Nitrite 0!

[isaly]

Captain noobie here again—

55 gallon tank with 5 gallons of gravel. 5 gallon bucket = 10%. New plants, not lots but they're establishing themselves after I killed my scarlet temple...it all went mooshy and was being overcome by hair algae.

I have one small bunch of scarlet left and the jury's still out. It's not decayed or mushy, still some magenta on the top leaves.

My nitrite spiked this past week. six small fish in. I did daily water changes from 20 - 40 and tested daily. It hit >2 at one point which prompted 40%. It's gone down from 1+ on its own over the past three days. The tube now looks like bluebells.

3+ weeks in. still six small fish. Temp 78. pH 4/7. Ammonia 0. Nitrite 0. Nitrate <10.

Could it be??? the nitrite spike is over??? The nitrite tube looks like bluebells.

Imma continue testing nitrate and dosing conservatively with Seed™ and fert for the plants. I put two root tabs at the base of my amazon sword. I guess that anything can happen at this point — don't want to whistle past the proverbial graveyard...

 

[Phantom240]

If your ammonia and nitrite remain at 0 while your nitrates continue to increase, that's a sign that the bacteria are doing their thing. Keep at it!

[Flumpweesel]

Looking good,  don't want to jinx it and say the "C" word though. Fingers crossed to you get at least a week before you need to change any water.

[isaly]

I'll be adding a few more plants this week. I added some Rotala Indica yesterday. I'm trying to hold to no new fish for a month although I'm thinking I should trust yinz to let me know if that's too inflexible.