I posted several weeks ago about how my wife destroyed my beneficial bacteria by washing my filter media in tap water and doing a large 80% water change where she throughly vacuumed the gravel (she thought this would be a nice surprise for me while I was out of town).
Anyway, I have been doing daily 10 - 20% water changes (adding prime with every change) and my ammonia levels have dropped from 8.0 down to about 1.0. My question, though, is that I never saw any spike in nitrites. When I first realized my problem my readings were 8.0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 5 nitrate. I now have readings of 1.0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 30 nitrate. Shouldn't my nitrite have spiked first? I've been testing the water at least every two days and never saw any nitrites.
Any insight is appreciated. I should add that I have chloramines in my water, so out of the tap I get ammonia readings of about .75 (of course I always add prime to the water going back in the tank).
Anyway, I have been doing daily 10 - 20% water changes (adding prime with every change) and my ammonia levels have dropped from 8.0 down to about 1.0. My question, though, is that I never saw any spike in nitrites. When I first realized my problem my readings were 8.0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 5 nitrate. I now have readings of 1.0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 30 nitrate. Shouldn't my nitrite have spiked first? I've been testing the water at least every two days and never saw any nitrites.
Any insight is appreciated. I should add that I have chloramines in my water, so out of the tap I get ammonia readings of about .75 (of course I always add prime to the water going back in the tank).
