Guest Lorelei Posted July 16, 2008 Share Posted July 16, 2008 hi everyone!! thank you for ALL your help with my cycling saga! i don't understand if the nitrItes are supposed to show up just as your ammonia goes down, or if it takes time or what. last week i got fed up and dumped the entire bottle of Stability in my tank. a few days later, my tank got cloudy. this means a bacterial bloom, right? or could it be something else? nothing else has gone in my tank since the Stability. before that, I put in some baking soda to raise my kH/pH. my tank started with 4.0 ppm of ammonia. then it went down to 3.0 ppm last week. now, it is at 2.0 ppm! ...but no nitrItes. should i just wait it out? does it happen that there's a delay between the ammonia and nitrItes? in any case, my mom is going down to NYC next week, and she'll be able to get me a bottle of One and Only (she will be bringing a cooler with her so that the bacteria stays alive for the trip back upstate). but i just wanna know what's happening to the tank now regardless i guess. thank you for your help!! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member Desiree Posted July 16, 2008 Regular Member Share Posted July 16, 2008 Sometimes it takes a little bit of time. Is this a fishless cycle? What kind of media do you have in your filter? I did a fishless cycle a little while ago that took two months to stabilize. My ammonia was high like yours, then dropped, but my nitrites didn't show up immediately. I too added a TON of Stability (and added ceramic media to my filter) and a few days later my nitrites showed up. Hold tight, it will happen! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member lynda441 Posted July 16, 2008 Regular Member Share Posted July 16, 2008 (edited) Your ammonia will be all but gone before any nitrites show up. The first time I had nitrites show up in my latest cycling project, I had neglible ammonia; it was maybe a darker yellow, but it was still yellow... no green at all. 0 ppm ammonia for all intents and purposes. And the nitrites were only 0.25. I was only allowing at the most, 0.5 ammonia at any one time, so it was never at 2, and even with 0.5, the ammonia still had to all go away before the nitrites showed up, so, give it more time. Edited July 16, 2008 by lynda441 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Lorelei Posted July 20, 2008 Share Posted July 20, 2008 y'all, is it possible that my ammonia is going down because it's simply evaporating from my tank? i keep the lid open and it's been really hot out... i know the boiling point of ammonia is very low, so... yeah. lol i just don't wanna get my hopes up about the tank cycling if it really isn't! D: anyway my ammonia is now about 1.5 ppm. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member Erinaceus Posted July 20, 2008 Regular Member Share Posted July 20, 2008 I'd think it unlikely that evaporation could be (largely) responsible for the changes you're observing. More likely it's like Lynda explained. Also, in the case of our tank, we more or less seemed to skip the nitrite stage and went straight into the nitrate stage (possibly because of the BB culture stuff we added to the tank during the cycling). 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member lynda441 Posted July 20, 2008 Regular Member Share Posted July 20, 2008 Cycling is frustrating as heck! I NEVER thought my first tank would EVER cycle! Arrrgghh! I was ready to scream! But, it will. Cycling is, by far, the greatest test of patience you will experience. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.