ammonia seems to be decreasing, but no nitrites yet?

E

evident

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Dec 24, 2008
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Newtown, PA
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dave
Hi, i am about the 4th day into my cycling and i've been adding about 100 drops of ammonia in every day to a 45g tank, w/ filter running. Last night i got the tank up to about 5ppm ammonia, but when i tested this morning it went back down to around 3-4ppm, but no nitrites present yet.

Should i continue to add 100 drops of ammonia each day to maintain 5ppm? Is it possible that the filter is breaking down the ammonia?

The tank temperature is around 83 degrees.
 
I found that when cycling both my tanks the nitrifying bacteria grew faster than the ammonia eating bacteria. If u already have a reading for nitrates then the nitrites are already being consumed. You just have to wait for the ammonia eating bacteria to catch up.
 
Yes it is a good thing, it means the bacteria that consumes nitrites is there and doing it's job. You might want to take it easy on the ammonia and give the ammonia consuming bacteria a chance to catch up. I would wait til it falls to 1ppm and then add a little more. Are you using a test tube kit or strips to test your water? If you are using an API kit and you have an orange reading for your nitrates you are in business.......the strips however, are usually inaccurate.
 
Yep, i'm using the API kit. looks like im in business then :) after letting the nitrate test tube sit for a while the color got a little deeper, i would say its actually around 15-20ppm.
 
I beleive you should wait until the ammonia goes from 3 PPM to 0 in 12 hours or less. That means there is enough bacteria present to consume any your new fish produce.

As said, a large water change before adding fish and you are through. You will want to continue to monitor it for a couple weeks just to be sure.
 
prober said:
I beleive you should wait until the ammonia goes from 3 PPM to 0 in 12 hours or less. That means there is enough bacteria present to consume any your new fish produce.

As said, a large water change before adding fish and you are through. You will want to continue to monitor it for a couple weeks just to be sure.
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I think i'm pretty close at this point then, if thats all i need to do. I guess also at this point i shouldn't be expecting a nitrIte spike either, since nitrAtes are present, right?
 
evident said:
Yep, i'm using the API kit. looks like im in business then :) after letting the nitrate test tube sit for a while the color got a little deeper, i would say its actually around 15-20ppm.
Click to expand...
A quick FYI: Letting the tube sit longer than the specified 5 minutes will give you a false reading, as the color will continue to change. For accuracy, it's important to read the results at the specified 5 minutes mark, not sooner and not later.
 
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