Tycho's Oak log

[Stephen]

The emperors may fin-nip the gourami, but should be ok with 10 of them.
(By the way, mine breed like guppies.... )

@plankton
Are your Emperors livebearers then?

[plankton]

The emperors may fin-nip the gourami, but should be ok with 10 of them.
(By the way, mine breed like guppies.... )

@plankton
Are your Emperors livebearers then?

You know what I mean............

[Tycho]

Going to double check the ammonia but the nitrite has gone through the roof.

Take it that things are starting to happen and just to top the ammonia back up?

[plankton]

That's the way to do it.

[Tycho]

Been topping up the ammonia every day for 11 days and every day the ammonia is getting processed but the Nitrite is through the roof, I've tested the Nitrate and it seems like nothing is happening as its matching what I get out of the tap, do I just need to be patient or is it possible that my cycle has stalled?

Other than that I'm fairly happy with the tank, I've reduced the number of hours I have the light on for as I was getting terrible algae but hopefully that will come under control and the tank will finish cycling so I can finally get sone fish




Picture if the tank last night after cleaning some if the algae and moving a couple of the plants around.

[Andys temperate tank]

It's looking good mate.

Dont worry about the nitrite. It will drop eventually.

[SPACKlick]

Beautiful looking tank.

There's mixed messaging on whether high nitrites can stall a cycle. What I will say is that my cycle processed nitrites up in the high 20's low 40's (hard to tell at that level) without issue. (First nitrite Reading 13/10/2020, First obvious sign of Nitrates being produced was 27th). What I will say is a water change can make it easier to see when the nitrite is going down.

1ppm of Ammonia is converted to about 2.7ppm Nitrite. So if you're dosing to 4ppm for your cycle you don't need the nitrite munchers to be able to handle more than 10.8ppm per day.

Is your pH still reasonably stable?

[plankton]

Check the ph hasn't crashed below 6.2.
If it has it probably means the "munchers" have used up all the carbonates and you'll either need a water change or add some dissolved bicarbonate (preferably potassium, but sodium is ok during the cycle as you'll be doing a large water change at the end).
That's what stalls cycles, not a high value of nitrite or nitrate.

[Tycho]

Thanks guys... must admit that I rarely check the ph so will check the it and do a water change.

[Tycho]

Thanks for the advice guys... did a water change, left it a few hours and my nitrates have gone pretty high so must finally be starting to process the nitrite (nitrate test matched my tap water yssterday) sadly nitrites are still through the roof but at least its progress!