Hello all,
This is my first post here, and my first foray in the aquarium hobby! So I think in my overzealousness I may have royally messed things up.
I've had my 24 gallon nano cube set up for about a month now. I started it planted with some anubias, java fern, red foxtail, and rosafolia. It has 3WPG integrated fluorescents in the hood.
I let it run for about three weeks with no fish, adding Dr. Tim's ammonia to jumpstart the cycle. Things seemed to be progressing as expected, so about a week ago I added six zebra danios.
However, my plants we still looking really sad, and undernourished so I found some info on DIY root tabs made with miracle grow. It seemed super easy, so I added those around the same time. I think around 10 in my 24g. None of the videos online made mention of it majorly messing with chemicals, so I didn't think anything of it.
When I started testing to keep an eye on things my nitrites were always through the roof, off the scale on the API master test kit! Strong magenta color - 5ppm plus. (It's worth noting that my ammonia is consistently at 0 and Nitrate around 10-20ppm)
To cope I've been doing 50% water changes everyday, and overdosing with prime to protect the fish - which seem fine. But nothing seems to be lowering them.
Yesterday I finally got frustrated and did back water changes - three 50% in a row over the course of a couple hours. This finally got my level down to the 0ppm on the API test. I figured at least this way it might have a chance to catch up.
I tested again a couple hours later just to see what was up, it had gone slightly purple - circa .25ppm. I figured this was just the normal cycle trying to catch up. I tested again this morning, less than 24 hours since the massive change, and it's back into the magenta range!!
Finally I dug a little deeper and found some posts on here about people getting crazy spikes with DIY tabs. I guess it was a total rookie mistake.
My question now is what the heck should I do??? I can keep up with 50% daily changes, but certainly not the complete change that I did yesterday. Do I need to ride this out, and how long might it take??? Will this ruin my chances of ever cycling my tank?? Any advice would be uber-appreciated.
This is my first post here, and my first foray in the aquarium hobby! So I think in my overzealousness I may have royally messed things up.
I've had my 24 gallon nano cube set up for about a month now. I started it planted with some anubias, java fern, red foxtail, and rosafolia. It has 3WPG integrated fluorescents in the hood.
I let it run for about three weeks with no fish, adding Dr. Tim's ammonia to jumpstart the cycle. Things seemed to be progressing as expected, so about a week ago I added six zebra danios.
However, my plants we still looking really sad, and undernourished so I found some info on DIY root tabs made with miracle grow. It seemed super easy, so I added those around the same time. I think around 10 in my 24g. None of the videos online made mention of it majorly messing with chemicals, so I didn't think anything of it.
When I started testing to keep an eye on things my nitrites were always through the roof, off the scale on the API master test kit! Strong magenta color - 5ppm plus. (It's worth noting that my ammonia is consistently at 0 and Nitrate around 10-20ppm)
To cope I've been doing 50% water changes everyday, and overdosing with prime to protect the fish - which seem fine. But nothing seems to be lowering them.
Yesterday I finally got frustrated and did back water changes - three 50% in a row over the course of a couple hours. This finally got my level down to the 0ppm on the API test. I figured at least this way it might have a chance to catch up.
I tested again a couple hours later just to see what was up, it had gone slightly purple - circa .25ppm. I figured this was just the normal cycle trying to catch up. I tested again this morning, less than 24 hours since the massive change, and it's back into the magenta range!!
Finally I dug a little deeper and found some posts on here about people getting crazy spikes with DIY tabs. I guess it was a total rookie mistake.
My question now is what the heck should I do??? I can keep up with 50% daily changes, but certainly not the complete change that I did yesterday. Do I need to ride this out, and how long might it take??? Will this ruin my chances of ever cycling my tank?? Any advice would be uber-appreciated.