hi there ive been cycling my rena 120 over the last week with biomature and all is well .ammonia stable at 4 ppm and falling the nitrite has risen off the scale estimate 10 ppm and nitrate also in the red ,the shop has informed me not to add any more biomature now and to let the nitrite fall my question is roughty how much time may it take for the nitrites to fall to zero thanks in advance

you should read this following link
www.waterlife.co.uk/seaquariums/biomature.htm

I'm assuming that you've got fish in the tank? It will depend on how much ammonia is being produced. not every fish tank will cycle at the same time.

no i havent got any fish in the tank (fishless for me )

I see, so you are using pure ammonia

no biomature is ammonia you add 12ml in my case each day until your nitrites reach 10 ppm then stop adding and wait for the nitrites to zero ,and i was wondering roughty how much time it usually takes for nitrites to reduce

I'm sorry, I'm not familiar with this, I've never seen in any of the shops here. I thought you were supposed to use in conjunction with another product, check that link I gave you. Anyway, going out for a curry now

quick update ammonia now 0 ppm nitrites and nitrates off the scale how long is it usually before the nitrites come down

i think its around 3 weeks but you might want to double check with an expert as i am not lol

fish less cycles shouldn't take anywhere near as long as when you use fish. The bacteria will build up a lot quicker because you are using more ammonia. Your ammonia dropped dramatically, just keep an eye on that, you might still get spikes. When you do get a reading of zero on ammonia and nitrites, don't be too quick to add too many fish, the biological filter will still be quite delicate.it's good that you are getting a high nitrates, that means that the bacteria is working as it should.

hi another great update i raised the temp to 30 degrees last night as it was at 28 and tested the water this morning ammonia 0/ nitrite .25 /nitrate 2.8 (which i thought was stange as it was off the scale at 160 ppm ) ph 7.5 , ill go to the fish shop today to conferm my finding and if the nitrite has fallen more tonight ill do a large wc not that it need it due to the nitrates being so low but i do with removing some staining form the bogwood and ill add a carbon bag to one of the filters...so happy now the end is near and my lovley 3 inch oscars is calling for there new tank lol

thats good to hear..

your oscars will love you when you move them, it might take them a few days though, when i moved mine into the bigger tank he sulked and hid most of the time for the first few days..

last update hopefully when i got home at lunch nitrites was 0 ammonia 0 nitrate 3.2 ive also had it tested at the shop with same results so ive done an 80% wc and letting it settle and if all goes well ill be adding 2 4" pictus catfish and 4 3" clown loaches tomoz and the oscars will go in on saturady ,im so chuffed but will keep checking the levels just in case ....ill get a pick up of the set up when there all settled in lol and hopefully the other fish will still be in there