Cycling help!!

[Dray420]

Ive been cycling a 55 gallon for 4-5 weeks now....used shrimp to do this. Well about a week and a half ago I got my nitrites and nitrates both to spike at the same (both was off the charts). I was testing everything every 2 days and then I read somewhere to just test for nitrites until they drop so I did that. Well I tested today and my ammonia is 0.25, Nitrite 2, nitrate is 0, ph is 8, I use the API master kit......so my question is why did my nitrates drop to 0 and nitrites are still high?? What is wrong?? What do I need to do?? Thanks in advance yall.

[SPotter]

what other live stock do you have in the tank? chances are you going thru another mini cycle. You might have had a bad reading on the nitrate test. I'm not saying that its impossible to have extremely high nitrites and nitrates at the same time....I've just never heard of it before. Also, have you done any water changes?

[Dray420]

Thanks for the quick response....the only thing in the tank is a big snail I found in the river (brackish river) and a couple of small blue legged hermits...thats the only thing that has ever been in it and I added them once there was 0 ammonia....had the shrimp in a media bag hanging from the brace and took it out today. And im not sure if it was a false positive for the nitrates because I teated them alot (with sthe same results) before I started only tested for nitrites only

[Dray420]

oh and no water changes except replenishing evaporated water with ro

[Touring]

Originally Posted by SPotter

Also, have you done any water changes?

why do you mention water changes if it has nothing to do with that?

[SPotter]

If he did a large wc as some do when nitrates are high that could explain the sudden drop. Extremely high nitrates won't disappear on their own. they need to be exported some how...skimmer, wc, gfo etc.

Sent from my SCH-I510 using Tapatalk 2

[Dray420]

so since i have not done a wc does anyone know what the problem is?? i have no skimmer as of yet and have 2 hob rated at 400 gph each

[Harleyx2]

Do you have any live rock or sand in the tank?

[Dray420]

no, all dry rock and crushed coral but i did add a VERY small (compared to my other rocks) piece of live rock from a friends tank that has been set up for over a year and some old shells that had coraline on them yesterday

[SKurj]

Any time you have nitrites your nitrate reading maybe worthless. So your initial reading when you saw nitrite and nitrate at the same time your nitrate reading was false.

[Dray420]

ok, so do i need to keep adding ammonia since i took the shrimp out (primarily i had 3 ppm of ammonia and they dissappeared when i produced trites) or will the few animals i have in there take care of that??

[SPotter]

I would ghost feed the tank until your nitrites have gone to zero and you show nitrates and maybe take a water sample to your lfs to have them check everything for you.