Nitrites stuck 38 days in cycle

[jadedog]

Hi I’m 38 days into my cycled I used bottle ammonia and dosed up to 2ppm and I’ve been through 3 bottles of bottled bacteria. I’ve been processing ammonia fine but my nitrites are stuck I stopped dosing ammonia recently and did Mulitple 50% water changes. I used a Hannah checker and my nitrates for 27.8 before the water changes. But for the life of me I’m having a hard time sufficiently dropping nitrite which is stuck at 5ppm I have two clowns that I have quarantined for the last month ready to go is it possible to just do a large water change and put them in my display? I know nitrites aren’t super deadly in salt water but what would be my best course of action. Thanks

 

[Should I]

My tank is newer as well and my ammonia is staying at 0 but I am in the same boat as you. My nitrites are staying at 0.25ppm no matter what I do. I’m assuming that my tank is still cycling bc my nitrates are at 0 as well. My fish seem to be doing fine but I’ve been worried that it may cause them to get sick. Any thoughts?

you have 0 nitrite if you did your nitrates would be off the charts test error

 

[KrisReef]

My tank is newer

What you said, suggests that our hobby test kits are critically limited.

My fish seem to be doing fine but I’ve been worried that it may cause them to get sick. Any thoughts?

Stop testing, quit trying to fix a problem that your fish don’t know about?

Cloudy water and fish struggling to breathe, gasping for oxygenated water near the surface are the symptoms of an ammonia problem in a marine tank. If you don’t see any problems then don’t let the test kits cause you to make corrections for an imaginary problem.

 

[twentyleagues]

My tank is newer as well and my ammonia is staying at 0 but I am in the same boat as you. My nitrites are staying at 0.25ppm no matter what I do. I’m assuming that my tank is still cycling bc my nitrates are at 0 as well. My fish seem to be doing fine but I’ve been worried that it may cause them to get sick. Any thoughts?

I will agree with others again that this "level" of nitrite is not an issue. I also doubt both tests nitrite and nitrate are correct one or both are incorrect. It may be that the nitrate one (dont know which brand you use) cant indicate that low of a number correctly or the nitrite one is giving a false positive. Most nitrate tests will get "confused" with an actual amount of nitrite present. So for the nitrate test to show 0 something is not right.