ScottEsh Posted March 20, 2021 Share Posted March 20, 2021 What a tank is cycling will nitrite levels go up? tested my tank today and levels were at .50ppm nitrate is at 5.0ppm is the tank cycling and should I change water... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AquaAggie Posted March 20, 2021 Share Posted March 20, 2021 What is your ammonia. Typically ammonia goes up first. As ammonia goes down nitrite goes up. As nitrite goes down nitrate goes up. Ammonia —> Nitrite —> Nitrate a fully cycled aquarium should have 0 ammonia and nitrite and some amount of nitrate. Doing water changes removes the very thing you need present to foster bacterial growth to break it down. I’ve seen some say that very high levels can “stall” the cycle. With your reason I would let it keep doing it’s thing. That is unless there are fish in the tank. Then you should really see what the ammonia is and change water to minimize that if needed. Hope that helps. There are others on here that could probably give you a more in depth or eloquent answer but that’s the general gist. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MartyO Posted March 20, 2021 Share Posted March 20, 2021 My suggestion buy the new Coop test strips and test plus you can test more as they give you a lot of test strips for the price. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel Posted March 20, 2021 Share Posted March 20, 2021 Here is what typical cycling looks like (from a project I worked on late last year): By the end of the cycle your ammonia and nitrites will be at very low levels. And no, I wouldn't change the water as that will just prolong the cycle. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted March 20, 2021 Share Posted March 20, 2021 No. Changing water could kick the tank into a little cycle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maggie Posted March 20, 2021 Share Posted March 20, 2021 7 hours ago, AquaAggie said: I’ve seen some say that very high levels can “stall” the cycle. This happened to me while fishless cycling using Dr. Tim's ammonia drops. The instructions are to bring NH3/4 level up to 5+ ppm, insanely high. Once the also insanely high nitrite was being consumed, my nitrates rose to 160 on the chart - probably even higher, and then the cycle stalled. This was about 5 weeks in and I'd been feeding it heavily that whole time with no water changes. I bet the nitrates were insanely high. Once I did a couple of large WCs, the cycle finished within a few days, and then I did another one right before adding fish from quarantine. This whole process took about six weeks. I feel like it was way too extreme, although I must say doing it gives you a really rock-solid cycled tank. It's so much easier to cycle with a small number of fish and consistent monitoring. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottEsh Posted March 20, 2021 Author Share Posted March 20, 2021 7 hours ago, AquaAggie said: What is your ammonia. Typically ammonia goes up first. As ammonia goes down nitrite goes up. As nitrite goes down nitrate goes up. Ammonia —> Nitrite —> Nitrate a fully cycled aquarium should have 0 ammonia and nitrite and some amount of nitrate. Doing water changes removes the very thing you need present to foster bacterial growth to break it down. I’ve seen some say that very high levels can “stall” the cycle. With your reason I would let it keep doing it’s thing. That is unless there are fish in the tank. Then you should really see what the ammonia is and change water to minimize that if needed. Hope that helps. There are others on here that could probably give you a more in depth or eloquent answer but that’s the general gist. Yes I have fish in the tank. That tank has been up for 2 weeks.. otherwise I’d let it go... I will check ammonia levels. The seachem ammonia tag hanging in the tank shows no ammonia.. not too sure on trusting those yet.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottEsh Posted March 20, 2021 Author Share Posted March 20, 2021 2 hours ago, Daniel said: Here is what typical cycling looks like (from a project I worked on late last year): By the end of the cycle your ammonia and nitrites will be at very low levels. And no, I wouldn't change the water as that will just prolong the cycle. This is the outcome of my tests this am... should I water change with fish in he tank? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel Posted March 20, 2021 Share Posted March 20, 2021 No, don't change your water. Changing your water will only delay what you are trying to accomplish which is cycling. I had fish in the tank above and they were fine. If yours are fine, I would wait on the water change and keep testing to see how it is progressing. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottEsh Posted March 20, 2021 Author Share Posted March 20, 2021 5 minutes ago, Daniel said: No, don't change your water. Changing your water will only delay what you are trying to accomplish which is cycling. I had fish in the tank above and they were fine. If yours are fine, I would wait on the water change and keep testing to see how it is progressing. So at what levels do I change? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Posted March 20, 2021 Share Posted March 20, 2021 55 minutes ago, ScottEsh said: So at what levels do I change? @Cory, the forum sponsor, gives 0.5 ppm ammonia, 0.5 ppm nitrite, and 40 ppm nitrate as guidelines for relatively safe upper limits. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Cory Posted March 20, 2021 Administrators Share Posted March 20, 2021 Here is the flow chart we made on water changing. https://www.aquariumcoop.com/pages/water-changes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kalita Posted March 20, 2021 Share Posted March 20, 2021 @Daniel was that a planted tank? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel Posted March 20, 2021 Share Posted March 20, 2021 1 hour ago, Kalita said: @Daniel was that a planted tank? Yes, Here is a photo of that aquarium. I put the water, fish and plants in first week of November and took this photo on November 30, 2021 And for what is worth, I have never ever done a water change on this aquarium. I am not against it, I like changing water, but this tank just hasn't needed one. Since I took the photo at the end of November, the angelfish have spawned. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottEsh Posted March 25, 2021 Author Share Posted March 25, 2021 On 3/20/2021 at 1:43 PM, Kalita said: @Daniel was that a planted tank? Yes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fishdude Posted March 25, 2021 Share Posted March 25, 2021 On 3/20/2021 at 4:17 PM, Daniel said: Yes, Here is a photo of that aquarium. I put the water, fish and plants in first week of November and took this photo on November 30, 2021 And for what is worth, I have never ever done a water change on this aquarium. I am not against it, I like changing water, but this tank just hasn't needed one. Since I took the photo at the end of November, the angelfish have spawned. What is the pH like in a tank without a water change for that long? Did you have a lot of buffer to begin with? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel Posted March 25, 2021 Share Posted March 25, 2021 Depending on what time of day you measure the pH, it could be as low as 7 or as high as 8. The is no buffer. Here is a graph of the daily fluctuations of pH that photosynthesis causes: 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottEsh Posted March 25, 2021 Author Share Posted March 25, 2021 9 hours ago, Daniel said: Depending on what time of day you measure the pH, it could be as low as 7 or as high as 8. The is no buffer. Here is a graph of the daily fluctuations of pH that photosynthesis causes: How you getting this live data? im an ex it guy and teaching out my tank to watch water chemistry would be cool Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel Posted March 25, 2021 Share Posted March 25, 2021 4 minutes ago, ScottEsh said: How you getting this live data? im an ex it guy and teaching out my tank to watch water chemistry would be cool I have Neptune Apex monitoring system with a variety of probes: Feeds the data through a web interface: It can control just about any device and record data for about 1/2 dozen different kinds of probes. And then I can graph any of the data. Or feed the data back in as input for canned or custom programs that can 'make decisions'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AquaAggie Posted March 26, 2021 Share Posted March 26, 2021 5 hours ago, Daniel said: I have Neptune Apex monitoring system with a variety of probes: Feeds the data through a web interface: It can control just about any device and record data for about 1/2 dozen different kinds of probes. And then I can graph any of the data. Or feed the data back in as input for canned or custom programs that can 'make decisions'. I’m pretty sure this just broke my brain and is a perfect example for the need for an additional post ranking like a flabbergasted (😳) or mind blown (🤯) emojis that can’t come cheap especially with all the peripherals. Does that by enlarge replace water testing with kits or strips? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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