NITRITES AND NITRATES NOT GOING DOWN

[JEDIHOGG77]

Hello people. I'm needed some advice. My first salt water tank is in the start of week four of the cycle. My readings are:

Ammonia=0
NItrite=5.0
Nitrate=80

These have been my readings now for about 5 days. I'm not sure if I'm just being impatient and think they should have gone down by now or is there something else I should be doing? I've only had freshwater tanks up till now. Any advice would help.

Thanks

 

[NeonRabbit221B]

If you are seeing Nitrite then its more than likely giving a false positive reading for nitrate. What test kit?

Nitrite processing bacteria are just slow to establish. Generally my advice for a stuck cycle is a large water change or 50%+ to reduce nitrite to <1 ppm and reduce the future converted nitrate then consider yourself cycled. Nitrites won't harm livestock in marine setups like it does in FW. If you can process ammonia then you can add a small bioload and continue on.

 

[melonheadorion]

i agree with the above. doing a water change is really all that you should need to do right now

 

[RocketEngineer]

Do a water change. 20-50% ideally.

 

[Garf]

Have you added bacteria?
What was the ammonia source?
Live / Dry rock?
Pictures not required but adds interest for us

 

[kittenbritches]

Sounds like you're exactly where I was. I didn't get the "nitrites are fine" memo until after I finished cycling, but I felt stalled for about a week, week and a half, where my nitrites weren't budging. It was exactly at the 30-day mark that I got a 0ppm reading on NO2.

The bacteria to convert nitrite to nitrate is a lot slower to grow than the bacteria for ammonia to nitrite. I still gave my tank tiny doses of ammonia every 3 days to feed the bacteria, and otherwise had to be patient.

The majority of the advice you'll get on this thread will be to do a big water change (probably 75%) to get your nitrates down and call it cycled. If you're stubborn like me and want to see 0 nitrites, you're almost across the finish line.

 

[reeferNbeer]

I was in the same boat. I waited it out until the nitrite finally dropped. And it will!

 

[JEDIHOGG77]

If you are seeing Nitrite then its more than likely giving a false positive reading for nitrate. What test kit?

Nitrite processing bacteria are just slow to establish. Generally my advice for a stuck cycle is a large water change or 50%+ to reduce nitrite to <1 ppm and reduce the future converted nitrate then consider yourself cycled. Nitrites won't harm livestock in marine setups like it does in FW. If you can process ammonia then you can add a small bioload and continue on.

It's a 29 gallon tank. I just did a 4.5 gallon change thinking that might help. So you all are saying do a bigger change.

 

[JEDIHOGG77]

Sounds like you're exactly where I was. I didn't get the "nitrites are fine" memo until after I finished cycling, but I felt stalled for about a week, week and a half, where my nitrites weren't budging. It was exactly at the 30-day mark that I got a 0ppm reading on NO2.

The bacteria to convert nitrite to nitrate is a lot slower to grow than the bacteria for ammonia to nitrite. I still gave my tank tiny doses of ammonia every 3 days to feed the bacteria, and otherwise had to be patient.

The majority of the advice you'll get on this thread will be to do a big water change (probably 75%) to get your nitrates down and call it cycled. If you're stubborn like me and want to see 0 nitrites, you're almost across the finish line.

What ammonia source did you use? I've been ghost feeding once a week since the first couple of weeks.

 

[JEDIHOGG77]

Have you added bacteria?
What was the ammonia source?
Live / Dry rock?
Pictures not required but adds interest for us

I used seachem stability for the first two weeks per the instructions. Plus I was ghost feeding also. Now I've been feeding the tank once a week. I"ve got the Coral LIfe dry rock with a small piece of live rock

 

[JEDIHOGG77]

If you are seeing Nitrite then its more than likely giving a false positive reading for nitrate. What test kit?

Nitrite processing bacteria are just slow to establish. Generally my advice for a stuck cycle is a large water change or 50%+ to reduce nitrite to <1 ppm and reduce the future converted nitrate then consider yourself cycled. Nitrites won't harm livestock in marine setups like it does in FW. If you can process ammonia then you can add a small bioload and continue on.

I'm using the API test kit. I figured I was just being impatient.

 

[brandon429]

need tank pics

all cycle umpiring should begin with a tank pic, it helps rule out the live rock skip cycles vs finding that on page ten.

and then if pics show your rocks to not be of the skip cycle kind, next up is the # of days on a cycling chart and whether or not those are generally wrong or right. need tank pics

tank pics also rule in/out that 1/1000 poster who did not input rocks during the cycling process...9/10ths of your allowed start date coming up has to do with if those rocks sat in fed, inoculated + heated and moving water for a month.

0% of the factor comes from reported api numbers.

 

[brandon429]

a very neat part of updated cycling science is its ultimate reliance on the dates specified in a common cycling chart, after feeding dosed bacteria


but when it does apply, you can run thousands of successful cycles off the timing alone, no testing input req'd. there could be more room for concern if this was day 2

-bottle bac cycles are done before week three not after
-imported live rock transmits its bacteria to working surfaces in twenty days, without the bottle bac complement
this means you have more than one bacteria input source
-you are beyond the ammonia wait time from a cycling chart, and your ammonia reports match what we'd expect.
-nitrite has no factor nor bearing at all. nitrate we wouldnt expect to go down, a cycling chart shows its the only param that goes up when the cycle is ready. everything about your setup means cycled, not uncycled.

all we need is tank pics to see degree of surface area in the middle of the wastewater.

 

[kittenbritches]

What ammonia source did you use? I've been ghost feeding once a week since the first couple of weeks.

Ghost feeding is slow and imprecise, IMO. With bottled ammonia you can immediately confirm the PPM dosed and don't have to wait for the food to break down.

 

[JEDIHOGG77]

Ghost feeding is slow and imprecise, IMO. With bottled ammonia you can immediately confirm the PPM dosed and don't have to wait for the food to break down.

If I use that won't it spike my ammonia again?

 

[brandon429]

Your cycle is done though, post tank pics as final proof. We can detail out the completion after pics

all detailing and planning at this stage goes into fish disease prevention, meaning u can't add fish from the pet store right into the tank or they'll die most likely from disease (per the fish disease forum here)

lets cycle a quarantine tank as well. we can get a quarantine ready in about three days, it wont take three weeks.

 

[kittenbritches]

If I use that won't it spike my ammonia again?

How big is your tank? When I was at your stage, I dosed 1-2 drops per 10 gallons, so 8 max in my 40B. And it was only every few days after I tested water parameters.

 

[JEDIHOGG77]

How big is your tank? When I was at your stage, I dosed 1-2 drops per 10 gallons, so 8 max in my 40B. And it was only every few days after I tested water parameters.

It's a 29 gallon

 

[melonheadorion]

your cycle is done. i wouldnt even bother with ammonia any longer, unless you still want to ghost feed your tank while you wait to put fish in. at this point, you can already see that your system is converting ammonia to nitrate. adding ammonia at this point is just feeding the already present bacteria for the sake of having it convert more to nitrate. do a water change, and you can consider it ready for fish

 

[brandon429]

Jedi I know it seems like a small group is wanting you to proceed to fast and burn your fish


not so. this bottle bac you are using tests out on digital ammonia machines to control ammonia immediately when its added. the extra time you have allowed is more implantation time beyond its immediate ability, that's why its not a rushed start.


if you added fish on day one, they still wouldnt be burnt, bottle bac is this good.


ask any seneye owner.


all focus goes on disease prevention, that's the key limitation of old cycling science. they have you wait 68 days for a cycle you paid to boost, no mention of fish disease, then 3/4 of the fish population is lost by month eight.

the careful, extended wait earned no fish safety.

but, starting with prepped fish on the known completion dates for boosted cycles, thats so 2021 and its ironically safer for fish than the old ways.

there isn't a documented failed cycle attempt on the whole board, not one.


but there's hundreds of new fish disease loss threads posted in the fish disease forum every week it exists. patterns tell us where to aim the concern. nearly all disease entrants followed standard cycling protocol of hard zero ammonia and nitrite earned before adding no prep fish. even though the setups seemed to be fine for the better part of a year, check out those month eights in the fish disease forum.