# New aquarium cycling water



## ortiz (Apr 17, 2009)

Hi everyone, I am a newbie both at this forum and in this hobby.
I have a 35L aquarium cycling fishless for a week and a half. I have inserted a bacteria suplememnt - Nutrafin Cycle- for starting the cycle together with fish food. 

I have for the moment the following test results for the water:
Ammonia= 0
Nitrits=1mg/L
Nitrats=80mg/L

How can I have no Ammonia and have both Nitrits and Nitrats, have the bacteria transformed all the ammonia into Nitrits in one week? 

I can´t have nitrits without ammonia, am I right?

I think those values aren't safe to introduce any fish, how should I proceed hereafter? Someone told me not to do partial water changes until the aquarium environment is balanced, which is not the case; but how then can I remove the nitrats?

Best Regards
Ortiz


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## petlover516 (Nov 12, 2008)

Welcome to the site! it appears to me that u have The Aquarium Nitrogen Cycle all mixed up! heres a link to explain it to u better: The Aquarium Nitrogen Cycle

BTW, as u will read in that link, DON"T USE FISH FOOD TO CYCLE THE TANK!!!!!!!! it can release unacceptable amounts of phosphates into the water as it dissolves!!!!!!!!


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## carol (Apr 11, 2009)

do you have city water??

If not then I would check your raw water supply and see if you get a high reading of the nitrates on that as well.

Your test kit may be out of date giving you false readings as well. dip sticks are not very accurate if you are using those. Well at least I have not found them very accurate.


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## woodyg3 (Mar 24, 2009)

ortiz said:


> How can I have no Ammonia and have both Nitrits and Nitrats, have the bacteria transformed all the ammonia into Nitrits in one week?
> 
> I can´t have nitrits without ammonia, am I right?
> 
> I think those values aren't safe to introduce any fish, how should I proceed hereafter? z


It sounds like your ammonia has, indeed, been transformed to nitrite. You certainly have a higher level of nitrate than I would expect. I'll echo earlier comments that you might want to check the nitrate values for your water supply. Certainly, i would NOT add fish until ammonia and nitrites are both at zero.


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