Mystery nitrites

[Epiphanaea]

Tank is a 5g, planning for it to house a betta.  Right now it’s housing a couple bladder snails and some scuds, and the contents of two medium bottles of Seachem Stability, used over the course of about a month.  
 

I cannot seem to get nitrites down.  I did have some decomposing plant material in there for the scuds/snails to eat, but I removed most of it (and moved most of the scuds to a big jar, too) and did a 80% water change.  24 hours later nitrites are back up to where the test tube is a glowing magenta.  
 

Did a 95% water change today, dumped in more Stability, two hours later test tube is a light purple.  I checked ammonia too, and that’s at trace levels - slight, slight hint of green.  Nitrates are around 20ppm.  
 

Somebody tell me what I’m doing wrong, please!

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

Are you using an active substrate or an aquasoil? Those are known to leech ammonia, and the ammonia will be converted to nitrite by bacteria, over time.

[Galabar]

The tank has been running over the course of a month?  Did you have a source of ammonia for the first couple of weeks?  It may be the case that ammonia built up slowly, and the bacteria to "consume" the ammonia then developed.  This would produce nitrite that would be "consumed" by different bacteria.  The nitrite consuming bacteria will show up after the ammonia consuming bacteria.

So, your tank just isn't cycled yet.  You'll need to wait until that nitrite gets down to zero.  The tank is converting ammonia to nitrite and you are seeing it in your test.

Are you feeding the tank?  What do you think the source of ammonia has been for the cycle?  Just the decaying plants?

In any event, this is a good sign -- you just need to wait for those nitrites to disappear.

[Guppysnail]

I tried stability a few years ago. I after 2 months I stopped using it because nitrites never went away. Within a week the nitrite cleared up. 
I have no idea if stability was the cause or if it had any correlation at all. Just wanted to share my experience with it. 

[Epiphanaea]

On 7/8/2023 at 7:59 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Are you using an active substrate or an aquasoil? Those are known to leech ammonia, and the ammonia will be converted to nitrite by bacteria, over time.

Nope, sand and rocks.

On 7/8/2023 at 11:32 PM, Galabar said:

Are you feeding the tank?  What do you think the source of ammonia has been for the cycle?  Just the decaying plants?

I put an algae wafer in there and let it decay too.  It took a couple weeks to break down.  

[Epiphanaea]

On 7/9/2023 at 7:07 AM, Guppysnail said:

I have no idea if stability was the cause or if it had any correlation at all. Just wanted to share my experience with it. 

Huh - I used Stability to cycle my goldfish tank - 40g, first tank I’ve had since I was a kid - and it cycled in a week.  But I was also using Fluval Stratum (FYI, biiiig mistake for a goldfish tank, way too dusty when they stir it up).  I also introduced plants before I fed any kind of ammonia, and it sat stagnant with plants and about 6” of water for about a week before I set up the filter.  I think maybe this was an unintentional cycling hack, because a week after adding the stability I could pour in ammonia (well, juice of decayed salad mix - waste not want not!), and it would be gone the next day.

[Epiphanaea]

Still not cycled.  🤔  Nitrates remain off the charts.  
 

A 20g long I started cycling a little after the 5g is fully cycled.  

[Epiphanaea]

So, not the brightest idea, but was a sad little betta fish in a cup surrounded by dead fish, like a lone survivor of the zombie apocalypse - so I got her.  Figured I’ll just be doing daily water changes for a bit, and that’s what I’ve been doing for the past week.

 I also bought a different brand of started bacteria, in case the Seachem mix just wasn’t going to take for some reason.  Doused a handful of Matrix in it, did an initial 100% water change, tested - still showing 0.5ppm nitrite immediately after.  Did another water change right then, about 75%.  Came back ever so slightly off of the aqua blue the tube should be at 0, but very close.  Same with ammonia, slight trace.  Added Prime, added fish.  
 

Next day, nitrites 0.5ppm.  Did 50% water change, injected bacteria into the sand all over the tank (seriously, took one of my cat’s insulin syringes and inoculated the substrate).  
 

For a few days that seemed to have done the trick, nitrites were reading 0.25 with daily 50% water changes, figured it just needed time.  
 

Then yesterday morning, nitrites were off the charts.  
 

Did 80% water change, vacuumed the sand and gravel, doused the filter media over again, added mineral replenishment solution.  I’d had duckweed on the surface - based on what I vacuumed, I thought maybe the duckweed was creating too much detritus and removed that.  There is still a water lettuce and some frogbit, there’s a lipstick plant cutting that’s begun to grow roots, some cultured starter bunches of buce, a fern stem or two, and a small anubias.  There are some Indian almond leaves, which the internet swears to me do not cause ammonia spikes.  There is s water lily bulb that hasn’t sprouted yet.
 

Yesterday evening, nitrites off the charts again.  Repeat as above.  Dump bacteria on rocks in tank.  Reading after water change is faint trace.  Ammonia is maybe *very* faint trace, maybe zero.  
 

This morning?  Nitrites off the charts.  
 

Do I need to just strip this tank and start over?  There is no way that one 1.5” fish and a few small bladder snails are producing that much ammonia.  She eats her food right away.  Despite all evidence to the contrary, there is not a rotting corpse somewhere in this tank.  I am beyond confused.  
 

Edited July 30, 2023 by Epiphanaea