Yesterday, my nitrites and ammonia disappeared (yay) so I dosed up to 5ppm ammonia and waited 24hrs, but today my nitrites showed nil again, but there was still about 0.6 ammonia present (boo). Do I revert to daily adding to 3ppm until both show nil again, or shall I keep adding up to 5ppm?
Is this normal?
- Thread starter cathrynlisa
- Start date
If you've been adding ammonia doses of about 3ppm you've built up enough good bacteria to process that amount of ammonia. Suddenly dosing 5 ppm will give you an ammonia spike because you haven't built up enough nitrites to process this new larger bioload.
Why did you increase ammonia to 5 ppm? Most times people dose 3ppm ammonia until they're cycled--this amount generally creates enough bacteria to support a modestly stocked tank.
Why did you increase ammonia to 5 ppm? Most times people dose 3ppm ammonia until they're cycled--this amount generally creates enough bacteria to support a modestly stocked tank.
Ms.Bubbles said:
Because that's what it says to do in the fishless cycling instructions I have got from this forum