Slow to fully cycle

My tank is slowly comming around to a full cycle. The tanks ability to
remove ammonia is good, I can add drops of ammonia to read the max on the
scale of the test kit and in 30-45 mins the level drops to the safe area,
and after a few more hours the levels area ll very close to zero, but the
nitrites and nitrates havn't budged, they are still reding at the top of the
scale, is there anything I can do to help push this cycle along ?

"""is there anything I can do to help push this cycle along"""

I'd guess that adding Ammonia isn't helping..

My tank's nitrites have usually dropped to 0 within 5 to 10 days of Ammonia
dropping. Your nitrates will require water changes (after nitrites have
dropped) to come down in the short term.

Regards


Chris

"skozzy" wrote in message
...
My tank is slowly comming around to a full cycle. The tanks ability to
remove ammonia is good, I can add drops of ammonia to read the max on the
scale of the test kit and in 30-45 mins the level drops to the safe area,
and after a few more hours the levels area ll very close to zero, but the
nitrites and nitrates havn't budged, they are still reding at the top of
the
scale, is there anything I can do to help push this cycle along ?

how much ammonia are you adding and how often

what are your nitrites ?
what are your nitrates ?

"top of the scale" and "safe area" are not good enough 0 is the only safe area for
ammonia/nitrites. and as we dont have your kit, or at lest dont know which one you have,
top of the scale doesnt tell us what you have




--
Richard Reynolds

The Kit I use is a Hagen/Nutrafin Brand, the Ammonia has a scale from 0mg/L
to 6.1mg/L, then it says to devide that by 1.22, so when I add ammonia it
rises from the 0mg/L to 6.1mg/L, then drops over a few hours till it's at
0mg/L or very close to it. The ammount of ammonia I add is about 1ml
(several drops) in a 4 foot tank.The setup instructions I got from a
different LFS then the place where I bought the gear from says to dose the
tank with ammonia every 3 days and once the levels of NH3 and NO2 and NO3
are all 0 then the tank is ready.

The Nitrite scale is from 0.1mg/L to 3.3mg/L, currently the levels are
3.3mg/L or higher. It has been at this level since I setup the tank.

The Nitrate scale is from 0mg/L 110mg/L, currently the levels are at 110mg/L
or higher.




"Richard Reynolds" wrote in message
news:UtJGb.27616$gN.4831@fed1read05...
how much ammonia are you adding and how often

what are your nitrites ?
what are your nitrates ?

"top of the scale" and "safe area" are not good enough 0 is the only safe
area for
ammonia/nitrites. and as we dont have your kit, or at lest dont know which
one you have,
top of the scale doesnt tell us what you have




--
Richard Reynolds

I have the same kit. If you read in the booklet for NO3 it says high
concentrations of NO2 may cause inaccurate NO3 readings...When I was in the
cycle both always showed high, when the nitrites started to lower, the
nitrates remained high. I waited until nitrites were very low, almost
non-existant, and did 2G water changes once a day for a week. This is about
3 weeks behind me now, nitrites are 0, and nitrates are very very low.

My suggestion is when you're kit needs refilling, replace it instead with
either sailfert or jungle labs quick dip strips. I'm probably going to use
sailfert for the accuracy. Jungle Labs are just dip and line up the colors
with vague intervals. It's kinda like judging how fast you're going in your
car 0-10mph when your speedo is in 20mph incriments...you have to eyeball it
and make a guess.

I added live rock and a bottle of sera nitrivec to help with the
cycle.(http://www.sera.ca/w_cond.htm)

John


"skozzy" wrote in message
...
The Kit I use is a Hagen/Nutrafin Brand, the Ammonia has a scale from
0mg/L
to 6.1mg/L, then it says to devide that by 1.22, so when I add ammonia it
rises from the 0mg/L to 6.1mg/L, then drops over a few hours till it's at
0mg/L or very close to it. The ammount of ammonia I add is about 1ml
(several drops) in a 4 foot tank.The setup instructions I got from a
different LFS then the place where I bought the gear from says to dose the
tank with ammonia every 3 days and once the levels of NH3 and NO2 and NO3
are all 0 then the tank is ready.

The Nitrite scale is from 0.1mg/L to 3.3mg/L, currently the levels are
3.3mg/L or higher. It has been at this level since I setup the tank.

The Nitrate scale is from 0mg/L 110mg/L, currently the levels are at
110mg/L
or higher.




"Richard Reynolds" wrote in message
news:UtJGb.27616$gN.4831@fed1read05...
how much ammonia are you adding and how often

what are your nitrites ?
what are your nitrates ?

"top of the scale" and "safe area" are not good enough 0 is the only
safe
area for
ammonia/nitrites. and as we dont have your kit, or at lest dont know
which
one you have,
top of the scale doesnt tell us what you have




--
Richard Reynolds