Nitrite, Nitrate, Ammonia Spiked Day After Everything Cycled!

HI all, my tank was cycled as of last night - 0 Ammonia and Nitrite, 10 Nitrate. I tested my water again tonight and everything spiked. I went ahead and tested my pH and it was *very* low - like, 6.0 low. Did my cycle crash? What should I do? I added some pH enhancer. Please help!

[tank is 10 gallon, cycle is fishless]

 

How were you cycling? Fish or fish less? And were you adding bottled ammonia or fish food?

Also was there any change you made last night?

 

How were you cycling? Fish or fish less? And were you adding bottled ammonia or fish food?

Also was there any change you made last night?

Thanks! I did a fishless cycle using fish food. Last night after I confirmed the tank was cycled, I did a water change

Here is my sheet documenting my cycle process cycle

 

My guess would be this.

When using the feeding method you get food falling to the bottom of the tank and rotting and as you know starting the cycle. There is a chance when you did a water change you may have stirred up some of the gravel releasing some of the rotted food that may have settled in the gravel and sent your numbers through the roof since your filter may not be established enough to handle the added bio load

This is similar to why after your tank is cycled it not recommended you fully stock from day one.You start with a few fish at a time and let things catch up.

I would check again after 24 hours and see how things stabilize without feeding or doing anything else. Giving yourself an idea on how your tank is processing everything.

 

My guess would be this.

When using the feeding method you get food falling to the bottom of the tank and rotting and as you know starting the cycle. There is a chance when you did a water change you may have stirred up some of the gravel releasing some of the rotted food that may have settled in the gravel and sent your numbers through the roof since your filter may not be established enough to handle the added bio load

This is similar to why after tour tank is cycled it not recommended you fully stock from day one.You start with a few fish at a time and let things catch up.

I would check again after 24 hours and see how things stabilize without feeding or doing anything else. Giving yourself an idea on how your tank is processing everything.

That makes sense! thank you. if for whatever reason things still aren't stabilized, are there next steps?

 

That makes sense! thank you. if for whatever reason things still aren't stabilized, are there next steps?

I think you’re going to just going to have to wait it out. And get your numbers dialed back in. You have readings showing you that the BB is doing what you want it to do.

But in the end it’s good thing you didn’t add fish right away and find it out when you did your first water change with the fish in the tank!

I’m in the process of my first cycling using bottle ammonia. Otherwise I was a firm believer in the feeding method because it always worked. The one nice thing with adding liquid ammonia is that I can dose it to 4ppm and check in 24hrs and see how much the tank processed. With food it’s hard because it can take days for the food to decay and produce the ammonia and you can’t really measure what amount of food makes Xppm of ammonia.

Not saying what you did was wrong! But it does make it a lot more consistent, which I just learned over the last few weeks myself.

 

I think you’re going to just going to have to wait it out. And get your numbers dialed back in. You have readings showing you that the BB is doing what you want it to do.

But in the end it’s good thing you didn’t add fish right away and find it out when you did your first water change with the fish in the tank!

I’m in the process of my first cycling using bottle ammonia. Otherwise I was a firm believer in the feeding method because it always worked. The one nice thing with adding liquid ammonia is that I can dose it to 4ppm and check in 24hrs and see how much the tank processed. With food it’s hard because it can take days for the food to decay and produce the ammonia and you can’t really measure what amount of food makes Xppm of ammonia.

Not saying what you did was wrong! But it does make it a lot more consistent, which I just learned over the last few weeks myself.

Thank you so much. Next time around I'm definitely going to do the bottle ammonia. I did get in the habit of pouring food into my net, almost like a tea, and letting it hang out in there instead of being forgotten about and rotting in the substrate. Perhaps that was the exact wrong thing to do lol

 

My guess is it is just the ammonia and nitrites from the food and haven't been converted yet. With a very new cycle you still see ammonia/nitrites before converted into nitrates. This why fish like Rams are bad in newly cycled tanks. They don't like the swings. Just test in 24hrs should be back at 0.

 

I really appreciate it! I assume that there was going to be some turbulance after a cycle, hence why I'm waiting probably a week or so to get my betta, but I was unsure of what that would look like. I'll test it tomorrow night and I'll follow up if it looks like it's not stabilizing

 

It could be a few days but if you see the numbers drop it’s a positive. Cycling is always the hardest part. Just staring at an empty table is rough! Good luck!