my tanks been cycling for 2 weeks now. my ammonia comes back down less than 5 hours. my nitrites been high for a while and i tested it today and it was really low also my nitrates were really high and now its pretty low. how come my nitrates came down i thought i was supposed to be really high. how long should the rest of this cycle gonna take?
cycle help
- Thread starter tigrey
- Start date
The time is about right but the Nitrates shouldn't go down till you do a water change.
You might want to do a complete retest and post the current results.
You might want to do a complete retest and post the current results.
When you say that your ammonia has come back down, where was your starting point? How was the ammonia, nitrite, nitrate readings taken?
I am thinking that possibly the initial ammonia level was too low to fully build stable benny bact colonies in your filters.
Keep in mind, if you are doing fishless cycling you can always just start the cycle again. Pump it up to the wicked jade shade at 5 ppm ammonia and when it is reading 0, the nitrites finnally drop to 0 and your nitrate test will make roodolphs reigndeer's nose look dull in comparison.
I have used between 4 and 5 ppm ammonia as a starting point with excellent success. The nitrate readings are in triple digit by the time the ammonia and later the nitrites hit 0.
If the test was done with strips, I would simply disregard the readings, get a liquid test kit and find out what is really going on in your tak.
I am thinking that possibly the initial ammonia level was too low to fully build stable benny bact colonies in your filters.
Keep in mind, if you are doing fishless cycling you can always just start the cycle again. Pump it up to the wicked jade shade at 5 ppm ammonia and when it is reading 0, the nitrites finnally drop to 0 and your nitrate test will make roodolphs reigndeer's nose look dull in comparison.
I have used between 4 and 5 ppm ammonia as a starting point with excellent success. The nitrate readings are in triple digit by the time the ammonia and later the nitrites hit 0.
If the test was done with strips, I would simply disregard the readings, get a liquid test kit and find out what is really going on in your tak.
so i tested my tank about 3 times today, my ammonia is 0 my nitrites are 0 and my nitrate is about 15 ppm. i thought my testers was tripping out but i guess its not. why is the nitrate so low? is the tank done cycling? or how much longer should i let it cycle for
thanks
thanks
tigrey;3941706; said:
only one way to find out.....add some life! What are you planning on putting in there?