Only Nitrites In Aquarium?

I have recently started a 5 gallon tank. I have been cycling it using biological additives and I have been doing water changes once a week. For the first two water changes, there was only nitrates present, but for last two water changes, there has only been 0.25ppm of nitrites present. No ammonia or nitrates. I have been monitoring nitrites through the week and they have yet to change. I don't know what is causing this and despite doing water changes. I have cholla wood , duckweed, and moss balls in the aquarium and nothing else. I use an aqueon quietflow 10 as a filter with added bio balls. Any suggestions would be much appreciated!

 

Sounds like you have no source of ammonia! in a fishless cycle, you need something to replace the waste fish create, turning into ammonia. This can be fish food, a dead shrimp, or pure-ammonia. You will need to keep up a consistent ammonia source until your filter can convert your select amount of ammonia (say, 1ppm) in 24 hours.

 

Thank you for the help! I have tried this once but I still had nitrites, but this could be because the food I used was a slow dissolving sinking pellet and it did not completely dissolve. I just tried it again now using an algae wafer, hopefully that will work!

 

the food I us

I would recommend the use of a pure ammonia solution if you can source it.

The problem associated with using fish food is that, as you noticed, quite slow to decompose. It's also very difficult to associate a certain amount of fish food with a specific concentration of ammonia. This can make it difficult to determine whether your cycle is progressing/stalling as you're never quite sure of the initial ammonia concentration.

For what it's worth, I used Dr Tim's Ammonium Chloride solution in my fishless cycle with great success. A lot of the US-based aquarists report that Ace Hardware sells a pure ammonia solution that's free of surfactants and soaps. Avoid using common household ammonia as they contain surfactants for cleaning purposes, but it'll impede your cycle.

 

I would recommend the use of a pure ammonia solution if you can source it.
A lot of the US-based aquarists report that Ace Hardware sells a pure ammonia solution that's free of surfactants and soaps. Avoid using common household ammonia as they contain surfactants for cleaning purposes, but it'll impede your cycle.

Ace Hardware is the place to go! $3 for a huge thing of it, and it's really strong so you only need a few drops.

 

Thank you for the help! I will try using the ammonia today!

 

Thank you for the help! I will try using the ammonia today!

As said above, you don't need much. For a 5 gallon tank, just need 0.4ml of 10% ammonia to raise it to 2ppm. Depending on your dropper that's about 8 drops.

 

As said above, you don't need much. For a 5 gallon tank, just need 0.4ml of 10% ammonia to raise it to 2ppm. Depending on your dropper that's about 8 drops.

Agreed, takes me 4 to get to 1ppm so this is accurate!