API questions...

[thesoulpatch]

Hey so I'm cycling some rocks for a frag tank and I've tested it several times so I know it's consistant. But After having them in the water with ammonia for a couple weeks and whatnot I can get the ammonia down from 3 or 4 to .25 in a day or so, but when I test the nitrIte it says it's at 0 and the nitrAtes are at like 20-50 so is it possible the kit is messed up after buying it a year ago? I even sat there and shook it for a solid minute to make sure everything was good to go and still keep getting 0. I know there is no nitrates in my water after going through a 7 stage rodi unit i've tested it as well.

But curious if the test is jacked or somehow it's converting the nitrites faster than the ammonia...

Thoughts?

 

[rkpetersen]

Those numbers sound right; your rocks are likely fully cycled. The residual ammonia reading is likely a defect in the test kit; you could try measuring it with another one like Red Sea. First and second stage bacteria are doing their job, and nitrate is building up. Hopefully you're doing this in a brute or something similar so you can just transfer the cycled rocks and discard that nitrate-laden water.