Very confusing water test results

[antigonus]

Hello, iv'e had a Biocube 32 running for nine days now, two days ago I added Dr. Tim's ammonium chloride and Fritzzyme bacteria. Yesterday my results were 2 ppm for ammonia, and 0.2 ppm for nitrites. Today however, my ammonia still seemed to be around 2 ppm, but my nitrite was seemingly 0.0 ppm, and my nitrates were 5-10 ppm. What might be an explanation for this? Is there any way it could be a false reading somehow? I'm using the Red Sea marine test kit which the guy at my LFS recommended. 

[xthunt]

I don't know the ratio, but I think a lot of nitrate is made from ammonia. 

 

Still 2ppm a day later? Biospira would've had that gone by now 😜

[antigonus]

15 minutes ago, xthunt said:

I don't know the ratio, but I think a lot of nitrate is made from ammonia. 

 

Still 2ppm a day later? Biospira would've had that gone by now 😜

Do you think it's still worth ordering biospira and adding it? 

[Donny41]

You're still only nine days in, just let biology do its thing. Your cycle seems to be progressing fine based on your numbers. 

[antigonus]

16 minutes ago, Donny41 said:

You're still only nine days in, just let biology do its thing. Your cycle seems to be progressing fine based on your numbers. 

Thanks, I'm not really worried, it's just that I thought nitrites were supposed to spike before the nitrates. 

[Clown79]

The cycle is doing what is normal.

 

[Donny41]

46 minutes ago, antigonus said:

Thanks, I'm not really worried, it's just that I thought nitrites were supposed to spike before the nitrates. 

Nitrite spike can happen very quick so you might not see it, either way once you start seeing nitrates your doing well (as long as it's not from your source water)

[antigonus]

1 hour ago, Donny41 said:

Nitrite spike can happen very quick so you might not see it, either way once you start seeing nitrates your doing well (as long as it's not from your source water)

I don't think it could be from my source water since I used pre-mixed salt water from my LFS, and RODI water for top offs. 

[antigonus]

1 hour ago, Clown79 said:

The cycle is doing what is normal.

 

Thanks, I had just thought that I would see both ammonia and nitrites go down before the nitrates rose. 

[MrObscura]

Ammonia probably has stopped, you just can't tell by the reading. And as mentioned Nitrite spikes happen real quick and you'll usually miss it. 

 

You have no3, you're good. Just let it cycle. 

[antigonus]

13 minutes ago, MrObscura said:

Ammonia probably has stopped, you just can't tell by the reading. And as mentioned Nitrite spikes happen real quick and you'll usually miss it. 

 

You have no4, you're good. Just let it cycle. 

Thanks, now I will just observe and test, I just wanted to make sure these results weren't abnormal.