Fishless Cycling Help: Nitrite won't come down

C

Choco

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Jan 12, 2008
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I am doing a fishless cycling using clear ammonia in an empty tank (w/ an emperor 400 filter biowheel + seachem matrix)

So far it has been 25 days..and the tank is still not cycled yet. The problem is, nitrite has been staying at a very high level for almost 10 days.
I've been doing daily testing and adding small amount of ammonia (1-2ppm)
About 1ppm of ammonia is being converted to nitrite per day now (which is good)
But the problem is, nitrite has been increasing as ammonia is being consumed, but it seems none of the nitrite is being converted into nitrate. The nitrite level is also off the chart high despite a few 40/50/80% water change.
The API testkit only goes up to 5ppm, I improvised by mixing drops of tank water with nitrite free tap water and calculated that the nitrite of the tank was >25ppm. I did a 80%+ water change, and nitrite was still at >10ppm, and increasing everyday as I add more ammonia.

I think my nitrate test kit is not functioning properly in the presence of excessive nitrate as well...I am getting some weird color result with the cycling tank water, but the test kit is doing fine on 3 of my other tanks...

I have read many other journal on fishless cycling, and most of them have the tank completely cycled less than one week after nitrite started showing up.

I know these things usually takes time, but the nitrite has been presence for over 2 weeks, and what bugs me is that it seem like none of the nitrite is being converted into nitrate. (i.e. nitrite increased by 5ppm in 2 days when 2ppm of ammonia was converted)

What do you guys suggest I do?
1) Keep dosing ammonia or stop dosing ammonia?
2) What level should I keep the ammonia at? (right now I try to keep at 1-2ppm)
3) Keep doing water change to keep nitrite low or just leave it the way it is?
I am really confused and need some input here :help:
 
Stop dosing ammonia. Ammonia, as it breaks down converts to Nitrite. Nitrite is then converted to Nitrates. As long as you are dosing ammonia the nitrites are likely going to be very high.
 
Keep dosing with the ammonia up to 2 ppm daily. What type of test kit are you using? This is normal cycle progression. No need to do water changes. You are close to the end keep it up. You are doing everything right aside from the waterchanges, no need to do waterchange till the end when you are ready to add fish.
 
nitrites will keep increasing until the bacteria that breaks them down establishes themselves. I dont know if i'd stop dosing ammonia...without something to eat the bacteria that eats the ammonia may die off.
 
the reason I think something is wrong is because normally (from my experience), ammonia conversion to nitrite and nitrite conversion to nitrate should happen at the same time...so nitrite level will slowly decrease and and more nitrite are being turned into nitrate than ammonia being turned into nitrite.

However, it seems like right now for every 2ppm of ammonia converted, my nitrite goes up by about 5ppm, which suggest almost none of the nitrite is being converted. (ammonia:nitrite ratio = 2.7)

What I am really wondering is whether the excessive nitrite is causing or preventing nitrate bacteria from establishing.
 
Keep doing what your doing. Your almost there one fishless cycle that I did took 45 days and one took 3 days so just hang in there doing water changes to drop the ammonia to 4.0 or 5.0ppm or below is a good thing but it does not matter if you drop the nitrites it still will be the longest part of the cycle. Remember until you add 4.0 or 5.0 ppm ammonia and check 24 hours later and read 0.0ppm on ammonia and nitrite the cycling is not done yet.
 
You are on the right track Choco. By keeping ammonia dosing to 1 or 2 ppm each day you are keeping the ammonia converters alive and flourishing. The nitrite consumers will grow and eventually outperform the ammonia converters but that can take time. It is easier to monitor if you can get it down to where you can monitor the nitrite levels. I don't think it will speed anything but will make it easier for you to watch and will tell you what is happening faster. If you had a nitrite drop from 30 ppm to 20 ppm today, you would be completely unaware of it but if it was at 5 and dropped to 3 you would probably notice it.
 
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