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Nitrate levels falling and nitrites staying the same in a cycling tank?
I am using the API liquid test kit (not the strips). Four days ago, my ammonia levels were at 4ppm, nitrites at 5ppm, nitrates at 40ppm. Two days ago, my ammonia levels were at 1ppm (added more broken up fish flakes into the tank 'cause I'm cycling it with fish food), nitrites at 5ppm, nitrates at 20-40ppm. Today, ammonia (despite the amount of fish flakes I put in) is at 0.25ppm, nitrites are at 5ppm and nitrates are at 5ppm. I'm following the test instructions to the last letter and cleaning my test tubes in dechlorinated water after each use. So what exactly is happening? Is there another type of bacteria lowering the nitrate levels? Is the ammonia being converted in to nitrite overnight so that the levels of nitrite stay high and ammonia falls in 1-2 days? Those are the two reasons I was thinking of but can you tell me any different or confirm this? My tank is a 30gal tropical and the temperature is 27-28 degrees (only while I'm cycling it. I got a tip that bacteria do better in warmer temperatures during the cycle). My tank has been running for 9-10 days.
2 Answers
- K M GLv 48 years agoFavorite Answer
Hi,
Everybody will tell you that you don't need to do water changes during a cycle, but sometimes you do.
The cycle will use a lot of carbonates in the water which causes the ph to crash and the nitrifying bacteria can't grow. Your nitrites are probably way higher than the 5 ppm, the max the test kit can read and the cycle is stalled. You can test with half tank water and half replacement water and the reading will still probably be at the max which shows you the nitrite is actually double or more. You DO need to do a big water change, and perhaps more than once to get nitrite back to a readable level and get ph buffers back into the water to keep the ph stable.
It sounds like you have established filter media in the tank or are using a cycling aid. If it's not Tetra Safe Start, I would recommend you stop using it and let nature take it's course. Most cycling products do not contain the same bacteria as the naturally occurring bacteria in a cycled fish tank and require continuous use for the life of your tank. If you stop using it down the road, you'll have ammonia and nitrite spikes - usually with fish in the tank and that's a real pain. Cost wise, it's cheaper to buy an active sponge filter than keep using that stuff. There's a place called angelsplus.com that sells them. (I am not affiliated with them in any way, other than being a customer).
- KittycatLv 68 years ago
As you are only just over a week into cycling you can expect the levels to fluctuate a lot. I wouldn't worry about it you still have like a month to go.
