Nitrite dissapearing before ammonia?

[abcdefghi]

My fishless cycle had been taking forever, but last week I finally tested at 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite, and had nitrates. Since I could not get any fish yet, I added some ammonia to keep the bacteria alive........... the thing is, my nitrites dissapear before the ammonia does......... I added ammonia last week to about 4.0ppm, the next day I tested nitrite and it was purple on the API test kit (can't remember the number) then the next day I tested both ammonia and nitrite. The ammonia had dropped slightly (maybe down to 2.0ppm) but the nitrite had dissapeared (ice blue color on API kit).......... I checked again yesterday, and had around 2-3ppm ammonia (I had added a little more) and again 0 nitrite and around 80ppm nitrate...........

Surely my ammonia should dissapear? or is the nitrate clearing out the nitrite before it has a chance to remove the ammonia? where do I go from here? I can get fish this weekend, but don't want to risk killing them with an incomplete cycle.

Thanks.

[rich311k]

If you are processing 2 ppm in 24 hours your are doing fine. 4 ppm for maintaning is overkill. I don't think you have anything to worry about.

[wolf13]

it means you have too much ammonia for the ammonia eating bacteria you have, but the bacteria for ammonia and the bacteria for nitirite are balanced. you are fine, just putting in more ammonia then the system uses.

[abcdefghi]

Thanks both for your replies......... I am just a little worried as had already seen 11 fish die from ammonia poisoning before reading and learning about fishless cycling and don't want any more to die.

Since it sounds like everything is going OK, would it make sense to carry out a large water change or two to remove ammonia/nitrates and then add my fish once the ammonia and nitrite both read zero? Since I could be safe to assume that my nitrite would be able to handle any ammonia now introduced from the fish and that the level of nitrate would also now be able to handle the nitrite?

[rich311k]

That sounds like an excellent plan. What kind of fish are you getting? Be sure to add stcok within 24 hours of the massive water change.

[abcdefghi]

It's going to be a species only tank (10 gallon) with around 8 or 9 Glowlight Tetras and once they are settled will be adding some Ghost Shrimp for the bottom.

I had thought about various different stocking options, but figured for a beginner glowlights and ghost shrimp would be pretty good. I will probably carry out the big water change (would minimum of 75% be OK?) on Saturday morning, and then head out to get the fish later that day.

[Marinemom]

That sounds like an excellent plan. Do the massive water change and then add the fish on the same day as long as the temp. and all other water perimeters are where they should be to support life in your aquarium. I think your stocking plan looks ok but maybe not add all the fish at the same time. Do half and see how it goes. You can always add the rest at a later time when you are sure that there is enough of the good bacteria in the water to support the bio-load.

Marinemom

[jm1212]

add 2-3 of the glolites at a time. add some, and then test the water the next day, etc. if the ammoina and nitrite are zero for two or three days, go ahead and get two or three more glolites, and so on, until the fishy part of the stocking si complete.

shrimp can be sentative to ammoni and nitrite. wait until your tank is fully established and stable before you add the ghose shrimp. you may also want to consider amano or cherry shrimp.