Stalling cycle help

So I'm doing a fishless cycle using pure ammonia, I'm having some issues with nitrites, I'm on the second dose of ammonia, the first came with issues however. I dosed ammonia to 4 ppm and waited and my nitrites spiked to 5 ppm which I know is bad now and so i did a water change to lower so it wouldn't stall up, so this time when I added ammonia I did less so that I wouldn't have the same issue, I only added about 2.5-3 ppm ammonia but after 2 days.. now the nitrites have spiked back to 5 ppm again! :/ should i wait out and see if stalls or not? Or should I water change and make it go down right now? Please help I'm not wanting even longer of a cycle than necessary

 

you need to wait it out and allow the process to do its thing.

 

I'm fine with waiting it out, just don't want it to stall for no reason, when I did the water change the first time nitrite got too high it got down to 2 ppm and then was all gone in 24 hours so it was stalled for sure

 

First off - what test kits are you using so I know the units?

 

im using API saltwater master and reef test kits

 

Use BioSpira. Problem solved.

 

to be honest...i dont realy trust products from instant ocean...its the walmart of brands imo

 

Ive successfully cycled a 150 gallon and a 75 gallon system in UNDER a week! It works. I advocate its use.

 

Hey - this is the DrTim's Forum! We don't recommend my old products! How about using my new ones!

OK, your situation is classic case of what I call a "unit mix" up.

The API ammonia test kits measures the ion form (they say total ammonia but they don't tell you whether it is as NH3 or NH4+) and the API nitrite test measures in units of the nitrite ion.

So the problem is that when you measure (or add) say 2.0 ppm ammonia you cannot expect to see just 2.0 ppm nitrite because the units are different. If you added 2.0 ppm ammonia-nitrogen and the two test kits measure in the nitrogen base then you would expect to see 2.0 NH3-N and a max of 2.0 NO2-N.

In your case, let's say you added 2.5 ppm ammonia (as NH4 - I think this may be what the API test measures) that equals 2.5 / 1.358 (conversion factor) = 1.84 ppm NH3-N. So how much nitrite would that mean in nitrite ions? It is 1.84 x 3.284 = 6.04 ppm NO2.

You measured around 5 ppm so the math works.

If you are reading guide to fishless cycling them you are not near the 5 ppm limit that I stress because I use the units in the nitrogen base.

Basically, your system is cycling and the nitrite seems high because of the units. It isn't really.

If you want to speed things up than add some of my One & Only Live Nitrifying bacteria.

Hope this all is not too confusing.

 

Im sorry tim, I thought it was a general forum. Damn phone. I knew Tim made it, but didnt know you were him! What do you make now?