No nitrites???

[Watcher74]

12 days ago, my stepdaughter and I caught some minnows out of a local stream. We placed around 30 of them in a 10 gallon tank and began the cycle.

A week later I tested the water and had:

Ammonia: 4
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0

A few days later tested the same. Yesterday I tested:

Ammonia: ~3
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 10

Today I tested:

Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 80

A complete cycle in 12 days?

And no rise in nitrites???

I checked the methods of testing and everything was done correctly. The kit is over a year from expiration. Aquarium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. test kits.

The minnows were acclimatized to tap water in a bucket, and then netted and placed in the aquarium. The tank has 12X total water turnover with filters.

Anyone had this happen?

 

[amosf]

I can only suggest the obvious. Make sure you don't have the nitrite and nitrate tests mixed up. To me the nitrate of 80 already seems very high... I don't get much nitrate build up in the tank even after long periods, though I do have some local plants in the tank that grow like weeds and maybe they eat all the nitrate...

This stage is when you would expect a nitrite spike and you would think it too early for nitates to show up.

Also would ask if it was gravel and/or filter from another tank. If so you could easily get an 'instant' cycle...

 

[Watcher74]

Thanks for the reply!

No, I'm sure I didn't mix up the readings. Especially since the nitrIte kit goes from blue to purple and the nitrAte kit goes from yellow to red.

I quadruple checked everything very carefully. And no bacteria(except from the wild minnows possibly) were introduced to the tank.

 

[mayreee]

I wouldn't say your tank is cycled until you see nitrItes.

Also amosf, I don't think any test kits go up to 80 for nitrItes. It sounds like a number that would be on a card for nitrAtes.

 

[MikefromNH]

I wouldn't say your tank is cycled until you see nitrItes.

Also amosf, I don't think any test kits go up to 80 for nitrItes. It sounds like a number that would be on a card for nitrAtes.

I agree. My Aqu Pharm test kit nitrIte color card ranges from 0 ppm to 5ppm. It goes from blue (0 ppm) to magenta (5 ppm)

NitrAte card goes from yellow (0 ppm) to red (160 ppm)

 

[Watcher74]

But how could I get nitrAtes if nitrItes are not being converted to nitrate?

It almost seems like it's going straight from ammonia to nitrAtes.

 

[amosf]

I wouldn't say your tank is cycled until you see nitrItes.

Also amosf, I don't think any test kits go up to 80 for nitrItes. It sounds like a number that would be on a card for nitrAtes.

I agree. My hagen nitrite goes to 3.3 and the nitrate to 110, but they are both purple and I suppose you could read the result on the wrong card...

Just a thought as the results seem odd unless you were using some media from another tank...

Also it seems really odd that you could have 80ppm nitrate in a tank after just 12 days...

I'd get the water test confirmed elsewhere maybe...

Also, do the fish look happy? Can't really go by that either as fish out of streams are often quite tough. I had a nitrite spike here that killed tetra, but the native fish never showed any signs of distress...

 

[PeterW]

What else is in the tank? Was it and all the equipment completely sterile?

If there were ornaments or gravel or something from a live tank then perhaps you just lucked out and the nitrite bacteria grew as fast as the ammonia bacteria and were able to keep up..

 

[the_dougie]

or maybe, just maybe, you might have got some beneficial bacteria from the local stream, which could give your cycling a boost??
all this is very peculiar, though. perhaps you should check out that stream water a little more carefully.
80 nitrites though i'd think everything would be dead...
or 3 ammonia that's dangerously high.
you've got some tough little fish in there...