Nitrite test oddities?

DrgRcr

DrgRcr

AC Members
Dec 17, 2008
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Central NJ
Well I'm nearly into my 4 week of FL cycling, and I've been doing a daily regimen of tests. The ammonia is being removed in 10 hrs or less, and nitrate has been between 5-10 ppm. My question concerns the nitrite tests. It had peaked last week at the highest reading on the card(API). It has been steadily showing a decrease each day. I do my tests the same time every day. Yesterday and today, when I put the drops in the tube, they turn purple in the bottom until I shake for 5 sec. It gradually fades to a lighter purple and then an almost clear/slightly blue color at the 5 minute test time. I interpret this to be between 0 and .25 ppm. It continues to change to a light green after a few more minutes, but I assume this is meaningless. Am I interpreting these numbers right, which seem to show I'm nearly done?

Also, my well water which I have previously tested several times to show 0amm, nitrate and nitrite, showed .25 nitrite today. That test starts as a light blue in the tube and develops to the .25 color. Any idea why my water may now be showing nitrite? What would I do to eliminate this when I do water changes, conditioner?
Sorry for the long post and all the questions, I just like to be detailed about what is going on!
 
usually any nitrite that would show would be simply consumed by the bacteria in the tank in short order. if it is continuing to show after a few hours I would wait till the tank was more stable.
 
I also ruled out a test kit problem by checking my sons 8g bowl. Drops went in the tube blue and after 5 minutes a sky blue 0ppm reading. I have been dosing 2ppm ammonia every 12 hrs,(the previous dose is always back to 0ppm) is this wrong, should it only be once a day?
 
As long as you keep feeding ammonia you will perpetuate the cycle and that is what you want. You are simulating the amount of ammonia that your bioload will produce daily.

In my tank the bacteria that forms nitrate from nitrite developed more quickly than the bacteria that converts ammonia to nitrite. It took perhaps 2 weeks once my nitrite spiked.
 
I've never seen the colors go in that order...before I read your last post I would have said maybe you left the dropper open and caused the solution to spoil. Anyway your interpretation after 5 minutes is still correct... .25 next time you test try shaking the test solution before adding the drops. After adding the drops it should go from sky blue and then gradually to the final results. I've never seen otherwise.
 
What's your pH?

Sometimes my nitrite test also changes to weird colors. I'd go with the 5 minute mark.

If there are no plants in the tank, and have done no water changes, I would suspect that your tank is not yet cycled. You should have way more nitrate than you currently have. I suspect off-the-charts readings for nitrite is your issue.
 
Update: Todays numbers showed about 10ppm nitrate, nitrite is still an odd color and I'm suspecting it is still high because of the low nitrate level. In regards to nitrite showing up in my tap, I think I found my error. Not thinking, I'm pretty sure I had drawn warm water from my tap when I took my sample. This would mean it could have picked up many deposits in the hot water heater. I retested today making sure it was cold from the ground and lo and behold, 0ppm nitrite. Sound logical? I am going to keeping adding my 2-3ppm daily and see what happens. I was hoping I was nearly done, but now I don't think so, especially since it has been only 3 1/2 weeks. More to come.
 
I'm not really understanding you here DrgRcr. You first mentioned that your nitrite is on the fritz, on a FL cycle. I'm assuming that you tested your TANK water for nitrites, not your tap. But in your last post, you start to mention tap water and hot, and cold.... it's a bit confusing.

You should have 2 sets of tests. One is your tap water, before it goes into the tank. Most readings should be 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 0-10 nitrate. That's the normal readings for most folks I believe.

At this point, we are really only focusing on your TANK water, not your tap. Please focus on that for now.

Do let us know your findings. 10ppm Nitrate instead of the 5-10 earlier is an improvement, showing that the nitrite is being converted.
 
Unless you know the exact parameters of your tap and how they affect the tank, you can misjudge what is happening in your tank. Good work on verifying those tap parameters, DrgRcr.
 
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