Help! I'm really confused!

Hey so this is day 4 and i did a water test. I am hoping you guys can tell me what is wrong with my ammonia test. I just bought these test kits 4 days ago (when i started my cycle) to rule out any possibility of expired kits (my old one). The test kits i bought don't expire (well at least the Ammonia one, until 2012. I test the Ammonia just as it says on the card. When I add the second bottle, a gel-like precipitate forms, but when I rick the tube to mix the solutions, the goo goes away. I wait the full 5 min but i just get this. Anyone? By the way I did use SuperBac Nitrifying Bacteria at the beginning of the cycle.

pH - 8.0
Ammonia - ???
Nitrite - 1.0 ppm
Nitrate - 5.0 ppm

 

Hmmm I've never gotten a color like that on my AM. Your NI is spiking so you're on the right track. I'd say give it another week or more and re-test, you may get a normal coloration, or possibly one of your AM bottles is bad.

Do you have live rock in the tank? See if you can take your water to test at a LFS that would be what I would do. Either way your tank is starting to cycle which is always good.

good luck,
Joe

 

I have 100 pounds of Marco base rock. I am going to try the other test kit and see what happens.

 

well my ammonia usually is colored like that.. but after a while of waiting ( maybe 10-15) it turns color indicating 0.

 

ok... now i am really frustrated. When i used my expire test kit (expired in 05) i get a solid reading of 1 ppm. AHHH

 

100lbs of base rock is good, so you're going to cure the rock while you cycle the tank. If you can get your hands on like 20lbs of pre-cured live rock that would help seed your base rock much quicker. I used a mix of about 40lbs live and 40lbs base and I never even saw a cycle in my tank, it was pretty amazing.

I would def bring a water sample down to the LFS it will solve this AM mystery, let us know what happens & posts some pics of your tank, I love Marco rock would love to see how it looks.

 

Sounds like the two chemicals are not reacting at all. Almost like one is the wrong thing. I agree I would take some to the LFS to be tested and then replace your AM test kit.

 

if your nitrates are low, i would suspect your ammonia is low too

 

Do you have any good consistent source of ammonia for the tank? You mention 100lbs of base rock and there's almost certainly some organic material on/in there to kick off a cycle but IMO it helps to have a definite known source of ammonia from a piece of raw shrimp or some food pellets or something. I put some in a filter bag and left it sit in the tank for a couple weeks while it decayed/broke down. That way I knew there was definitely a cycle going on rather than assuming my dry, base rock was sufficient.
I wouldn't worry too much. When I cycled my new tank I never saw an ammonia spike, the bacteria that consume some of this stuff (ammonium, nitrites etc) can multiply so fast and consume it all within hours sometimes it's possible to miss a spike. I definitely saw nitrites and nitrates though so don't panic.
Getting your tests doublechecked by someone else with other test kits is always a good idea IMO. But I'm sure everything will be fine, just consider adding some sort of source of ammonia to really get things going for sure.

My 2c.

 

Screwtape, I used SuperBac Nitrifying Bacteria