Hi all, is it normal to have a trite and trate spike when your ammonia is at 0? I did a water chane on Sunday and tested high so I did another on monday. The frites are at .1 ppm and trates are at 10 ppm. Is this normal?
How long has the tank been running? How much of a water change did you do? You might of done one to soon or to much and started a small cycle again. I would get some prime to help detoxify the nitrite.
The tank has been going for 2 months solid. I do a 20% change every 2 weeks. They trites and trates have been fine before then. I'm not sure as to why they would change so suddenly. Will a 10% change every week be better?
Nitrites and nitrates won't hurt anything at those levels. As long as ammonia is at 0 just let the tank cycle. Doing a 20% water change weekly for awhile wouldn't hurt and would get your levels down a little quicker.
The nitrates were at 20ppm after I did my first WC then it lowered it to 10ppm but didn't move the nitrites. I thought about doing WC's once a month but I didn't want my levels to sky rocket. I then thought about a 10% once a week to maintain the chemistry.
