i have been cycling a 40 gallon tank for about 7 weeks now, i originally had one comet in there but i took him out when ammonia spiked and fishless cycled the rest of the way with pure ammonia. My ammonia spiked, and eventually dropped to zero. The nitrites then spiked to 5.0 and have remained that way for about 2-3 weeks. I have been dosing regularly with ammonia to "feed" the ammonia eating bacteria. I have not done any water changes at all during this entire cycle. Today i tested for nitrates and they came up 60. My question is what should i do to drop the nitrites from 5.0 to 0.0? partial water change?, suspension or decrease in adding ammonia?. I feel like i'm almost done if i can just get my nitrites down!, Please give me any advice you have.

Parameters:

Tank: 40 Gallon
Filter: AquaClear 70
Conditioner: NovAqua

Ammonia: 0.0
Nitrites: 5.0 or slightly higher
Nitrates: 60
ph: 7.2

For starters, do a water change to get it all down. Your probably about off the chart of nitrites aren't you? It might be more information if you could see smaller changes and there's no reason for it to remain *that* high.

Next, have your nitrates been going up? Or have they been sitting at 60 the whole time? If the whole time, is that the level of your tap?

If your nitrate levels are going up, then you have some of the nitrite -> nitrate bacteria, and you should just need a bit more time to allow them to multiply.

my tap nitrates are close to 0.0 so thats not a problem. my only question i guess, is should i do a 25-50 or more % water change to drop down the nitrites a bit? do nitrites that high off the chart inhibit the bacteria that eventually colonizes to break it down into nitrate?

I would suggest doing a water change then see what the lvls are the next day, also adding about a teaspoon of aquarium salt to the tank just once that might help too

Hi Wampire,

Yes, high nitrites do inhibit the nitrobacter from growing. I would do a 50% water change, wait a bit then test the nitrites again.
Good luck!!

Debbie