Waterchange during cycling

[Garry125]

Good morning. First time I've used dr Tim's or any bacteria in a bottle. It's been almost two weeks. The ammonia is 0ppm even when I add it. But my nitrite and nitrate are off the charts. Ph is at 7.9 . Should I do a water change to bring the nitrates down or just let it cycle. I'm glad the ammonia is staying at zero.

 

[Blenny1988]

your PH is a little low excellent that you Ammonia is sitting at 10 i have heard that nitrate will raise but will fall when everything is settling, what substrate are you using? and have you go any live rock in your tank? are your tank lights on?

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

if ammonia is 0 and high nitrites it is still cycling. If the nitrite test is off the charts like you say, then yes you should do a water change to bring it back down to within testing levels. Otherwise it will take forever to convert to nitrate. Try to bring it down to 4 at least. IMO

 

[Azedenkae]

Good morning. First time I've used dr Tim's or any bacteria in a bottle. It's been almost two weeks. The ammonia is 0ppm even when I add it. But my nitrite and nitrate are off the charts. Ph is at 7.9 . Should I do a water change to bring the nitrates down or just let it cycle. I'm glad the ammonia is staying at zero.

What @LordofCinder said. Presuming you are dosing ammonia, this means there was ammonia oxidation, which is a good thing. But yeah you may want to do a water change to get nitrite to 5ppm or below. Any specific instructions for cycling yoj are following?

 

[Reef.]

If your ammonia is zero as soon as you add it that means your test is wrong or you are reading it wrong, the ammonia tests are not the best to read.

your nitrates will be off the charts or at least look like they are until your nitrites are zero as the test for nitrates will read any nitrites as nitrates, so you need to have a zero nitrites reading before testing a nitrates test.

I would not do a water change until your nitrites are zero, then do a water change to bring your nitrates down below say 20.

 

[Garry125]

I'm not testing it afterwards. I'm testing 24 hrs later shows 0. Okay I'll do a water change once nitrites drop.

 

[Reef.]

I'm not testing it afterwards. I'm testing 24 hrs later shows 0. Okay I'll do a water change once nitrites drop.

to be fair you said that ammonia was zero even when you add it, so that sounded as you were testing straight away.

Once nitrites peak they drop fairly fast so you shouldn't have long to wait.