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I have a planted 50gal tank. I did the fishless cycle to the tee and everything was working as it should. I have added pure ammonia until I got trite spike then reduced by half. It has been about 3 weeks and my trites are still off the charts. I have tried 10-30% water changes but nitrites still stay off the scale. Should I try to find some biospira or just wait it out. Also my tap water has 0 nitrite.

I just started a fishless cycle myself, and can tell you a few things I've read, but you are actually ahead of me in actual experience, so just know that right off the bat!

Obviously, water changes HAVE to help, if you changed it all, you would be getting rid of the nitrites, so changing some has to be having an effect, just not enough to get on the scale. So I would say change more. (I didn't read that, just came up with it on my own. )

The things I read are:

Increase the water temp up to around 85-90 degrees. I Can't tell you why, LOL, but I heard on here somewhere that it will help with Nitrite spikes.

Check your PH, the bacteria that converts ammonia to Nitrite is supposed to handle high PH better than the ones that convert Nitrite to Nitrate.

Add another source of bacteria. If you added healthy bacteria at the start, the ones that handle nitrite to nitrate probably starved during the ammonia to nitrite stage. But if the PH is to high, bring it down first, or the new bacteria will be killed.

Ok, those are all the completely un-tried tips I have! (But they sound good, don't they! ) Let me know if any of them help, as I will be where you are in a short while.

good luck!

-Dennis

You have done some research I see. I have done all you have mentioned. The high temps help the bacteria bloom. I have live plants so thats anouther check in the block. Be careful when you do your water changes not clean your gravel this can remove bateria. I just cant seem to get trites to come down. I believe that this is just a time issue, but it is hard to enjoy an empty tank for long.

Let me ask you a couple questions I was curious about, and maybe it will help you stumble on an answer as well.

I am still in the first 24hours of my cycle, and am unclear about a couple things.

I added ammonia to 5ppm. The instructions I read said to add the same amount daily until the nitrites "spike", then add half the ammount.

Question:

Did you add the same amount every day even before the conversion to nitrite started? It seems that this would make the ammonia go to 10ppm on day 2, 15 on day 3, and so on until the nitrites start appearing. If you (or me) did this, I would assume a HUGE ammount of nitrites once they get converted. It would seem to make more sense to me to test each day, then add what is needed to get it back to 5ppm. But this is NOT what the instructions said. What did you do?

At what level do nitrites "spike"? Does this mean first appear? Or is there a number associated with the spike?

Thats all I've got right now.

-Dennis

I had the same q as you as to what a nitrite spike is. I did add ammonia until I first saw trites, then I went to half ammonia. By that time my ammonia was off the charts, so as you say that is why I have such a high trite spike now. My ammonia now remains at 0 even with adding ammonia so I know I have petty good bacteria for ammonia, just hope someday I will see my trites come down some.

24 hours after adding the ammonia, my nitrites were at .125. 9 hours after that, they had doubled to .25! My original ammonia does was 7 tps for a 60gal tank. That got it to 5ppm. It looks like it's around 4 now, but it is hard to be exact with the test tubes.

Oh, I also added lots a healthy bacteria from another filter, and a bottle of "Fritzyme" culture. I'm sure that has a lot to do with why I got 'trites' so quickly.

So I guess I'll drop back to half ammonia dose now... ....after only 1 full dose.... .....I have no idea if that is right. lol

As for your problem, I was thinking about it. The problem with a huge water change is you will get rid of the ammonia as well as the nitrites right? So how about doing it right before you add your daily ammonia? You can eliminate lots of your nitrites, then re-dose your ammonia.

What do you think?

-Dennis