Pet Forum / Aquaria / Goldfish / September 2007

My tank has been cycling for some time now and it looks like I'm finally in
the home stretch--ammonia down to zero, Nitrite having recently dropped from
2 ppm to 0.5 ppm--but things seem to be stalled there.  It's been 12 days
since ammonia dropped to zero and five since nitrite dropped from 2 to 0.5.
However, in this morning's test nitrite climbed back up from 0.5 to 1.
Worse, I'm not sure if the numbers actually mean anything since I've now
used three different test kits (Aquarium Pharmaceuticals Master freshwater
test kit, Jungle brand multiple test strips, and SeaChem Nitrite/Nitrate
multi-test) each giving completely different results (0.5, 3, and 5 ppm
respectively--API is what I "report" since that's what I have used from the
beginning).

The tank is 29 gallons with a single Comet, about 2 1/2" long, in it.  I've
got two HOB filters:  The "Top Fin" filter that came with the kit (looks to
be a re-branding of the Tetra Whisper 30 filter) and a Penguin Bio-Wheel
125.

A chart of my water test results (along with indication of when water
changes were made) can be found here:
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g206/dburkhead/waterqual070921.gif