nitrite test

Off the top of my head you need to wait 10 min to get the right reading. Anything over 15 min I would think it could over develop. I think its time for a few 30% water changes for the rest of the week. I use around 0 test tubes when I do a weekly water test on all my tanks but I just toss the tubes and caps into a pitcher and clean them when I get to it, so I have never let them sit that long.

If your water contains either chlorine or chloramine, you definitely should use some every time you add tap water. Chlorine (or the more stable variant, chloramine) is in the tap water to inhibit bacterial growth. Definitely not what you want in a cycling tank!

Jim

Ok from what you have sead your in faze 2 of the cycle. If your nitrites are over 5ppm then you would most likely have dead fish so I guess you’re doing a fishless cycle. You should do a good size water change to get your nitrites in a readable level. You can cut the amount of ammonia your using in ½ (if doing a fishless cycle). You should start to see some nitrates soon but can jump start it by reseeding your tank.


For the Nitrite test it develops in 5 min not 10 for the Doc Wells test.
I don’t use the Hagen test kits.

Are you doing a fishless cycle (if not fishless what and how many fish)?
What size tank do you have?
How much ammonia are you adding (if fishless)?
How many days are you into the cycle?
Did you seed your tank with filter floss or something out of another tank? If so when?
Do a test for your nitrAres and what are they?

I know it takes to long to cycle a tank but your ½ way through it now so keep up with the good work.

You should cut back your ammonia (if fishless) to a few drops (or ½ of what you were adding). At this point you should be trying to get your ammonia to spike to about 2ppm every 24 hours. It should quickly turn into nitrites so after a few hours they might not show up on a test kit.

You’re now working on your nitrite cycle. This is the longest part of the tank cycle. You can speed this part of your cycle by “seeding your tank”. If you seed your tank you need to make shore you get something from a clean tank that doesn’t have any illnesses. You need to keep you nitrites 5ppm or under. You can do this with water changes or by using less ammonia.

If you answer all the questions I left you we will all know more about how your tank is doing and how to better guide you.