Question on cycling

Steve34k · May 10, 2019

Fish is active

Steve34k · May 10, 2019

Was just surprised no nitrate yesterday then that much today

Steve34k · May 10, 2019

Fish is alive. I was amazed yesterday no nitrate. And some today

bluprntguy · May 10, 2019

Steve34k said:
Fish is alive. I was amazed yesterday no nitrate. And some today

That's actually what you want to see. Converting the ammonia to nitrate happens pretty quickly, eliminating the nitrate is a slower process.

The fish is living in ammonia. You need to neutralize it using prime daily until your ammonia is down to zero. Prime converts the ammonia to ammonium, which is less toxic to the fish. The bacteria can still consume the ammonium.

Calpoly2103 · May 10, 2019

It's probably a false Nitrate reading if you have any Nitrite in the water.

Marco S · May 10, 2019

Calpoly2103 said:
It's probably a false Nitrate reading if you have any Nitrite in the water.

During the cycle you always have a period with both Nitrite and Nitrate, so I am not sure what you mean...

Calpoly2103 · May 10, 2019

Marco S said:
During the cycle you always have a period with both Nitrite and Nitrate, so I am not sure what you mean...

I was told in the chemistry forum by Randy that hobby grade test kits will give a false high nitrate reading if there is nitrite present in the water. I had a similar issue where I dosed ammonia via dr Tim's method, and after dosing ammonia once my nitrate was at 30! I was stumped. After Randy's response I waited until my nitrite tested at 0.00 and sure enough my nitrate made more sense and tested around 5-10. My nitrite was .5 when I got the 30 nitrate reading.

Marco S · May 10, 2019

Calpoly2103 said:
I was told in the chemistry forum by Randy that hobby grade test kits will give a false high nitrate reading if there is nitrite present in the water. I had a similar issue where I dosed ammonia via dr Tim's method, and after dosing ammonia once my nitrate was at 30! I was stumped. After Randy's response I waited until my nitrite tested at 0.00 and sure enough my nitrate made more sense and tested around 5-10. My nitrite was .5 when I got the 30 nitrate reading.

Thanks for explaining that. I have personally only used Bio Spira and Fritz Turbo 900 and have not run into any issues with high Nitrite or Nitrate yet, but that is good to know.