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jacki.r3

What is best way to bring down high Nitrites. Rest of readings are good.
Nitrates 30, pH 6.6, ammonia is 0, but Nitrites are between 2.0 abd 4.0 off the scale. Have been doing 50%w/cs last 4 days and not getting anywhere. Finishing fishless cycle. Read thru articles couldn't find my answer. Thanks
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A house is not a home without a dog, some cats and a few fish. Just don't put them altogether.

diademhill · Advisors Joined: 18 Apr 2007

What ammonia source is in the tank and what is the KH?

The nitrite part of the cycle will stall if there is no carbaonate for the process as often happens in low pH .

Adding some sodium bicarbonate will restart the process.

unissuh

No fish right?

If so, patience and a tablespoon of sodium bicarbonate will get you through 9 times out of 10.
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jacki.r3

Sodium Bicarbonate- Okay, I can do that. I have a shrimp in a mesh bag that iss decomposing as my ammonia source. And no there are no fish. I don't have a accurate way to test hardness. I have some test strips, but know that they are not real reliable. I'll check with one later. My aquarium is 20 gallons so 1 tsp should be enough?
I've gone thru the ammonia spike, went thru the nitrite spike and have nitrates, but then the nitrites went way up and even with large w/c's daily, it's not coming down. I'll do the sodium bicarbonate right now and check on it in the morning. I've been testing about every other day. Thanks to both of you.
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A house is not a home without a dog, some cats and a few fish. Just don't put them altogether.

jacki.r3

Read it wrong and only put in a teaspoon. But it did bring it down some. Going to do another water change and then add the tablespoon. Is this something I'm going to have to keep doing? if so, will it hurt fish? I know it makes me burp.
Good news, both my tanks are 0 ammonia,20 nitrates. But 10 gallon spiked Nitrites, but that is normal part of cyling. I'm going to just let that one run it's cours. So glad things are looking up.
Once I get nitrites down in 20 gallon, how long til I can add fish as it appears to be cycled once I get nitrites down?
Thanks everyone. couldn't have done this without your advice. Smile

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A house is not a home without a dog, some cats and a few fish. Just don't put them altogether.

diademhill · Advisors Joined: 18 Apr 2007

Don't do any water changes for a fishless cycle but I like to add more ammonia (shrimp) to challenge the system before assuming the cycle is complete.
Add another teaspoon of bicarb.

What is your tapwater pH on a sample that has stood overnight in a glass?

jacki.r3

that's interesting, pH is 7.0
Have one large decaying shrimp in tank. do you want me to change it out or to add a 2nd one? I have shale rocks and 1 large peice of Mopani and 1 piece of another aquarium safe driftwood in tank. I'm using standard gravel and plastic plants. I have 2 bubble wand type airstones in tank. no foreign rocks or sand, coral etc. Wonder why pH is so diffrent in tank. I did start cycly using Sea Chen Stability and API Fast start but with all the water changes I've done to rid tank of these chemicals I don't know why pH is so low. pH is also low in 10 gallon tank that is also cycling. It had it's ammonia spike and currently doing Nitrite spike. Also have a shrimp in that tank for ammonia source.
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A house is not a home without a dog, some cats and a few fish. Just don't put them altogether.

diademhill · Advisors Joined: 18 Apr 2007

pH in the tank has lowered as the bacteria have used up the carbonates that were buffering the pH.

One the cycle has finished and the tank stocked this isn't usually a problem as frequent water changes replenish the KH in all but the softest water areas (I live in one; 0-2 KH out of the tap)

jacki.r3

found some test strips for hardness. will check both 10 and 20 tanks. I am good about doing w/c's so I guess I'll be okay. My water is harder than yours.
Thanks for the help.
do you still want me to add another shrimp or just adjust pH then add 2 maybe 3 small fish?
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A house is not a home without a dog, some cats and a few fish. Just don't put them altogether.

jacki.r3

checked baseline reading of standing water for hardness-75. alkaninity is 80. Just added sodium bicarbonite so I'll check tanks in morning.
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A house is not a home without a dog, some cats and a few fish. Just don't put them altogether.