nitrite still high 3 week of cycle

james howell · Sep 19, 2016

im still high tested daily...have not done any water changes was told not too in the cycle..need help to lower them or do i wait.. my brown allege boom has started. i feed the tank daily.

tankstudy · Sep 19, 2016

What are your nitrite levels at?

jeffrey holloway · Sep 19, 2016

Stop feeding, no water changes, turn off lights, nitrites will drop to 0 in time. Then do a water change to bring down the Nitrates. Just finished cycling a 45gal QT, Nitrites took forever to drop.

james howell · Sep 19, 2016

between 2.0 and 5.0 not as dark as 5.0 but not as light at 2.0 on the chart

james howell · Sep 19, 2016

jeffrey holloway said:
Stop feeding, no water changes, turn off lights, nitrites will drop to 0 in time. Then do a water change to bring down the Nitrates. Just finished cycling a 45gal QT, Nitrites took forever to drop.

so no lights? no feeding and no changes....

james howell · Sep 19, 2016

tankstudy said:
What are your nitrite levels at?

between 2.0 and 5.0 not as dark as 5.0 but not as light at 2.0 on the chart

tankstudy · Sep 19, 2016

james howell said:
between 2.0 and 5.0 not as dark as 5.0 but not as light at 2.0 on the chart

If it is between those two then you are okay. I would stop feeding at the current time and just let your cycle continue.

cromag27 · Sep 19, 2016

Yes , let your cycle finish. once you have 0 ammonia and nitrites then you can do a big water change to get your no3 down.

aaronn · Sep 19, 2016

I may be wrong but I would think that you need to keep feeding tank while you are seeing nitrites. Since there are different bacteria converting ammonia to nitrite and then nitrite to nitrate. I would not want to stave the bacteria while waiting for nitrites to drop. The bigger the bacteria population you can have prior to fish the better.

cromag27 · Sep 19, 2016

correct, you need to keep the ammonia going.

aaronn said:
I may be wrong but I would think that you need to keep feeding tank while you are seeing nitrites. Since there are different bacteria converting ammonia to nitrite and then nitrite to nitrate. I would not want to stave the bacteria while waiting for nitrites to drop. The bigger the bacteria population you can have prior to fish the better.

jeffrey holloway · Sep 19, 2016

I've yet to have any bacteria die off in any of my tanks. Keep feeding ammonia - keep creating nitrites; have to strike a balance somewhere. That's what I love about this hobby, If you don't know where you're going any road will get you there. Those nitrites will drop, you are almost there.