Hi everyone. A few days ago when I was measuring my tank for a new lid I discovered that its bigger than I was originally told. The person who gave it to me said it was 4ft x 1ft x 1ft and stupidly I never double-checked. Its actually 4ft x 14" x 14". I re-calculated all the figures so I could get the doses right for my cycle and since then my Nitrate figures have gone bananas. Then today they'd dropped right down. My Nitrites have been at 1.0 for weeks now, my Ammonia fluctuates between 2.4 and 4.9 and the PH is its usual 6.5. The nitrates over the past six days have read as follows:
5, 5, 40 - 80, 20, 40 and today 5. I'm totally confused and would love some help x

Which test kit are you using? When you say ammonia fluctuates, how often are you dosing and what level are you dosing to? Do you have a kH test and if so what is the current kH in the tank?

Hi Noodle, yes sorry I should've said, I use the API kits. I test every day and dose to 4ppm so on days when its at 2.4 I bring it back up to 4. On the days when its at 4.9 I leave it be. I haven't got a KH test at the moment - I've run out of strips.

These are my Ammonia readings for the past six days.

2.4
2.4 - 4.9
2.4 - 4.9
4.9
2.4
2.4 - 4.9

Has nitrite ever been higher than 1ppm? There's clearly something odd happening as ammonia is being converted so nitrite ought to still be rising, or being processed and so nitrate should be consistently rising.

Do you know what the kH of your tap water is by any chance?

Nitrates don't really have anywhere to go once formed so the first thing to check is the test kit or procedure as maybe the results are off somewhere. Do you give bottle no2 a really thorough 30 seconds shaking (including banging it on a hard surface)? Is the test kit in date? Check the lot code on the neck of the bottles and the last four digits equate to month and year of manufacture. The test should be good for three years from that date.

There are a few things that may get things moving for you, though they don't explain fluctuating nitrate levels. If the tank is unheated, putting a heater in and raising the temperature to 28C can be very helpful. Adding an airstone to increase water movement and oxygenation can also help, and as you have quite a low pH with possible kH depletion, adding some bicarbonate of soda to raise the pH to around 7.5 would be useful.

Try and get hold of an API kH/gH combined test kit (the liquid one) as you may need to address the kH/gH/pH issue depending on the fish you want to keep.

EDIT: It's just dawned on me that your ammonia readings aren't in the form we'd expect from the API liquid tests. Are you trying to cycle the tank using test strips? If so, that probably explains it as they really aren't accurate enough for cycling. You need to get an API Freshwater Master Test Kit, all liquid based tests and you'll have more accurate readings to cycle with.

Thanks for your reply Noodle. Yes, the Nitrites reached 5.0 on the last two days of Feb and then dropped to 1.0 which is where they've remained since.

My tapwater's KH is 0 - 70 ppm.

I've repeated the test and gave the bottle a good few thumps on the table and shook the hell out of it, its still reading the same. I don't understand it. I got the API Nitrate test kit from my LFS 3 weeks ago along with the Nitrite kit. They're both in date, I've just checked all the bottle codes.

Unfortunately my LFS doesn't stock a massive range of test kits (including the API Master Kit) so I had to get the Nutrafin liquid Ammonia test kit. The only thing I used strips for was to test Chlorine initially in my tap water and KH and PH.

I have a heater I can put in there. I don't have an airstone but I did attach the venturi tube to my filter two weeks ago to help the cycle and it really stirs up the water well.

I appreciate your help Noodle, thanks

I think we'll have to assume that the higher reading was a blip. I would add the heater and add some bicarb to raise the pH higher and cross my fingers

Raise the pH by adding 1 teaspoonful of bicarb, waiting 20 minutes and checking until it's well over 7. In combination with the raised temperature that will hopefully kick he cycle back into action.

Heater's in and on, Bicarb added and now reading at just over 7 and my fingers are crossed.

Thanks Noodle xxx

Just an update - the PH is 7.5 now and the ammonia has lowered today and the Nitrites are at 5