Help: Fishless cycling stalled at high nitrite levels

[renatoi]

Tank size: 62 gallons
Tank age: 2 months
pH: 8
Temp: 79f
Nitrate: 50
Nitrite: 4
Ammonia: 0

Ok, I've been doing a fishless cycling for about 2 months now.

I made a big mistake in the beginning where I overdosed ammonia. But my bacteria was able to make it go down to zero eventually after 2 or 3 days which lead to a very big spike in nitrite and also nitrate.

Since then (more than a month now) I have not been able to make my nitrite levels go down.

I have been very patient but I've read in many different places that if my nitrite levels are super high I may have stalled the cycling process.

I'm not entirely sure what is the usual peak of nitrite during the cycling process but I came to the conclusion that it shouldn't be at the levels that I have right now which is approximately four parts per million.

I have also read in many different places that in order to make my nitrites go down I should do partial water changes and that's what I did but whenever I did a water change my nitrites level wouldn't change at all. I thought maybe it could be the test kit that I'm using so I decided to buy two other test kits to make sure. I'm using one from Red Sea, one from API and another one from Salifert all of them are giving me similar results: nitrite levels are super high.

I thought it was super weird that even after a partial water change of 60% my nitrite levels wouldn't even change. The only possible explanation that I can think of is that my nitrites are so high in concentration that the test kits are always pointing to the maximum value even after a big water change.

After doing more research I decided to buy Seachem Prime and after adding the recommended number of caps, believe it or not, nitrites were still at the same level as before.

At some point I was so frustrated that I decided to pour the entire bottle and I still see the same levels.

I don't know what else to do and if anyone have any idea to help me I would gladly appreciate.

it's important to note that during this time I have also been adding a few more bottles of nitrifying bacteria and I have also been feeding the bacteria with at least 0.5ppm of ammonia every day to make sure they don't starve.

Ammonia is always going down as expected. But nitrite is stuck at 4ppm (or more).

Also worth noting that Nitrate is also going up.

Any ideas? Any help is appreciated.

 

[brandon429]

hey, you are cycled and nitrite literally doesnt matter, how cool is that! (new science has come about to directly replace online macna videos claiming nitrite matters)

 

[AZMSGT]

Quit adding things and leave it alone.

 

[AbjectMaelstroM]

What test kit are you using?

I did the same type cycle with biospira and Dr Tim's ammonia. Nitrites were maxing out my Red Sea kit at 2ppm while ammonia would get processed in 24hrs. I had to do multiple 25g WCs to get it down to the point where they were under 2ppm. At Ter hat point I let it be and BAM! 3 days later it was reading 0 nitrites. All together took about a month.

Don't add more ammonia.

 

[brandon429]

all you need to do is change as much algaefuel water you can, then begin. your tank was ready about ten days or less after you added first round of bottle bac. if you are using live rock, it might have been ready sooner. based on your time frames underwater the tank is fully cycled, what you test doesnt matter as nitrite simply doesnt factor to us in any state. it would if we were fw

 

[Yates273]

Be patient. Nitrite part of cycle can take the longest. One day you will test and they will be gone. As far as Prime that treats chlorine’s chloramines and ammonia. Does nothing for Nitrites. As long as your ammonia it is being consumed and you have nitrates that means the bacteria is there consuming the nitrites also. Just takes time to build up to fully consume your nitrites.

 

[Yates273]

you are cycled and nitrite literally doesnt matter, how cool is that! (new science has come about to directly replace online

.
Wow learn something new everyday. I have been keeping freshwater for several years and nitrites are a big No no. Didn’t realize not an issue in saltwater. Will nitrites affect corals?

 

[renatoi]

So I should stop adding ammonia?

I'm going to leave the tank alone for a week to see if anything changes.

I remember I've read in a few places that my bacteria could starve in 72h if I stop adding ammonia. I guess it's all non-sense?

 

[brandon429]

yes that's true, cannot starve. I study cycle variations from threads here on the site/collect hundreds of them ready avail/we have seen posts that had live rock in a tank in a garage 3 years, they occasionally kept it topped off thinking one month they'd use the rocks (DJ City is the poster) and when they decided at month 36 lol he posted in his thread, I scooped up that chance to have him ammonia test the rocks. they passed, after 36 mos no feed.

That is in addition to a 2 year fallow test collected by poster Dandelion at nano-reef.com

We cannot starve bacteria that have had time to develop an insulating biofilm cover, which traps food/natural contaminations for on-site degredation and feed to nitrifiers. There are also organic stores which don't go away, those in addition are bacterial feed, plus there's more sources. We cannot starve bac once theyre fed, and set in.


Regarding nitrite, Im not a chemist at all, that's something Randy HF has been working with in his chem forum and i use the idea to kick the test out altogether like we do here.


just this week alone have retracked about ten stuck nitrite threads. Randy said the chloride concentrations in salt vs freshwater neutralize the nitrite, or it would be toxic. its neutralized in a marine cycle to the point we do not care about it, only ammonia proofing matters, been doing it this way based on his chem forum posts about six or so years now can’t recall

stalled cycle fear is only for the web, so you will click buy:

we have began factoring the interesting cycle dynamics that allow 100% of all marine aquarium entrants, MACNA and aquashella and countless others, for twenty years, to all set up 500 tanks on time and meet the start date. no overshoots, no stuck cycles, somehow when incentive $ is involved, secret science comes out of the woodwork. I have stolen their formula, and am transmitting it out to the whole web like cycle wikileaks. the attempt is to be in direct opposite to those trying to sell us bottle bac, and profit off our mistesting and hesitation, things that don't factor into a MACNA start date. there is a proper time to use bottle bac; but its not to unstick a cycle because no marine aquarium cycle stalls, not one time not ever.

I found the videos online from bottle bac makers quite entertaining, to be at MACNA lecturing about stalled cycles, among 500 tanks who did not have a stalled cycle but can sell you a twelve thousand dollar rock flower anemone.

 

[brandon429]

still on the soapbox have an offer: Redefine what a completed cycle is that way we don’t have to keep paying or failing to meet ideal start dates

—>a cycle is complete when initial desired bioload is supported such that lethal ammonia is always controlled, and the condition cannot be starved out or undone with any degree of water change volume or frequency.

that statement allows for skip cycles at conventions, ammonia is controlled, we didn’t factor how long the tank has been running.
the statement allows for classic cycles that wait months for natural bacteria and natural feed to cycle the system, like how we did it in the eighties. The statement encompasses every way one can cycle

we covered the exact parameters one needs to measure in a cycle, we excluded two other commonly measured params for a reason.

we finalized the starving aspect in the official definition and we cover upcoming water changes and cleaning in the safety allowance. No need to keep buying bottle bac...we cannot undo a cycle by making sure no uglies phase is allowed/clean those filthy rocks and keep them tip top. By design, the official definition of a complete cycle excludes my search terms up above that generate a buy response.

Even though your tank can support fish, consider your intended disease protocol before adding. An ideal start is a clean up crew and some corals and some rods feed + benepets reef feed that stuff is great or reef roids good too.

we are only lucky your ammonia doesn’t show .5 and it looks like agreeable zero, that’s rare. 90% of the time I’m trying to convince someone their ammonia reading is off, we got lucky here. If the test said anything but zero after sixty days we’d know the test is not a seneye reader and the test would be deemed wrong. See how cycling isn’t an arbitrary date like they’ve made it to be the last 20 years? your first added bioload will either live or die, if it lives the tank is fully cycled, there are no half or partial cycles. We know it will live because you’ve doubled the submersion axis of every cycling chart on google, well done on patience. Submersion time is very trustworthy, it cross references with the known ammonia allowance on the other axis of the cycling chart, they do not uncouple. They’re trying to sell us bottle bac claiming an event is undone that cannot be undone. Cat out of the bag when a cycle is done, not going back in.

 

[brandon429]

Such a sick tie in, this proves we cannot stall cycles. See how all these cycling charts across pages, across references, all do the same thing? that’s wonderful science, to show counterpatterning to a buy response. Solve for time on the left on all charts, know ammonia at the bottom, same approx timeframe every chart going back to textbooks in the fifties. Your ammonia is safe because at no time does it, or nitrite rise back up after going down.

*where it says ‘nitrogen cycle complete’ thats implying nitrite control is required/complete/can start. per updated science adjusted for marine cycling that portion is disregarded due to context, trace the ammonia it’s what matters. Nobody is waiting forty days nowadays, because nitrite compliance isn’t actually required. It catches up whenever it catches up.

 

[steadfast16]

Such a sick tie in, this proves we cannot stall cycles. See how all these cycling charts across pages, across references, all do the same thing? that’s wonderful science, to show counterpatterning to a buy response. Solve for time on the left on all charts, know ammonia at the bottom, same approx timeframe every chart going back to textbooks in the fifties. Your ammonia is safe because at no time does it, or nitrite rise back up after going down.

*where it says ‘nitrogen cycle complete’ thats implying nitrite control is required/complete/can start. per updated science adjusted for marine cycling that portion is disregarded due to context, trace the ammonia it’s what matters. Nobody is waiting forty days nowadays, because nitrite compliance isn’t actually required. It catches up whenever it catches up.

This is great and helpful information, thank you

 

[Jubei2006]

If you have nitrates and the only thing you added was pure ammonia, you have everything you need for the "cycle". Start adding fish slowly and enjoy some life in your tank.

 

[brandon429]

Im guilty of nitrite rants

check out how far we've taken the concept of never measuring nitrite since this original thread here

How to unstick any seemingly stuck cycle

non digital ammonia test kit readings (api, Red Sea, nyos, seachem badges) make you think you aren’t cycled when indeed you are if you owned a $200 expensive seneye meter, you’d never be doubting your cycle status. since .01% of the reefing population owns these, we need a way to help the...

www.reef2reef.com

now thats momentum!