No nitrites in a planted tank

[lmhicks101]

I have a planted tank I’ve been cycling for 14 days now and I’ve seen only one .25 nitrite spike after Dosing with stability then it was gone in the morning. My plants are growing great but I’m wondering if somethings happening and they’re eating all the ammonia as it’s made an bacteria can’t get it fast enough to cycle. 
 

I’ve cycled with Fritz zone 700, koi tank filter squeeze and left food and raw chicken in. Now doing a fish in with stability and prime. 
 

plants

• Lobelia Cardinalis x3
• Narrow leaf Chain Sword x2
• Spiralis x2
• Java moss x2
• Anacharis x2
• Normal Amazon Sword
• Flame Amazon Sword
• Red Melon Sword
• Bronze Wendtii
• Green Wendtii
• Red Wendtii
• pothos leaf in a soap dish under the HOB

Water 

• Ammonia - 2
• Nitrite - 0
• Nitrates - 5
• pH - 6.6 (steady)
• KH- 2
• GH - 6-7

Fish

• Cardinal tetras - 18
• Harlequin Rasbora - 6
• Pygmy Corridors - 8
• Khuli Loaches - 6
• Hillstream Loach - 1
• Betta male - 1
• Snails 

 

 

Edited October 15, 2021 by lmhicks101

[laritheloud]

It can take 4 to 8 weeks to cycle a tank, even with beneficial bacteria introduced. You have a lot of bioload for the tank and it's going to take awhile to get over those roadblocks, especially since you will be changing the water pretty frequently throughout the cycle. I'd keep water changing and being as patient as you can, dosing with Seachem Prime daily as necessary. I don't think your plants are consuming too much of the waste in the water. If you want a natural fast-growing filter, get stem plants or floating plants (hornwort, water lettuce, salvinia, frogbit...) to help consume waste in the water.

ETA: Pothos and anacharis could be consuming some of the waste, actually, but it doesn't look like they're established well enough to consume a lot of it yet, judging by your parameters.

Edited October 15, 2021 by laritheloud

[lmhicks101]

If I kept dosing the maintenance amount of stability daily, would that help? 

[laritheloud]

It.... might? There's some debate over whether bottled bacteria really helps a cycle. It certainly doesn't hurt to do it.

[Ken]

I think you're good to go if your plants are doing well. As always... there's a video for that. 😁