bottle 1 and 2 minutes for two