Nitrogen Cycle Chemistry Question

[cvermeulen]

Don’t forget your fish excrete ammonia as a product of their respiration, it’s not all rotting food and poo.
So even if you stop feeding them and clean all the waste out of their aquarium you will still get ammonia while the fish live.

The reason it takes more time to get rid of that last little bit of nitrite may well be that the lower the levels the slower the rate of reproduction of those bacteria using it as a food source. So, bacteria are sustaining their population but not increasing it at quite the same rate as they started. If they always continued at the same, initial, rate of reproduction they would have population crashes as they ran out of food (nitrite in this case). My guess is that free nitrite is limiting in the reproductive rate of nitrite consuming bacteria.

Thanks! that's what I was looking for.

The tank is on the normal time scale, I'm not having any problems, it just seemed odd to me that the nitrite and nitrate levels were measured on a different order of magnitude, when they have the same source.

 

[cvermeulen]

agreed. powerfeeding is not good for a tank that is still cycling..

try cutting back and your system should stablize much faster.

good luck!

I am cutting back right now - I have to go away for a few days soon and I don't want it to be a big shock. Thanks for the advice, it makes sense.

 

[cvermeulen]

what you feeding anyways?

Bloodworms, Brine Shrimp, Shrimp pellets, and the odd chunk of zucchini