1 month high nitrite tank cycling

[Joseph_Joe]

Hi All,

First of all, thanks for all the things i learnt from you by reading all the posts here, as a guy starting his first ever tank.
I know this thread was discussed many times ago but i want to make it's doing fine.
I started a 200 L tank with dry rocks (20 kg) and sand (lower layer is silicate based, upper layer is carbonate based).
I am going very slowly through each step of the startup process and I am not in a rush.
I started adding bacteria and plankton and around 4-5 weeks later, nitrite started picking up.
The point is that I am still high even 1 month later (I am at 1 ppm today).
There are also nitrates (30 ppm), which means all my bacteria is working fine since I reached last state of dissolved nitrogen.
Ammonia peak was never noticed, I guess it was very quick at the beginning (I don't test every day).
I had huge diatom growth 2 weeks ago, and now they are all almost dead by themselves. I read that it is expected.
I have 4-5 macroalgae in my sand bed to fight any uneeded microalgae.
I noticed that I am low on pH (between 7.4 & 7.8) & alkalinity (5 dKH) but It may bee fine, I WC every month and add 1/week some pH/KH boost.
I just want to know, even tho all my indicators seems good (expect the nitrite thing) if I am doing fine and if that Nitrite will decay one day or should I consider that since my nitrates are here and diatoms died, it means I am cycled and can start adding CUC (I have 0 animal ATM).
I also have 10 pods of mangroves growing in DT, for nitrate controls once they grow.
Below is a screenshot from my tank manager.

Thanks again for any support.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

The nitrite is likely a false reading caused by nitrite interference. I'd ignore it for now.

The low alk is caused by the cycling and I'd boost it to 7 dKH. Baking soda is fine for that purpose.

I'd ignore pH at the moment, and pH kits are sometimes not that accurate.

I'd slowly start adding the CUC, and may feeding them a bit.

 

[Joseph_Joe]

The nitrite is likely a false reading caused by nitrite interference. I'd ignore it for now.

The low alk is caused by the cycling and I'd boost it to 7 dKH. Baking soda is fine for that purpose.

I'd ignore pH at the moment, and pH kits are sometimes not that accurate.

I'd slowly start adding the CUC, and may feeding them a bit.

Thanks for the advice.
Today I started my first baking soda dosing, following your advice and will gradually bring it to 7-10.
Do you think I will need a water change (if so, how much % ?) before adding CUC ?
FI, I WC last saturday.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Do you think I will need a water change (if so, how much % ?) before adding CUC ?
FI, I WC last saturday.

Not unless ammonia is still elevated.

 

[Joseph_Joe]

Just to share with anyone interested in this topic, I added my CUC and quite more macroalgae and my nitrite finally dropped to 0.2 ppm in 3 days. My nitrate is also low, around 10 ppm. All those people contributed to a cleaner aquarium and my CUC didn't seem bother by the high nitrite.