cycle questions

[jbasquette]

I received the first part of the package on Friday 2.13.09 and placed it in my 70 gallon tank that evening. The next day I started testing for ammonia. By Wednesday I was detecting no measurable amounts of ammonia. I have a nitrite test kit and decided to run a test. I measured 0.5 ppm of nitrite. I started to do water changes and now have the nitrite down to 0.1 ppm. I am still registering no ammonia and have tried a different test kit. The test kits I am using for ammonia are the Seachem kit and an API kit.

My questions are how am I measuring nitrite without detecting any ammonia? Should I maintain water changes to get the nitrite down or just let the tank cycle and clear itself of the nitrite? Also some green algae is starting to appear on some of the rock. Should this concern me and if so what should I be doing?

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[liverock]

Re: cycle questions

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14474723#post14474723 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jbasquette
I received the first part of the package on Friday 2.13.09 and placed it in my 70 gallon tank that evening. The next day I started testing for ammonia. By Wednesday I was detecting no measurable amounts of ammonia. I have a nitrite test kit and decided to run a test. I measured 0.5 ppm of nitrite. I started to do water changes and now have the nitrite down to 0.1 ppm. I am still registering no ammonia and have tried a different test kit. The test kits I am using for ammonia are the Seachem kit and an API kit.

My questions are how am I measuring nitrite without detecting any ammonia? Should I maintain water changes to get the nitrite down or just let the tank cycle and clear itself of the nitrite? Also some green algae is starting to appear on some of the rock. Should this concern me and if so what should I be doing?

Thanks in advance for any help.

dON'T MAKE ANY WATER CHANGES UNLESS THE AMMONIA GOES OVER 1PPM...AS PER THE INSTRUCTIONS...Changing water will only slow the chemistry of your tank.....oops caps...

sea ya