angelah
Member
A problem has developed that I don't understand.
As you all know the cycle started well enough with a good ammonia reading and when that dropped nitrites picked up - all well and good so far.
But when the nitrites dropped after 4 days the ammonia count went up again, 0.50 the first day and 1.0 the next. The third it was 1.5 ppm yet nitrites were still at 0.0.
The very next day I thought it was resolving because ammonia dropped again to 0.25, but then found titrites were also 0.25. And that's how it's stayed all along. Get one to zero the other goes up, get that down to 0 then the other one goes back up.
Then, and because this had been going on for a while, I tested ntrates. That read off the scale, I had no idea what it was, far higher than it should be.
So as the cycle had stalled I did a 40% water change, but that didn't make any visible difference to the nitrate reading. Next day I did a 50% change and still no difference, although I must admit there may have been a verys slight one on the API chart.
As I am very unwell with a nasty bug I haven't the energy to do any more changes, although somebody did recomment an 80% change. I have not done that.
Taoday the readings are; Ammonia 1.00, nitrite 0.0 (yesterday that was 2.0).
So still all over the place. I cannot make out where all that nitrate came from so maybe somebody here can give me some clues...
I used the JBL AquaBasicPlus as a base covered with about 30 mm of sand from MA, I think it might even have been JBL sand, it wasn't cheap.
Have been running a fishless cycle to (initially) 4 ppm, now dropped to 3 ppm
Other readings are; iron 0.0, GH (Nutrafin liquid) 80, KH 20, Po4 1.0.
Any ideas folks?
A very bemused Angela
PS: This evening's readings are ammonia 1.5, nitrite 0.00 and nitrate 160. Where is all the nitrate coming from!
As you all know the cycle started well enough with a good ammonia reading and when that dropped nitrites picked up - all well and good so far.
But when the nitrites dropped after 4 days the ammonia count went up again, 0.50 the first day and 1.0 the next. The third it was 1.5 ppm yet nitrites were still at 0.0.
The very next day I thought it was resolving because ammonia dropped again to 0.25, but then found titrites were also 0.25. And that's how it's stayed all along. Get one to zero the other goes up, get that down to 0 then the other one goes back up.
Then, and because this had been going on for a while, I tested ntrates. That read off the scale, I had no idea what it was, far higher than it should be.
So as the cycle had stalled I did a 40% water change, but that didn't make any visible difference to the nitrate reading. Next day I did a 50% change and still no difference, although I must admit there may have been a verys slight one on the API chart.
As I am very unwell with a nasty bug I haven't the energy to do any more changes, although somebody did recomment an 80% change. I have not done that.
Taoday the readings are; Ammonia 1.00, nitrite 0.0 (yesterday that was 2.0).
So still all over the place. I cannot make out where all that nitrate came from so maybe somebody here can give me some clues...
I used the JBL AquaBasicPlus as a base covered with about 30 mm of sand from MA, I think it might even have been JBL sand, it wasn't cheap.
Have been running a fishless cycle to (initially) 4 ppm, now dropped to 3 ppm
Other readings are; iron 0.0, GH (Nutrafin liquid) 80, KH 20, Po4 1.0.
Any ideas folks?
A very bemused Angela
PS: This evening's readings are ammonia 1.5, nitrite 0.00 and nitrate 160. Where is all the nitrate coming from!