How long to convert nitrite to nitrates? Help with tank water!?
by Aquaboy on Friday, May 21st, 2010 | 10 Comments
My tank is still cycling as its only been with fish for about 3 weeks. I have 4 african cichlids and an aglae eater.
My ammonia levels are going down and my nitrites are peaking which I know is normal. But they are REALLY high and Im worried about my fish. How long will it take for these harmful nitrites to turn into nitrates?
My levels are 0 ammonia, about 5.0 in nitrites and about 40 in nitrates.
I know it should be soon since the nitrates are high as well, but how long until my nitrites go down? I was advised to not do a water change until the cycle is completed. Please help before I lose my fish! Thanks!
and with an acid and u will geta nitrate within 5 sec
You can try adding some “Cycle” or a similar product to the tank to help things move along a little bit faster. I’m not really totally convinced at it’s effectiveness over just the natural cycle timeframe but others say it does help and it certainly can’t hurt. Really there isn’t much else you can do. I agree with no water changes until your cycle is complete. That ends up being self-defeating. I would avoid adding any other fish and be careful how much you feed and depending on the tank size you should see the nitrites dropping soon enough. Cichlids tend to be pretty hardy so hopefully they will all survive! Best of luck!
What I’ve done that works, is to get ‘Cycle’. It’s a natural bacteria that you can get in a bottle from Walmart. It speeds up the change. Hope this helps, my tank is cycling too, and Im in the nitrite stage too.
The lenght of time is definetly not set like it will go two more weeks and then bang it drops. It could be another week, it could be another three weeks, it’s really hard to say. But that you’ve cleared out of the ammonia stage is a very good thing. My Nitrite elevations lasted about 17 days before they bottomed out, and was pretty consistant across three tanks, 75, 20 and 15 gallons respectivly. The key here is to keep doing what you are doing and be patient. Now at 5.0 thats rather elevated, and I’d reccomend you doing about a 20-40% change in water. I wouldn’t go so far as a 50% change at this point but do a pretty large one to get those levels down. Use water changes to keep the levels out of the lethal range for now and just keep doing what you are doing. Be patient.
JV
It takes about three weeks for the Nitrobacter colony to grow. You should probably start doing 10% water changes every day until the Nitrite numbers go to 0. This will slow down the cycle,but if you don’t get the Nitrite numbers to start going down you will begin losing fish. I am a great believer in “fishless cycling” it’s faster than cycling with fish,it doesn’t require any water changes (until the cycle is complete),and it doesn’t require that fish be kept in toxic water. It is definitely not as cruel as cycling with fish in the water. The disadvantage is that the aquarist doesn’t get to put fish in the tank as quickly,of couse most of these first fish die pretty quickly.
Do not do water changes greater than 10%,the rapid change of pH caused by larger water changes can kill fish.
It is a very misguided belief that one should not do water changes during a cycle.
The myth: If you do water changes you will stop the cycle
The reality: If you do water changes it decreases the toxins, but doesn’t eliminate them, which means the cycle still goes on as normal. By doing water changes you may just save your fishes lives. Always do water changes during a cycle if you want what’s best for the fish, even if it prolongs the cycle a tad.
It’s a shame that the easiest solution for cycling is always overlooked. Anybody can go ahead and add living bacteria to their tanks and shorten or skip the cycle altogether. How? By taking filter media, like foam, or gravel from a tank with a UGF, and placing this into your own filter.
By doing this you are quite literally adding healthy bacteria of both types. If you add enough, you may find the cycle becomes instant. Ever since I learnt this, a long time ago, cycling has become a non-issue for me. If you have a friend with a tank, get them to help you out with this, or if not, ask the fish shop – any one that wants your business again will help you out with this. And this is much more effective and reliable then any bottled bacteria, and cheaper too. Transport the filter media in a bag with some aquarium water too keep the bacteria alive.
Try it – you won’t regret it and will be happy you learned it.
Just be patient. Sounds like you’re doing it the right way and the best option at this point is to just let nature take it’s course. The product “Cycle” might help, but I wouldn’t waste my money on it if I were you. It’s expensive, and I can tell you from past experience, it doesn’t seem to speed things in the least. Some people claim it helps alot, but for the money you’d pay for a bottle, I don’t think it’s worth it on the off chance that it MIGHT shave a few days of the process.
I’d also have to disagree with the poster that said do not do more than 10% water changes for fear of changing the pH balance. It’s true that fish don’t like fluctuating pH levels, but if you’ve done nothing to lower your water’s pH already, there’s no reason why adding water from the same source you filled your tank with will change the pH drastically enough to bother the fish. The information you were told about not changing the water is completely false. You need to do at least a 25% water change immediately… I’d recommend a 40% change. A 5.0 nitrite level is bordering on lethal. Without a water change very soon, your fish will start dropping like flies.
The nitrite level should start dropping in the next few weeks. Could be later this week, could be next month… it’s different for every tank. All you should do is keep testing, and keep changing the water whenever you see the nitrite level get over 2.0 or 3.0. Changing 25 to 50% of the water will not disrupt the cycling process, it WILL save your fish, however.
for a new aquarium to cycle completely can take up to 2 months and its better to just leave no fish until its cycled completely anyways to spped up the nitrite to nitrate conversion buy a couple of hardy plants I cant think of names right now but ask the people at the pet store that will also speed up the cycling process
look upwards a couple posts…Ghapy got it right. most bacteria live on surfaces like the pants, gravel filter media ect…there are some in the water but not nearly as much. do water changes 20% or so every coupl days and certainly try to get some media from another cycled tank and add it to yours.
Okay to save your fish a Water Change WILL work. 10% daily or 30% every 2-3 day while ammonia nitrate or nitrate levels are OFF normal. PH is something connected with your buffering (hardiness and water source) if it stays the same is usually OK fluctuating it WILL only complicate and Add Stress. Constant PH is safer than moving it with Chemicals that will not Stay Consistent in your tank anyway. Read UP on Cycling a tank and know that Each tank is Unique; because every ones water comes from a Unique source; starter fish are unique; and people use unique rocks-substrates-and plants etc; the New Cycle is a Idea of how THINGS happen no hard fast rules on WHEN due to the variables at play. It doesn’t matter -if its a 10 gal or 150 gal or a pond. These things will occur. Sometimes LARGER more gallons is MORE forgiving; as far as the toxic levels-but with Water Changes; you can somewhat manipulate and post phone the severity of Toxic levels; the cycle might slow a bit but you save your fish and Learn! Some people think the Pets of Fishies is easy well; not really. However you can balance; the system best with adequate numbers of fish-for the gallons you have; not over crowding-and adding Real Plants; and avoiding chemicals-instead roll up your sleeves and -work to save your fishes-and make your “pets” comfortable and take care of thing correctly. No quick fix-(chemicals per say) will fix for very long; so doing it Right-and-Most Natural; will PAY OFF big time for both healthy fish and a happy safe environment for them. No Easy Way Around it-no matter what the guy or gal that sells you the big aquarium set or fish or plant Says! Educate yourself and TEST YOUR water with a RELIABLE KIT -regularly and YOU won’t be disappointed or surprised by so called “Sudden” loses or new “problems” in your tank!