Very odd aquarium cycle

[John A!10]

I started power cycling my tank 2 days ago with ammonia and fritz turbo start. Friday: (few hours later)
Ammonia: 8ppm
Nitrite: .50ppm
Nitrate: 0ppm

Saturday: (24 hour later)
Ammonia: 2.0ppm
Nitrites: 2.0ppm
Nitrates: 80 ppm

Sunday: (36 hours later)
Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrites: 2.0ppm
Nitrates: 0.0ppm

I’m very confident in my tests.
What happened to the nitrates did they just disappear, that’s not possible?

I think I’m just going to do a water change dose some ammonia and if it disappears call it cycled. Any input?

 

[Jekyl]

Keep in mind when adding ammonia to account for the displacement of everything in the tank. For example a 100g tank may only have 80g of water.

 

[shwareefer]

"1 ppm ammonia --> 2.7 ppm nitrite --> 3.6 ppm nitrate."


https://forums.reefcentral.com/threads/ammonia-is-converted-to-how-much-nitrite-and-nitrate.213717/

Therefore 80ppm nitrate is not possible from 8ppm ammonia. What are you using to test?

 

[vanguard]

That outlier nitrate test is suspicious. I'd say that something went wrong during the process because I don't have a better explanation.

 

[John A!10]

"1 ppm ammonia --> 2.7 ppm nitrite --> 3.6 ppm nitrate."


https://forums.reefcentral.com/threads/ammonia-is-converted-to-how-much-nitrite-and-nitrate.213717/

Therefore 80ppm nitrate is not possible from 8ppm ammonia. What are you using to test?

I should’ve wrote >8ppm ammonia because the test only goes to 8 but the color was darker. Also it wasn’t 80 but closer to 80 than 40. I use API test which have been very effective for me over the dozens of tanks I’ve cycled.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

You said you're very confident in your tests, but what brand are they and how many times did you run them each day?

8ppm ammonia is way too high... If you start over, only add 2ppm max.

The presence of nitrite can make nitrate test erroneously high, but to have 0 nitrate means you're not cycled...
You'll want negligible nitrite and measurable nitrate (with no ammonia) to say your tank is safe for livestock.

 

[vanguard]

I'll add this. I used turbo start a few months ago and my cycle took 12 days.

Surely it's possible that yours worked in 36 hours but that would be pretty impressive.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Surely it's possible that yours worked in 36 hours

Not starting with 8ppm ammonia.

 

[Spare time]

Nitrite can make nitrate appear much higher than it actually is

 

[John A!10]

Not starting with 8ppm ammonia.

It’s very possible being that I used fritz turbo start. And people have had success starting with fish directly.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

It’s very possible being that I used fritz turbo start. And people have had success starting with fish directly.

It would take a LOT of fish to produce 8ppm ammonia

 

[John A!10]

It would take a LOT of fish to produce 8ppm ammonia

I don’t think the ammonia killed the bacteria because it wouldn’t have been converted to 0ppm. But I think it just made so much nitrites that it will take a while to see a reading before going below the max read of 5ppm.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

I don’t think the ammonia killed the bacteria because it wouldn’t have been converted to 0ppm. But I think it just made so much nitrites that it will take a while to see a reading before going below the max read of 5ppm.

I never said anything about ammonia killing bacteria... Where did you get that??

 

[John A!10]

I never said anything about ammonia killing bacteria... Where did you get that??

Sorry I misunderstood. If 8ppm won’t kill bacteria then why is it too high other than it would take longer to complete cycle.

 

[Jekyl]

Sorry I misunderstood. If 8ppm won’t kill bacteria then why is it too high other than it would take longer to complete cycle.

You don't want to end up with a ton of nitrate after. Once cycled you should get nitrate between 5 and 10 before adding fish. Will save algae and parameter issues along the journey.

 

[John A!10]

You don't want to end up with a ton of nitrate after. Once cycled you should get nitrate between 5 and 10 before adding fish. Will save algae and parameter issues along the journey.

Makes sense it’s such a small tank however (10 gallon) that I could easily do a 100% water change to get those nitrates down.

 

[Jekyl]

Makes sense it’s such a small tank however (10 gallon) that I could easily do a 100% water change to get those nitrates down.

Agree. Helps a lot more in large tanks vs a nano.

 

[Idech]

It seems very unlikely, if not impossible, that nitrates went from 80 ppm to 0 ppm in 12 hours. Especially in a brand new tank.

Either you still have nitrates, or you never had them (yet).

 

[Jekyl]

Using API tests can give bad readings. Their ammonia test is inaccurate and their nitrate test picks up nitrite.

 

[John A!10]

I figured out the nitrate solution I think. This is going to be a fish only system so I’m not using my ro water but just tap and thus I used dechlorinator. I believe when I topped off to decrease salinity yesterday I didn’t mix well and it detoxified the nitrates. Just a guess but seems logical.