big tank, little fish

[nosepuff]

well, what happened was that i couldn't buy the ammonium chloride yet, but i removed the rotting food and replaced it with a pinch of flake food. what stores can i get it from? wal-mart, home depot?

i monitered the ammonia and it steadily dropped from 4 to 1 to 0 within 3 days. within these 3 days, i also saw a steady rise in my nitrite from 0.25 to 1 to 'off the scale' (5ppm). as of yesterday, the nitrite was off the scale. but, i did not change the water because i added the gravel and a decor from the established tank to my tank (i thought i would see the level drop). plus, the test manual said it was normal for the nitrites in a cycling tank to rise above 5ppm. i checked my water again today, and the nitrites are still off the scale. i didn't testing my tank for nitrates over the past few days. i knew my regular tap water had no nitrates, and i didn't think the nitrates would be produced that quickly since i just saw the rise in nitrites. however, i decided to test all three chemicals today and the nitrates were at 40 ppm! but, i kept my nitrite test tube from yesterday. and, i compared the colour to today's nitrite test tube. they were the exact same colour, so would that mean the nitrites didn't drop? or was the colour unable to go any darker regardless of how many nitrites there was after 5ppm?

lol, i don't know how that happened. i mean, i didn't see my nitrites dropped, so i didn't think there was nitrifying bacteria. could the nitrates have been from the previous tank? or could there be nitrifying bacteria, but i just had too much nitrites to moniter the drop in nitrites? anyway, i did a 50% water change and the readings are still the same. should i do another 50%?

i guess i was wrong in not monitering the nitrates in the past, huh?

[Nick]

I don't do water changes during a fishless cycle, just at the end, when cleaning the water of wastes from the decomposition.

[nosepuff]

oops. :S i was afraid that i wouldn't be able to moniter the levels with them being so high, which was why i did it.

[Boxermom]

Duplicate posts deleted. I don't do water changes during fishless cycling either but they won't hurt anything or slow down the cycle at all.

[nosepuff]

oh, phew... but by the previous description, is it possible to tell whether the nitrates are from the established tank or my tank? i tested the water for the past two days after the water change, and the nitrites are off the scale while the nitrates are sitting at 30 ppm. i guess it doesn't matter either way because i will have to wait for the nitrites to drop.

[nosepuff]

i have a question about the filter. my penguin biowheel filters 200 gph and it has one cartridge. would it be too much to add another cartridge for the 28 gallon tank with the small fish?

[spoot]

The second cartridge will just hold more bacteria. The first filter pad the water hits will physically filter the water, the second will do this a little bit too, but not significantly.