How long for nitrites to get to 0?

[karna68]

Just curious, I've been cycling my tanks for a little over a month and I'm still getting nitrites, they go up about .25 every day. I've been doing daily 50% water changes (I hate to see my water bill :thud: )

[karna68]

Anyone? Can I expect it to be soon since it's only rising about .25 every 24 hours? Or is this something you just can't gauge?

[DormDweller]

From what I understand about fishless, (I'm a n00b myself) the nitrites will spike for about 7-14 days before disappearing. Your ammonia-eating bacteria are established and making their nitrites as waste but the nitrite-eaters aren't plentiful enough to eat the nitrites to 0.
Here's a link about fishless FW cycling: http://www.aquariumboard.com/forums...ng-tank-fw.html

[amyandlars]

Are you doing fishless or fish cycle. If your doing a fishless cycle, your not supposed to do any water changes, until your ammonia is 0 and your nitrites are 0. Then you do a dose of ammonia wait 24 hours, and see if they read zero. If they do, thats when you do the water change.

[karna68]

It's a fishy cycle. Honestly I've only been testing myself for about a week. I had been doing w/c's bi-weekly before that and having the water tested at my LFS.

[plah831]

In my experience, the nitrite stage takes quite a bit longer than the initial ammonia-eating stage. I'd say you can expect to see nitrites for at least 3-4 weeks. One time, I changed 100% of my gravel on a cycled tank, left the filter totally untouched, and I still had nitrite for nearly a month. I was doing daily or even twice daily WC's, though, because my otos would breathe rapidly as soon as any nitrite registered on a test.

[amyandlars]

A fishy cycle seems to take forever, especially if you are starting from scratch and have no seeded material. Just don't do what I did, get the cycle to near completion and change filters. My tank has not been right since.

[karna68]

Oh crud, I don't know if I can do this another month! I seriously cannot afford all this water!!

[canbur]

I have been doing w/c every 2-4 days, testing daily. I have been cycling with fish since end of August. I have three harlequin in my tank and do water changes once the nitrite reads over .25. I've been doing 30% w/c as needed since September 10th!

It's so frustrating. I will absolutely celebrate when those nitrites go away. I feel like my tank is stuck, but I'm trying to be patient. I wanted to put in Bio Spira but got spooked because of my three harlequin already being in there.

Keep me posted on how your tank is going. I totally understand about the water bill, ours is expensive out here in the (semi) desert.

[karna68]

I just figured it up and doing 50% daily water changes on a 30 gallon is an extra 400 gallons a month!! :thud:

[canbur]

You must like your white clouds as much as I like my harlequins. Good thing for them.

[karna68]

They weren't my first choice in fish but I have gotten attached to them. I've just lost so many fish trying to get these tanks started I hate to lose anymore!

[plah831]

sorry, I wish I could give you better news but I can't. White clouds are very cute fish, and I noticed that mine would have their normally bright red fins turn pale whenever there were too many nitrites. But there's really no way around the water changes to keep your fish healthy during a fishy cycle.

[CaptnDan]

I just figured it up and doing 50% daily water changes on a 30 gallon is an extra 400 gallons a month!! :thud:

Actually, the number is probably lower than that even. If the tank holds 30 gallons, but you put gravel and decorations in it, it is holding less water than the rated 30 gallon capacity.

In most places, there is a flat basic price for water, up to a certain quantity. Once you go over that amount, there is an increase for every thousand gallons used. Unless you are already over that, the impact on the bill would be $0

If I go over my allotment one month by 400 gallons, it will increase my water bill by $2.08

Really, 400 gallons of water isn't much. Ever wonder how much you use in the shower? Look at the size of your bath tub, compared to the size of your fish tank.

The average load of laundry consumes 50 - 70 gallons of water.

Besides, you aren't going to be doing the 50% daily changes forever...

[karna68]

Unfortunately I get charged by usage, there is no flat fee. I know I won't be doing it forever but wow, that's a lot of EXTRA water...

[CaptnDan]

but wow, that's a lot of EXTRA water...

If you think about it in terms of how much of a mess it would be if it was on the floor, yes, that would be a lot of water.

But in the greater scheme of how much water an average household uses in a month, it's really just a drop in the proverbial bucket. I am used to working with the amount of water used in a month, so numbers like 400 gallons aren't very scary, but when you aren't used to this stuff, I can see where it could be stressful.

Your comments got me wondering just how expensive water really is up there, so I looked it up. According to the price structure in place as of January 1, 2006 for the Columbus water department, the first 5 CCF (CCF = 100 cubic feet) is the basic allotment. That works out to 3740 gallons. If you go over that, they charge per CCF, and that rate fluctuates depending on exactly where you live, but with sewer included, it seems to be about $3.99 per CCF if you live in Columbus proper). 1 CCF = 748 gallons.

It works out to about $2.13 for the 400 gallons you will use for water changes in a month, assuming that you are already over the original 5CCF. Of course they will bill you the entire $3.99 because they have no provision for billing fractions of a CCF. If you are not over the 5CCF basic allotment, it will add nothing to your bill.

Hope this helps put things in perspective a bit.

http://columbuswater.com/PDFs/2006RateChart.pdf

[karna68]

ROFL!! Thanks CaptnDan! I guess it isn't that bad. I just know that my bill from the summer when my sister and nephew stayed with us my water bill DOUBLED!

[CaptnDan]

ROFL!! Thanks CaptnDan! I guess it isn't that bad. I just know that my bill from the summer when my sister and nephew stayed with us my water bill DOUBLED!

I can definitely relate, that's why I went to the effort to research the info for you. What happened in my case was that both of our teenage daughters went through this phase where they were taking a ridiculous number of showers a day...

When I saw that $200 water bill, it was a toss-up as to whether I'd hit the floor, or the roof! LOL

Hang in there.... Cycling is a pain, but it's worth it in the end! And if you decide to add another tank in the future, you won't have all this to do again because you'll have an established tank to jump start another one.