To many nitrites?

[nerdyguy83]

I am cycling a 40 gallon. I used mature sponges and gravel to seed the tank, and it worked its way through ammonia quickly, becoming efficient at eliminating it in only a few days. It has stalled out and is barely processessing nitrites at all. The nitrite levels are off the scale, and 2ppm ammonia dissapears in about 12 hours. Do I need to do a water change because there is too much nitrite to allow the bacteria to grow?

 

[hughitt1]

Are you doing a fishless cycle? If yes, then maybe wait a few more days and give them a chance to colonate the tank. Since the bacteria all use difference sources for food, the only thing they could compete for would be a place to form colonies but i don't think the ammonia-utilizing bacteria could have taken all of the surface area available. If you have fish in the tank i would start doing water changes right away to avoid any harm to the fishes. As long as there are some nitrites in there, the bacteria should eventually take hold.

Keith

 

[nerdyguy83]

It is a fishless cycle. The 2ppm on ammonia would have dissapeared and taken my fish with it.

 

[LunchBox]

it sounds to me like your nitrite bacteria just need more time to catch up. follow me on this logic and I think it'll make sense

basically, your established media hasn't had to handle the kind of ammonia load you're giving it now, so it's having to grow in a little to pick up the slack. as your ammo bacteria is growing they are giving off more nitrite and thus your nitrite bacteria is having to grow to catch up.

I would give it more time and you should see those nitrites go away before long