Hey folks, in the beginning of July I set up a new 20g tank. With previous tanks, I ghost fed, cycled rocks in tubs etc. This time around I went the bottled bacteria route. Followed directions on bottle (Brightwell Microbacter Start XLM) and added less ammonia than the bottle suggest (Brightwell Quickcycle) as I've had some friends use it and the ammonia amount was just insane. Anyway, mid July parameter check was Ammonia 8PPM, Nitrites 1ppm, didn't check nitrates wasn't too concerned with them with ammonia and nitrites in the system. A week later I checked again ammonia was 2, nitrites 0, nitrates were off the chart as I expected them to be. Another two weeks, same result. Started to get a little curious about the stuck 2ppm ammonia. Ended up being a trash API test kit, RedSea one came in and it was 0,0,300 for Ammonia, Trites, Trates. Did a 80% water change and then another 50%, nitrates down. Ordered a small CUC. They got here, been doing fine. Tested my water again and this is where I get lost. For about a two weeks now I've been getting nitrite readings .5/1. No ammonia. The CUC (A few small hermites, few nerties) are doing well. The rocks are covered in some white algae? Lights are only on for a few hours a day until I can be sure the nitrates are under control.
The TL;DR is.. my tank has nitrites. Measured on both an API kit and a RedSea kit. It doesn't make any sense to me. If it was ammonia that's one thing, nitrates another but nitrites is just weird to me for them to be present in a tank than can process a large amount of ammonia and that can process nitrites as well especially after almost two months of cycling that I monitored and checked to make sure everything was in order. Thanks for any input.
The TL;DR is.. my tank has nitrites. Measured on both an API kit and a RedSea kit. It doesn't make any sense to me. If it was ammonia that's one thing, nitrates another but nitrites is just weird to me for them to be present in a tank than can process a large amount of ammonia and that can process nitrites as well especially after almost two months of cycling that I monitored and checked to make sure everything was in order. Thanks for any input.