Funky Cycle

[Lansirill]

Okay, the cycle on my 10G has me good and confused. I've had it up and containing fish for a good 5 weeks now. About a week in, I had my ammonia spike and then for a good 2 weeks after that I was in a prolonged nitrite spike (more of a plateau really.) These test results were based off of the LFS's test kit.

So that would put me at the end of week 3 having my water show high nitrite at the store, on a Monday. On that Wednesday I picked up my own nitrite kit and tested no nitrites. I've continued testing with no sign of nitrite and (at most) trace amounts of ammonia. I've also seen, at most, trace amounts of nitrates.

Right now I have four bloodfin tetras in the tank, so if there was nothing to eat the ammonia I should definitely be seeing it in my test. Since I'm not (and I'm sure the kit works, since the tank I've started cycling shows up a nice pale green) I can only assume that ammonia is being turned into nitrite. My test doesn't show any nitrite, so either my test is bad or there isn't any nitrite. If I don't have nitrite, I -should- see nitrate, correct? I have three stems of plants (moneywort I believe), so it's possible that they're eating it all... but that seems unlikely.

1) Is it possible for my tank to honestly have negligible nitrate levels?

2) Is it at all likely for me to have a bad test kit?

 

[DaisyTattoo]

If you are using a liquid test that is less than a year old, it is probably testing correctly. It could be possible to have a nitrate and ammonia reading at the same time. You really need to do a water change everytime you see ammonia it is harmful to the fish and burns their gills. So just make sure you keep up on those water changes! When you finally start getting no ammonia or nitrite, then you will know your cycle is complete. And yes, sometimes it can take a month or so to establish. Good luck!

 

[Lansirill]

By at most a trace amount of ammonia I mean that when I use my liquid test the color is not pure yellow. However, I have -never- seen the test come out pure yellow, even with fresh water. I've heard that this isn't an uncommon problem with liquid API tests, and it seems to hold true for all of my tests (they never -quite- match the 0 level color.) I apologize if this is misleading.

 

[Corax]

any live plants in the tank?

 

[jonnyfry]

are you shaking bottle 2 for 30 seconds and then shaking the whole mixture for 1 minute at the end of test? then wait 5 minutes . i was doing it wrong for a while till i read the instructions lol . you should be showing atleast 5 nitrates if you saw ammonia and nitrite spike .

 

[gingerinaustin]

1) Yes.

2) Yes, but if you're getting similar results with different testing methods (including the tests your LFS is doing), it's unlikely all the tests are bad.

My experience with my 55 gallon tank: nitrites disappeared on day 43 and it wasn't until day 63 before I had a definitive , 20 ppm nitrate reading. That's right--no ammonia, nitrite nor nitrate for 20 days. To top it off, I didn't see a speck of ammonia until day 30. Biz-arre. Don't ask me to explain it, but that's what happened. It is possible. And no, I don't have live plants--brown diatoms yes, plants no. I had the exact same questions you did--if I'm showing zero ammonia and zero nitrate, then where the heck are the nitrites going?

The advice I got here was: do a 15% water change every week no matter what your tests read. Test kits don't test for everything, and water changes will help dilute out any weird stuff going on that the test kit doesn't measure. Water changes won't stall your cycle--the good bacteria lives in your filter and on your tank surfaces, not the water. If your tests register any ammonia or nitrite, no matter how small, do a partial water change. If your filter media gets really skuzzy, rinse it in old, conditioned tank water, NOT tap water.

Oh, and if you're using Prime as a water conditioner, you may see some ammonia show up on your tests, but it's likely ammonia bound to Prime (safe for fish and available for your good bacteria to feed on), not free ammonia. Prime can throw Nessler or salicylate-based ammonia tests off. You can read more about it on the SeaChem website.

The tank will cycle, eventually, but it's probably going to take longer than you hope it will. 8 weeks/2 months is not unheard of.

 

[Lansirill]

Yeah, there are a few live plants. Three stems of moneywort, although I've been suffering from steady plant death since I put the tank in, probably because there were no nutrients for the plants and I don't know that I picked appropriate plants for a low-light environment.

I've been doing two 30% water changes a week (a little over that, really) so even if my tests are funky or I'm missing something, the water quality hopefully isn't atrocious in there. I enjoy doing water changes (I apparently live a sad, sad life) so I'm pretty good about them. We'll see if that's changed in six months.

20 days without nitrates, eh? Heh. The sad thing is once I get this tank to cycle for sure, I still need to finish the cycle in my larger tank. I'll at least be able to borrow some filter media to kick the second cycle in the bum.

I -have- been shaking the bottle and the tube, but not for that long. I didn't read the directions much beyond getting the drop counts... I pretty much just copied what I saw the LFS doing. I'll try shaking the living snot out of the things (and reading the full directions) tonight and see if it helps any. I really ought to know better than to not read those things.

Thanks everybody. If all else fails, I'm going to visit a LFS this weekend, and I'll be bringing a water sample just to make sure we're getting the same readings.