# Nitrite problem



## ChosenOne22 (Nov 23, 2003)

Anyways my tank has been cycling for a while now, I would say about 3 weeks. It took my tank 6 days for the ammonia to start lowering and now its at zero. Its been fourteen days and my nitrites hasn't even budged its at the same level of about 1ppm. My question is do I need to add ammonia so the "other" bacteria has something to munch on while the nitrate eating bacteria starts to grow? Its been about 10 days now that I havent added ammonia in, do you think the other beneficial bacteria could starve and die from that? Should there always be some trace of ammonia while you wait for the nitrites to go down?


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## smithgrind_who (Mar 26, 2004)

Hey ChosenOne22, are you trying to cycle your tank without fish? If so then you should keep adding ammonia. The nitrifying bacteria that consumes nitrItes does take a long time to grow. While all the bacteria establishes, you should keep feeding the type that consumes ammonia.


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## ChosenOne22 (Nov 23, 2003)

Yeah I am doing a fishless cycle. But have you ever heard of the first bacteria dying off while you wait for the second one to grow? My lfs said to keep the ammonia at 0, thats the only time the nitrite eating bacteria will be able to grow. So that's horse crap?


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## SpAzZy (Mar 30, 2004)

add half of the amount of ammonia that you started to add. this is what you are supposed to do after your nitrite has spiked and is at it's peak. 1ppm of nitrite doesn't sound high enough.. i don't htink you've been using enough ammonia from teh beginning. i need some general statistics before i can tell you if you have a big enough biological capacity. info as in tank size (gallon rating), how many ppms of ammonia you started out with since day 1 (you should have started with 4ppm since you are adding this yourself).

what i have read is that you should be adding the same amount of ammonia that it took to reach 4ppm everyday until nitrites peak.. but i did it a little bit different (2 times). i added enough ammonia each time to make my tank at 4ppm of ammonia everyday until my nitrite was peaked. then at that point. i would add half of that amount, (2ppm worth) until my cycle was completed. i used biospira both times and i cycled the first time in 8 days. the second time it took 20 days. i'm guessing i got a bad dosage of biospira.


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## ChosenOne22 (Nov 23, 2003)

The first day my tank had an ammonia reading of about 5-7 ppm. But I have a crappy nitrite test that only goes up to 1ppm so thats what I can tell it's 1ppm. It's taking awhile to go down. But hey the good news is that a see it went down slightly today! I can't find bio-spira around here so I use stress-zyme and cycle. Don't know if it works or not. Seems like it has done nothing so far.


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## Dr. Giggles (Oct 18, 2003)

Hey ChosenOne....since your at nitrites and doing the fishless cycle thing just add 2-3 drops per 10 gallons of water until your ammonia and nitrites reading zero..The bacteria that eats ammonia may have died off since you stopped adding it. So patience here may be needed...Jerry


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## SpAzZy (Mar 30, 2004)

jerry_plakyda said:


> Hey ChosenOne....since your at nitrites and doing the fishless cycle thing just add *2-3 drops per 10 gallons of water until your ammonia and nitrites reading zero*..The bacteria that eats ammonia may have died off since you stopped adding it. So patience here may be needed...Jerry
> [snapback]808307[/snapback]​


although this is somewhat correct, you cannot assume that 2-3 drops per 10g is sufficient or can possibly be too much. it all depends on what type of ammonia you are using, where you got it from and how old it is. left out ammonia will evaporate and not be as strong as a brand new bottle. ammonia that is in a powder state is very potent, and you can be very precise with adding it since you can measure out a certain weight. i personally use ammonium hydroxide, that i got from ace hardware. it is the store's own branded "industrial strength" cleaner. it takes about 1-1.5ml to reach 4ppm per 10g (this is an estimate.. i have a line marked on my testtube.. i had to experiment in order to figure out the right mix.. let me just tell you what a pain this was..)

also, starting with 5-7ppm can be a bad thing (time wise). starting at 5 is not so bad.. but if you started at 7ppm, and kept it at a constant 7ppm, it would take a very long time for your tank to cycle. #1, 7ppm is a very high ammonia level, and it will take a heavily stocked tank to reach this level of ammonia. #2, you wil only need this big of a bacterial colony if you are going to heavily stock your tank from the first day, and you are going to overstock...

7ppm of ammonia in a 100g, is A LOT of ammonia.. while 7ppm in a 10g will be 10x less ammonia, but the same reading of ppm's. it will take a very long time in order for the bacteria to colonize. i have read that if your ammonia goes too high, your bacteria will not be able to colonize and will severly effect the time it takes to cycle. since you haven't been adding ammonia often, you should be fine although you started with such a high reading. i suggest adding 1/3-1/2 of what it takes to get to 4ppm's of ammonia in your tank everyday till your nitrites are finally zero (this amount of ammo would make your tank increase 2ppm each time you added it). you must add ammonia in order to keep the bacteria fed, and alive. finally when the cycle is finished, do a huge water change (50%) since there are no fish to shock.. double check your nitrates at this point, make sure they are low.. 5-10ppm is a good reading after the change. if it's not at this level, do another water change in a day or so. make sure you use chlorine removers (water conditioners).. if you don't, you will wipe out your bacterial colony.

btw, cycle is a waste of money. it does not work. the other thing you said you have (stress-zyme i believe you said) will not decrease cycling time either.. but it will help your fish when you add them. if you have any further questions, just PM me, i've done the fishless cycle a few times and it works out great everytime. bio-spira works wonders though.. the first time i used bio-spira and the fishless cycle, it took 8 days time to fully cycle. i prefer it because i don't like feeder fish.. you never know how much ammonia they are going to produce, how long it will take them to produce the ammonia, etc.. they can also be diseased, and create problems in your new tank before you even cycled it.


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## ChosenOne22 (Nov 23, 2003)

Good news guys. I added enough ammonia to register about 2ppms and after to dayas nitrites are almost gone. MAN that seemed like forever!.


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