Tank not cycling

[hortoholic]

Hello, I am starting a 10 gallon tank and so far its been a a few weeks and I do not think the tank ha started to cycle. I have in there a sacet of rocks from an older tank and an airstone. It's been running for almost two weeks and the amonia is going nowhere it is basically just staying there around 2.0 ppm. No nitrite or nitrate. I was trying to do a fishless cycle but it is not seeming to cycle. Does anyon know what is wrong? If anyone could be of help, I would be extremely grateful. Also, if you need more tank info, I would be happy to provide.


hortoholic

 

[HN1]

It can take 6-8 weeks to cycle a tank from scratch so my best advice is to do the hardest thing in the hobby. Be patient.

You can speed things up by introducing some filter media from an established tank.

 

[mfdrookie516]

yep, patience is key (and probably one of the hardest things in the world to have)... there's a link in my signature that has tips and tricks to speed up your cycle... high heat and some established media will certainly speed it up a ton

 

[Lowryder]

Seeing as you took rocks out of an older tank, I am going to assume you have an established tank. Take that dirty, nasty filter media and squeeze that gunk into the new filter housing. You can also just shove that nasty filter pad in the new filter. You can even run the new filter on your established tank for a few weeks.

 

[taylorodw]

How did you add the ammonia?

 

[logansmomma1228]

Glad to hear you are fishless cycling

What did you use for an ammonia source? I recommend pure ammonia. Make sure it doesn't have any detergents or fragrances in it. I have read that if you shake the bottle and it doesn't bubble you are good. I would suggest getting some of that, and add a teaspoon or so a day until you get the ammonia up to 4 ppm . Even 3-5ppm would be good. Then is the hard part of waiting.

Test every other day (hopefully you have a liquid test kit? the strips are highly inaccurate) and watch for the Nitrites to spike. Even 1.0 ppm of nitrite could be a spike. Then when the nitrites are gone you should start seeing nitrAtes, and add just enough ammonia to keep it going, about a half a teaspoon maybe. Your tank should be cycled within a day of seeing the nitrite spike. Hope this helps! And yes it can take a long time to cycle. The best thing to do is try to forget about it for a while, or research the different kinds of fish you are thinking about getting.