Cycling question

[Chris1]

Have had my 30g tank cycling for 2 to 3 weeks now. These are the levels:

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 1 or 2 ppm (hard to tell difference on colour sheet)
Nitrate 20 ppm

What does this mean? Water change and add fish?

[TropicalFishForums]

[Gingerlove05]

No sorry, keep cycling until you have 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite for 3 days straight. Also you need to top up your ammonia source when it reaches 0ppm otherwise the ammonia munching bacteria die off and you go back to square one.
Ammonia and nitrite are both highly toxic to fish


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[Chris1]

There are no fish. So if there is no ammonia in the tank, why is there nitrite?

[Gingerlove05]

How have you been cycling your tank?


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[Chris1]

I put ammonia in it. Got it from Science dept. at work. It's about 35%. Took the ammonia up to 4 or 5 ppm. Then it has gradually reduced and now disappeared.

[Gingerlove05]

Theres an ammonia calculator on this site that you can use to work out the amount to use for your tank you only need to take it up to 2ppm ammonia to cycle :
https://www.tropicalfishforums.co.uk/index.php?page=ammonia_calculator
Theres also a couple of links on how to cycle a tank. The nitrite will be the result of you adding ammonia initially i imagine, as the ammonia munching bacteria will produce nitrite as waste, and the nitrite munching bacteria produce nitrate. But you need to keep feeding the ammonia munchers otherwise they starve and die.
Heres the links for cycling and setup:
https://www.tropicalfishforums.co.uk/index.php/page,setting%20up%20your%20new%20aquarium.html
https://www.tropicalfishforums.co.uk/index.php/page,fishless_cycle.html


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[Chris1]

So what state will it be at now? Should I take the ammonia back up to 2ppm?

[Gingerlove05]

Yes top the ammonia back up to 2ppm when it hits 0ppm. You may find your nitrite will stay high (it may even go up slightly) but it will drop suddenly overnight after about 10days maybe a bit more. But once you have 0ppm ammonia and nitrite for 3days you can then do a large water change and add fish. If you need to keep the tank ticking over at this point you can just top the ammonia up to 1ppm to keep the filter fed.


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