fish ess cycle question

unitednations161

On my 10 gallon tank I'm doing a fish less cycle and now my ammonia levels drop so fast like with in hours, am I supposed to keep them up every time its at 0 or just add a few drops everyday? I can raise the PPM to 3-5 and have it gone with in 5-6 hours. My nitrite levels are through the roof so would a bunch of PWC help this? I did a 80 percent change today and they are still off the chart on the test kit.

Thanks!

ladayen

Hmm... you have to be careful about how how your ammonia and in your case the nitrites get. If too high it can wind up killing the bacteria and you'll have to start the cycle over again. Are you seeing any nitrates yet? If so just leave the tank be. If you're not I would suggest doing a 50% change every day at least until you can verify the exact amount of nitrites or you start to get nitrates. If you wind up having to do the changes every day you should drop just enough ammonia in so it registers then a couple hours later check that it's gone to be sure you haven't stalled the cycle.

AbbeysDad

Some folks think that nitrosomonas bacteria (bacteria that oxidize ammonia) will die off without a contant supply of ammonia. Not so, they will merely become less active. You should stop adding ammonia temporarily and perform a water change to get nitrites down, but still available. Nitrites in high amounts are toxic to nitrobacter bacteria. Once you have nitrates, the cycle is complete and you can begin routine weekly water changes and either add a few drops of ammonia per day, or add fish!

Good luck!

AD

unitednations161

wow ok thanks, i was thinking the bacteria would just die if I didn't keep feeding them ammonia, so adding 5 drops of ammonia every 5 hours wasn't doing anything helpful then. Yes i have nitrates, but thats only because my tap has nitrates in it. I do not believe they have rose at all. I think my nitrites are way to high. Ill keep doing water changes to get them to a reasonable level.