Nitrite question

[nickbuter]

A what point do the nitrite levels peak when cycling a tank? My tank is around 4.0 at the moment.

[victimizati0n]

nitrite is the middle one.

once nitrite hits 0, your cycle is probably done,

[nickbuter]

How high does it get before it starts coming down?

[mayreee]

Mine went over 5.0. Once it gets there it takes awile to come down. Maybe two weeks or so.

[LindaD]

My nitrite peaked over 10ppm. I take it your doing a fishless cycle?

[nickbuter]

I'm actually not doing a fishless cycle, I wish I would have now though. I started out with a tank of 10 danios for around three weeks. They all seemed to be doing fine, so I tested the water. The water tested very small amounts of nitrites. I tested it again two days later and it actually tested for less nitrites than the two days prior. I figured at that point my tank had just cycled unusually quick. I had placed an old filter bag, some gravel, three plastic plants, and a large rock from another established tank, two weeks before I even added any fish. I assumed the bacteria colonies had already established themselves, and that had something to do with why it had cycled so fast. So I figured that it was ok to stock the tank. I tested the tank again 10 days later and the nitrites skyrocketed, aprox. 4.0 at the moment. I just lost one of my platies tonight, and I assume I will probably lose more fish. I do have a fully established ten gallon, that I might have to overstock for the moment, but I'm not sure if that is going to make the situation worse, cause it seems like it's not going settle back down for quite some time. This is what my ten gallon will have in it.

9 cory's
4 swordtails
2 baby swordtails
3 platies
and those are just the fish im pretty sure wouldn't make it through the cycling process. There would still be about ten fish left in the cycling tank, however I know these have a much better chance of making it through.

[sdb]

I'm sorry to have to say, if you put all that wonderfully seeded stuff into the tank, and then just ran it empty for two weeks without feeding the bacteria with some form of ammonia (fish waste or preferably pure ammonia) to keep it alive, all that beneficial bacteria would have died. So when you put your fish in, you started all over with your cycle because all the bacteria was dead by then. Now you're going through a cycle.
Do lots of water changes (daily if need be) to keep those nitrites down. They are as toxic, if not more so, than ammonia. The levels will go to 0 eventually. What about your nitrate levels? Is ammonia down to 0? During the ten days after adding fish, your ammonia probably peaked, but you didn't notice because you didn't realize you were starting a cycle.