Cycling

jrhorn44 · Mar 12, 2026

Here’s my question: can I do a water change to speed up my nitrite to nitrate process?

Details: fishless cycle with bacteria, my ammonia is 0ppm, nitirite >5ppm, nitrate 10-15ppm

I started with 1ppm ammonia and it went down to .5 so I dosed it back up to 2 ppm and it is now 0 after 5-6 days. I’ve lost count but it’s probably been 12 days total on my cycle.

Was wanting to get fish this weekend. I know I’m being impatient lol. Please ruin my hopes and dreams and tell me I have 2 more weeks before I can get fish.

Uncle99 · Mar 12, 2026

Ammonia zero and you have nitrates!
What concerns you? Nitrites? I don’t even measure that anymore.
Sounds like an intial cycle to me.
Time for a couple of fish.

jrhorn44 · Mar 12, 2026

Uncle99 said:
Ammonia zero and you have nitrates!
What concerns you? Nitrites? I don’t even measure that anymore.
Sounds like an intial cycle to me.
Time for a couple of fish.

I like the way you think. I was concerned my nitrites were too high right now as it’s showing above 5.

Prijrco · Mar 13, 2026

I'm new to the hobby but I'd add fish at this point, wondering if anyone else has a different opinion.

Gumbies R Us · Mar 13, 2026

Somewhat long read, but this discusses nitrites in our reef tanks.

The importance of nitrite measurements in a reef aquarium

There have been a lot of threads about nitrification and cycling lately. IMO - the most important measurements tool you have in order to indicate if your cycle is done or not is the nitrite level. It is a rather stable tool and will give stable results with few interferences. One of the myths...

www.reef2reef.com

Randy Holmes-Farley · Mar 13, 2026

IMO, there is no concern about nitrite before adding fish. It takes hundreds of ppm of nitrite to kill a fish in seawater.

That is very different than freshwater, which is where nitrite concerns come from, and it is toxic at low levels.

Only reason to measure nitrite, IMO, is to make sure you are not getting false high nitrate readings during cycling. A few ppm nitrite can read as more than a hundred ppm of nitrate with some kits.

jrhorn44 · Mar 15, 2026

in the name of science, I added one fish to test and 3 days later, everything seems to be visually happy eating. Not sure if I’d ever test for nitrites again.

Thanks all!