The Puffer Forum

Alright been cycling my 20L for about 2 weeks now. Had a ammonia spike which is gone now, but my Nitrites go off the scale in under 3mins, of the 5mins im supposed to wait. Should I just keep waiting or do a water change?

I would add some seeded sand from Bloats tank and mix it together with the sand in your 20 gal sand.

I put seeded filter material from a old filter

and bloat doesnt have much sand to give up LOL-

Maybe try some good brand of bacteria in a bottle in the tank and filter. Always helped my tanks.

I would just cut back by half the amount of ammonia you're putting in every day, or do the same amount but skip every other day. I just finished a fishless cycle. The Nitrite spike lasts a little longer than the ammonia spike in my experiences. Don't worry, it will come down, and when it does, it will be fast. The nitrites will just be gone one day when the day before it was off the chart. That's how it always works with me. Once that happens, keep adding your ammonia every day, or every other day, and if there are still 0 nitrites after 3 days, you're good to go.

cool

Did you 1/2 the ammonia when you saw nitrite?

nope for got about that lol....thanks for the link RTR, guess i need to reread that