Seeing Nitrites Rise but Ammonia Remain the Same?

29 gallon tank was first filled 7 days ago, and ammonia and bacteria was added 5 days ago. I'm running a fishless cycle to prepare for an axolotl, so I need to prepare a robust colony to take care of heavy ammonia amounts. I have a HOB designed for 70G and a sponge meant for 20G.

Ammonia: 2 ppm
Nitrite: 0.75 ppm
Nitrate: 0 ppm
Ph: 7.8 ppm
Temp: 75 F

I was lucky enough to get some seeded bacteria from a lightly-loaded tank as well as bottled bacteria. The ammonia is holding firm at 2 ppm but last night I got my first nitrite reading (.25ppm) and today it's risen.

The question I have is whether it's normal to see nitrites rise but ammonia stay the same.

 

Hi I'm new to all of this so probably don't have much information for you lol but I'm currently cycling a new tank and i started noticing nitrites while my ammonia stayed the same for a day or two then started dropping so hopefully it'll start dropping in a few days.

 

29 gallon tank was first filled 7 days ago, and ammonia and bacteria was added 5 days ago. I'm running a fishless cycle to prepare for an axolotl, so I need to prepare a robust colony to take care of heavy ammonia amounts. I have a HOB designed for 70G and a sponge meant for 20G.

Ammonia: 2 ppm
Nitrite: 0.75 ppm
Nitrate: 0 ppm
Ph: 7.8 ppm
Temp: 75 F

I was lucky enough to get some seeded bacteria from a lightly-loaded tank as well as bottled bacteria. The ammonia is holding firm at 2 ppm but last night I got my first nitrite reading (.25ppm) and today it's risen.

The question I have is whether it's normal to see nitrites rise but ammonia stay the same.

This is normal. As the BB starts to build, the ammonia gets changed into Nitrites, then Nitrates. So having ammonia and Nitrites for a while is perfectly normal. Since it's only been 5 days, it will still be a while before it's fully cycled. Eventually you'll get to 0 ammonia, 0 Nitrites, and your Nitrates will start rising and that's when you know it's fully cycled.

 

Normal. 1ppm ammonia converts to 2.7ppm nitrite. So sometimes you can have quite a change of ammonia, say 0.5ppm, and it will still register similar (for example, a decrease from 2.25ppm to 1.75ppm ammonia would probably still look like 2ppm-ish), but that’s already like 0.675ppm nitrite. So you won’t really see the ammonia color changing, but then see the nitrite color clearly changing.

 

The question I have is whether it's normal to see nitrites rise but ammonia stay the same.

Yes and no. You are correct to assume that the ammonia should drop as nitrite rises because ammonia is the source for the nitrite. I believe the results you are seeing may be due to the fact that the test kits we use are not very accurate. They are fine for what we need, but not science lab quality.

Also, as Azedenkae point out there is not 1:1 ratio between the ammonia / nitrite and nitrate

1ppm ammonia results in 2.7ppm nitrite which result in 3.64ppm nitrate.