Water cycling

[arwin342]

Hi!

I've been fish cycling my new tank for about 2 weeks now. Initially I have put in the Fritz live bacteria to expedite the cycle. First few days had an spike on my nitrite reading but also had nitrate reading and 0 ammonia reading. So I took it as a good sign. Did 10% water change after that to get the nitrite level under control and help out my fishes. These past few days my nitrite level has gone down from my initial reading but has been staying the same these past few days and have 0 on my ammonia and 0 on my nitrate. Am I doing something wrong from preventing the growth of bacteria to get rid of the nitrites?

 

[Azedenkae]

Hi!

I've been fish cycling my new tank for about 2 weeks now. Initially I have put in the Fritz live bacteria to expedite the cycle. First few days had an spike on my nitrite reading but also had nitrate reading and 0 ammonia reading. So I took it as a good sign. Did 10% water change after that to get the nitrite level under control and help out my fishes. These past few days my nitrite level has gone down from my initial reading but has been staying the same these past few days and have 0 on my ammonia and 0 on my nitrate. Am I doing something wrong from preventing the growth of bacteria to get rid of the nitrites?

Probably not. I mean, exact numbers would help, but it could be as simple as, at some point ammonia was not being produced/consumed as much and so nitrite was going down, but perhaps feeding or something has increased ammonia and so nitrite produced and consumed may be evening out a bit. So long as nitrite is not too high (>5ppm) and the fish are looking good and ammonia is under control and you are sure about your readings, you are probably fine.

With that said, more information on when you added the fish, the nitrite readings, how much/little have you been feeding, etc. would help with better answers.

 

[arwin342]

Probably not. I mean, exact numbers would help, but it could be as simple as, at some point ammonia was not being produced/consumed as much and so nitrite was going down, but perhaps feeding or something has increased ammonia and so nitrite produced and consumed may be evening out a bit. So long as nitrite is not too high (>5ppm) and the fish are looking good and ammonia is under control and you are sure about your readings, you are probably fine.

With that said, more information on when you added the fish, the nitrite readings, how much/little have you been feeding, etc. would help with better answers.

I added my fishes 2nd day after I let the live bacteria settle down.. then the next few days my nitrite spike was >5ppm 0 ammonia and low reading on nitrate. and thats when I did a daily water change of 10%. I got the nitrite to go down between .5 to 1ppm after that but it has been staying the same. But what's weird to me is I'm not getting no ammonia reading at all and no nitrate reading and my nitrite is staying the same. I have 4 clown fish in the tank now and are super active in the tank. I've been feeding them daily but not to the point where there's excess of food that is left over as I don't want my nitrite to spike too high. I do have a skimmer going and a cannister filter going also. Thanks for responding!

 

[Azedenkae]

I added my fishes 2nd day after I let the live bacteria settle down.. then the next few days my nitrite spike was >5ppm 0 ammonia and low reading on nitrate. and thats when I did a daily water change of 10%. I got the nitrite to go down between .5 to 1ppm after that but it has been staying the same. But what's weird to me is I'm not getting no ammonia reading at all and no nitrate reading and my nitrite is staying the same. I have 4 clown fish in the tank now and are super active in the tank. I've been feeding them daily but not to the point where there's excess of food that is left over as I don't want my nitrite to spike too high. I do have a skimmer going and a cannister filter going also. Thanks for responding!

Right, okay. I think I have a better understanding of what is going on.

Firstly, nitrite is far less toxic to marine fish than freshwater fish: http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-06/rhf/index.php. So right now you are in a pretty good spot.

Nitrite-oxidizers however, grow pretty slowly, and that's why you had a build up of nitrite.

What I presume is, at this point and has been for a while, your nitrite-oxidizers have built up to a point where nitrite production and consumption is basically the same, so even though ammonia is constantly being oxidized to nitrite, that amount of nitrite is being oxidized to nitrate. This probably occurred for a while now, even when nitrite spiked. The water change reduced it artificially, but the nitrite-oxidizers are still only handling the same amount of nitrite.

After all, it is not an all or nothing scenario. It is not expected for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate to ONLY be high or none, especially when the nitrifiers are being established.

Anyways, it is not a big deal. Given that nitrite is not climbing, I am sure as time goes on and more nitrite oxidizers are established, they will be able to fully handle all nitrite.

As for nitrates being 0, no idea. Could be algae, denitrifiers, and so on. Once your system is set up, it is actually not too hard to have nitrates being consumed. In fact, a lot of people eventually have issues with nitrates being too low. XD

I myself measure 0 ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate all the time, despite only being just over two months old. And that's with pretty heavy feeding. A week or so back some mushrooms I was nursing back to health also died overnight and polluted the water, but with a properly cycled tank, it was not a big deal either. Had a bacterial bloom for a bit, but otherwise nothing reacted very negatively.

 

[arwin342]

Yeah you're probably right. The fish seems really happy with the condition they're in so it probably not a big deal. But what is even weirder though is that algae is starting to show up all over the tank (it's in the brown phase) but I still can't get any nitrate reading.

 

[Azedenkae]

Yeah you're probably right. The fish seems really happy with the condition they're in so it probably not a big deal. But what is even weirder though is that algae is starting to show up all over the tank (it's in the brown phase) but I still can't get any nitrate reading.

Ah. Sounds like the typical rainforest/coral reef paradox, systems rich in life but surprisingly 'nutrient poor'. Yeah so it sounds a bit counter-intuitive at first, but if algae or whatever it is growing rapidly, measuring 0 nitrates actually makes sense as well, all the high amounts of nitrate is consumed by the algae, leaving none left for you to actually measure.

This is why some people's tanks are like, covered with algae but keep on measuring 0 nitrates. In fact, the more algae there are, the less nitrate there actually is in the aquarium water, as any amount produced is likely immediately uptaken by the algae.