[MandyBlue]

Test this morning and these were the readings. Where am I at in the cycle?

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 5
Nitrate about 7

 

[brian226]

how many weeks are you into the cycle?
Did you use just ammonia or did you also use gravel or a filter from a another tank?
What type/brand of water testing are you using?

 

[MandyBlue]

I'm on day 8 of the cycle. I took 1 liter of substrat pro from my established filter and put it in my new one along with 4 liters of new substrat pro, also added 2 pieces of drift wood from the established tank. Using the API master test kit. Dosing with ammonia.

 

[zimmy]

Sounds like you are pretty much exactly where you should be. Some people don't get a nitrite spike till two weeks in so it sounds like the seeding is paying off.

I wouldn't bother testing nitrates since the reading is distorted when you have nitrites. Wait till the nitrites are zero before you test nitrates.

I would only add 1-2 ppm of ammonia every couple of days at this point and do a couple of small water changes (20-25%) to lower your nitrites. There is a school of thought that having the nitrites at 5 ppm or above will slow down your cycle.

 

[jrf]

It would also be helpful to know how much ammonia you’re dosing and how often. From just the info you gave, it looks like you’re doing good on the ammonia oxidizing bacteria and now you need to wait for the nitrite oxidizers to catch up.

Also, there’s no real purpose in testing for nitrAtes as long as you’re still getting nitrIte readings. Most nitrate tests convert the nitrates into nitrites and then base the reading off of the total nitrites. So, with nitrites in the tank you’ll end up with false readings for nitrates.

 

[MandyBlue]

I was dosing up to 5ppm

 

[jrf]

As zimmy said, I’d cut the ammonia back to 1 to 2 ppm every other day (assuming the 5ppm is being consumed in 24 hrs). That will easily keep the ammonia oxidizers feed and help to keep the nitrites from climbing out of control.

 

[MandyBlue]

Was not able to test yesterday since I was out of town. But my Ammonia is once again 0 and now Nitrite is 1. Should the nitrite go down that fast?

 

[zimmy]

Was not able to test yesterday since I was out of town. But my Ammonia is once again 0 and now Nitrite is 1. Should the nitrite go down that fast?

When it drops, it drops all of a sudden. I'd say you're very close to being cycled. Once you get a 0 reading on your nitrites, I would add 1-2 ppm once more just to ensure that ammonia and nitrites get back down to 0 in 24 hours.

 

[MandyBlue]

okay, I'm just really shocked how fast this is all going.Last time I only had a small amount of bacteria from a filter sponge, and it took almost 3 months to cycle. I wanted to go to the cichlid trade show in Chicago to buy my fish, but thats not until the 17th, looks like I will have to buy my fish another way.

 

[zimmy]

There's no rush to stock it once it's cycled. You just keep need to keep feeding it 1-2 ppm ammonia every few days and you can keep it going indefinitely. I kept a tank going for almost two months recently before I used it.

 

[MandyBlue]

Good to know! But then again, I want fishies now! lol. I'm still tryin to figure out a list, nd a place to buy for sure. I really want to be able to get them all at once place, not several.

 

[MandyBlue]

The other problem I'm running in to is I want to only buy males (2.5-3"), and I have not found that easty to find.