Cycling question

[Msmith2813]

Here’s a cycling slash chemistry question. I wanted to see how fast my cycling rock could process ammonia. I added some pure ammonia to the tank (no inhabitants) to get it to about 2-3ppm based off the color, I overshot it to about 3-4ppm. Today the ammonia tested about 2ppm, there’s 0 nitrites, but the nitrates tested about 30-40ppm. Does this mean I just overwhelmed the rock with the amount of ammonia since it seems it can process the nitrites pretty quickly but not completely do away with the ammonia?

 

[Schnizzle]

I'm going with yes. The bacteria that converts NHx to NO2 is overwhelmed. The NO2 to NO3 bacteria is doing its job well.

 

[Msmith2813]

Alright, that’s what I was thinking. I’m not sure how much a dead fish would cause the ammonia to rise. But it looks like as of right now, the tank can process about 2ppm of ammonia in 24hrs. Although Im guessing I’m going to be removing probably 25-30% of this rock when I do my rockwork, so the amount of ammonia able to be processed will end up going down.

 

[NY_Caveman]

I will also note even a low Nitrite reading can give a false high Nitrate reading.