Concerned with my cycle

Noahma

I just did a quick water test (using strips) I am short on funds at the moment for the good test kit. well it is showing both my Nitrates, and my Nitrites very high. No ammonia is present, hardness is a tad hard (Colorado water) and my water is a little on the acidic side. I thought that the Nitrate spike would happen before the Nitrite spike, but they are both apparent and the spike is large (around 200 mg/l for Nitrate, and 10.0 mg/l for Nitrite) I did a 20% water change on sat. night.

Does this sound strange?

I do have plants, that were added late last week, Wendtii, anacharis and four leaf clover, as well as a sword that has been in the tank for a while.

I am doing the DIY CO2 injection for the plants using a 1 Liter bottle.

I am about to bring a water sample to my LFS to do the free liquid test.

MoneyMitch

i would just let things go for another week w/o a WC you in the middle of your cycle you get a nirtite spike and then that goes down and then you should only have readings for nitrate. just be patient and dont panic everything will be good in about a week. Money

jeaninel

Test strips are highly inaccurate. Do you have fish in the tank? A nitrite reading of 10 would be lethal to fish. Ditch the strips and get a liquid test kit. Let us know what the readings from the LFS are.

Noahma

I am short of funds this month for a liquid test kit, but will get some later. I have no fish in the tank, only live plants. Unfortunately the LFS used the same strips I had lol. I will bring a water sample to another one in the next day or so and see what they say. I have been wondering if this might have to do with the CO2 accident I had early last week. My DIY co2 hose got plugged at the end in the tank and when the pressure built up enough it threw some of the yeast into the tank, I caught it just when it happened so it did not get much in there. I put an active carbon filter in and did the water change, while keeping my established filter in water to keep the bacteria that was on it alive. When the tank was clear again I put the old filter back in the tank. This is the first planted tank I have done, and it is proving to be a challenge.

MoneyMitch

being a fishless cycle with co2 is a pretty big challenge. i suggest ditching the co2 untill after your cycle and use some fish to cycle then after that hook the co2 up again.

Noahma

That sounds good to me. Will that adversely effect my plants? was hoping to get ample growth before adding the fish, since the stock I had chosen seem to prefer a dense planted tank. the plants I do have in there are growing quite well so far.

MoneyMitch

with your co2 im going to assume that you are using ferts more than three times a week or more. i would cut back the ferts and just keep a eye on the plants if they look sick take a pix post it and well let you know what to do. the fish will be fine as long as you Slowly add them. i would NOT add more than 2 maybe three at a time and feed once a day. do a WC 25% probobly every three days and all should be well.

Noahma

I have not been using liquid fert., but do have some fert. sticks under the plants. I choose very hardy plants due to this being my first planted tank. I will let the nitrate levels drop some before adding any fish. I have a good friend that offered me some small hardy fish to help get the tank going, so I might take her up on the offer.

Thank you for all the help, you eased my tension lol.

MoneyMitch

nitrAte isnt really toxic to fish except in EXTREME levels, your ok to add 2 fish IMHO