Fishless Cycle - High Nitrites AND High Nitrates for weeks?

homerHart said:
Tested again tonight - still high Nitrates and Nitrites so have done yet another 90% water change - getting very tedious now - don't seem to be getting anywhere. :duh:
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I think you need to do back to back water changes to get the nitrates down to about 10ppm. If they are still very high, it is really hard to read the tests correctly, what is the difference between 200 ppm and 150ppm?? You have to get it down to the mid- or lower- levels of the test kit to read it well. So, do a big water change, test, if above 20ppm, do antoehr as needed to get it to about 10ppm (that is, from 160ppm do a 90% water change to get to near 16ppm, from 100ppm do a 80% water change to get to 20ppm, just do the math!)

I'd even wait a few hours after water changes to see if the levels increased due to anything bleeding from the gravel) If nitrate is stable at ~10ppm, then add ammonia to 2 or 3ppm. Wait 24 hours and test everything again.
 
Re the salt question - I meant NitrItes - just typed it wrong, thanks anyway.
As for water changes - I have done two 50% changes back to back and then two 90% changes back to back and I have just tested it again tonight and both Ites and Ates are off the scale again :mad2:
I am not an idiot, I followed all the rules, put a few drops of the Ammonia in each day until it spiked to around 5ppm etc. I even went to the trouble of emailing the company that make the Ammonia and checked that it had no additives etc and found out that it was 9.5% strength etc etc etc, I just can not understand what is going on - and Swimfins you quoted "once you see NitrAtes you are about done" that is my problem - if you read my original post, the problem is I have had high levels of BOTH NitrItes and NitrAtes for weeks now and it doesn't seem to be getting any closer to getting 0 NitrItes i.e. cycled and I am rapidly losing the will to live :thud: :duh: :rant2: :mad: :confused: :rant: :mad2: :argue: :sad
 
homerHart said:
Re the salt question - I meant NitrItes - just typed it wrong, thanks anyway.
As for water changes - I have done two 50% changes back to back and then two 90% changes back to back and I have just tested it again tonight and both Ites and Ates are off the scale again :mad2:
I am not an idiot, I followed all the rules, put a few drops of the Ammonia in each day until it spiked to around 5ppm etc. I even went to the trouble of emailing the company that make the Ammonia and checked that it had no additives etc and found out that it was 9.5% strength etc etc etc, I just can not understand what is going on - and Swimfins you quoted "once you see NitrAtes you are about done" that is my problem - if you read my original post, the problem is I have had high levels of BOTH NitrItes and NitrAtes for weeks now and it doesn't seem to be getting any closer to getting 0 NitrItes i.e. cycled and I am rapidly losing the will to live :thud: :duh: :rant2: :mad: :confused: :rant: :mad2: :argue: :sad
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I completely understand how you're feeling, because I've been experiencing the same thing: off-the-chart nitrites and nitrates and it seems like there's no end in sight. The only thing that really helped was to do enough water changes to bring the numbers back down...at least that way I know where my numbers are and whether they are going up or down. I'm at about day 46 of my fishless cycle now. Next step will be trying Bio-Spira. If that doesn't work, I might just give up and do a fishy cycle with some Bio-Spira.

mishi8
 
Hmmm, check the test kits???

Might be time to take a sample of the tank water to the local fish store to have them test it. Someone else on another post said they found their test kit (although rather new) was bad.
 
Thanks for your support guys and gals.
I have tested everything, the kit seems to work. I tested the water from the tap and then I tested the water after I added the dechlorinator and all those seem to be 0 for Ites and under 5ppm for Ates. So it would suggest that the kits are working well but I have massive amounts of Ites and Ates in the system.
I will keep trying - it is twice as bad as the tank was an early birthday present so that I could get it all cycled and actually get some fish on my birthday which is now in less than a week!!!!!!!! I hope I make it in time otherwise my birthday will be a real anticlimax and the wife knows it will so she's getting worried as well now.
 
anonapersona said:
Might be time to take a sample of the tank water to the local fish store to have them test it. Someone else on another post said they found their test kit (although rather new) was bad.
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I'm 100% in areement with this. Something is off and I have a big suspicion your testkit os OFF. So, Homer don't kill yourself just yet. :shark:


OOPs so sorry I just read the above. I'd go get a nitrate sponge at this point and see.
 
I have tested again this evening and after the two 90% back to back water changes it would appear that I have at last managed to get the Ites down to under 1ppm and the Ates to under 10ppm. I have added two tiny drops of Ammonia (didn't want the Ammo bacteria to die back if I didn't feed them) and I'll wait to see what the score line will read tomorrow - have glued my fingers crossed that my Ites are still low (ideally 0!) and my Ates are not off the scale again. :bowing:
 
Mishi8, I really know what your going through and you've been doing it longer than I have.
I at last seem to be getting somewhere - tonight my Ites were down lower after having added some Ammonia yesterday and my Ates were about the same - still fingers crossed that soon I will get 0 for Ites.
 
Nitrites fall fast

Cheer up! When the nitrites start falling they fall fast, you are just a couple of days from the end!
 
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