My ammonia has been dropping now for the past week or so. I was at 8ppm, you believe that, wow that was high. It is now down to .5ppm. My nitrites are still reading zero though. This is a relatively new tank and it hasn't cycled yet. I am using fish to cycle even though I know I shouldn't have. My question is, at what point will my nitrites begin to rise? It should be time for them to begin showing up shouldn't it?
Help with Nitrites
- Thread starter joshclovis
- Start date
nitrites are bad (NO-2) thay are produced when ammonia degrades without help from the Bio filter, buy some stress zyme to boost your bio filter. what you will get from a cycled tank is "nitrates" (NO-3) which is desolved nutriance when the tank is fully cycled there will not be any nitrites because the bio filter is converting the ammonia into nitrates
Inside your biofilter, the ammonia is converted into nitrite, and the nitrite is converted into nitrate. If your ammonia has dropped that much, I am surprised there are no nitrites showing up. How often did you test? What is your ph? What kind of test kit?
you really need to know your baseline nitrate reading for any readings from the tank to mean anything. test your freshwater source, ie tap, ro, well, etc.
I've found when cycling with fish it takes a bit more time for the nitrite to spike. Just keep getting that water tested.