whats going on with my cycle?

[steeledarren]

so i have been cycling my tank the fishless way for nearly 3 weeks and here are my readings, can anyone help?

day 1 added 7.5ml of pure ammonia got reading of 3-4ppm
day 2 tested ammonia 3-4ppm
day3 ammonia 3-4, nitrite 0
day 4 ammonia 2-3, nitrite 0.25
day 5 ammonia 2-3, nitrite 0.25-0.5
day 6 to 9 ammonia 2, nitrite 0.5
day 10 ammonia 1-2, nitrite 0.5-1
day11 ammonia 1-2, nitrite 1
day 12 ammonia 1-2, nitrite 1
day 13 dosed ammonia back up to 4, nitrite 1, nitrate 5
day 14 to 16 ammonia 4, nitrite 1, nitrate 10
day 17 ammonia 4, nitrite 0.5-1, nitrate 10
day 18, ammonia 4 nitrite 0.5, nitrate 10
day 19 ammonia 2-4, nitrite 0.25, nitrate 10
day20 ammonia 2, nitrite 0-0.25, nitrate 10

is my tank behaving normally, should i boost the ammonia back up? and should my nitrite have risen higher.
I am using the api freshwater master test kit, i also added decorations from my old tank, i could do with your opinions please

 

[AdamHorton]

This comes from my personal experience cycling my 150G with pure ammonia: I dosed the ammonia every day, enough to make the concentration go from 0 ppm to 2 ppm. In less than a week the ammonia was down to zero before I added more. Around that time I started to see nitrites appear and two weeks after I started the process the nitrites would be zero before I added new ammonia. My guess is that you aren't adding the ammonia often enough.

What kind of filtration/substrate are you using? It's possible that if your filtration isn't enough that your bacteria don't have any more place to live, but that may not be the case.

If your ammonia level goes up to 8 ppm then you start running into trouble getting it too concentrated, but until then you should be OK since there are no fish to worry about.

 

[steeledarren]

i have a aqua one cf1200 cannister filter, i will try adding the ammonia more often, but if there is still ammonia in the tank surely it should keep the process going

 

[BigJim]

I'd give the tank another dose of ammonia. I may be paranoid, but I wasn't happy with my cycle until the tank was converting 8ppm of ammonia to nitrate every 24 hours. I did a massive water change just before going to get fish and everything has been great since. I believe it took me nearly six weeks to complete the cycle.

 

[AdamHorton]

Yeah that sounds right, Yeah your cycle is going but you want it to be going faster than that, at least 2 ppm per day, minimum IMO.

 

[steeledarren]

so confused, after upping my amonia to 5ppm last night, i checked today and amonia is 5ppm and nitrite is 0, nitrate is between 5 and 10, what is going on, have i ruined it? any help greatly appreciated

 

[AdamHorton]

Here are my thoughts, though others on here are far more experienced than me and may correct me.

My guess is that since you're adding ammonia at a faster rate, you'll go through a mini-cycle. You're probably in the process of getting more of the type of bacteria that converts ammonia into nitrite, and the bacteria that converts nitrite into nitrate is keeping up with its current demand. The important thing to watch right now is your ammonia and seeing how many ppm per day your bacteria colony can process. Once your ammonia reading is zero, it will be easier to interpret your nitrite and nitrate readings.

 

[steeledarren]

thankyou, that makes sense, was hoping that i hadnt ruined it, should i keep adding ammonia?

 

[AdamHorton]

You should be adding at least 2 ppm worth of ammonia every day. The only reason you should stop is if your ammonia gets above 8 ppm. In that case, start a new thread 'cause I wouldn't know what to do. I doubt that'll happen, though.

 

[BigJim]

Adding ammonia during a fishless cycle won't wreck the cycling process. Ammonia is food for the good bacteria you want. Those bacteria will convert it to nitrite which feeds another type of good bacteria. Those bacteria convert the nitrite to nitrate. That's how your cycle goes. The more food (within reason) the more bacteria.

I haven't heard any concrete reasons to stay below 8ppm of ammonia, but if you want to lower your ammonia level, do a PWC like you would if the tank is running with fish. It won't hurt your cycle.

 

[steeledarren]

so basically the nitrIte is getting turned into NitrAte quicker than the ammonia is getting turned into NitrIte, so any Nitrite that is forming is quickly getting turned, is that what you mean?

 

[AdamHorton]

so basically the nitrIte is getting turned into NitrAte quicker than the ammonia is getting turned into NitrIte, so any Nitrite that is forming is quickly getting turned, is that what you mean?

At this moment, that's what is probably happening.

The reason I said 8 ppm is because that's when I would start my thread asking if anything was wrong. I'm sure you can get away with more than that, but I do know there is a point where there is so much ammonia in your tank that it can interfere with your cycle.

 

[steeledarren]

is this a common thing to happen? has anyone ever had this happen to them?

 

[steeledarren]

i have checked the tank again and nitrite is still 0, nitrate is 5-10 and ammonia is about 5, i squeezed the filter out of my old tank into this one and added a little crushed flake, hope my bacteria havnt died, any ideas?

 

[AdamHorton]

hmm, I guess give it some more time... your ammonia wasn't going down very fast before, so it might take a bit to pick up again.

 

[steeledarren]

i think it might be that, just weird that there is no nitrIte, praying i dont get light blue lol

 

[steeledarren]

things are still the same, should i do a water change, or just leave it be?

 

[mfdrookie516]

sorry if i missed this, but have you tested your tap water for nitrate? that may be where the nitrate is coming from

 

[steeledarren]

i tested it today, and there is a hint of it, just under 5 i think

 

[mfdrookie516]

thats probably why then... just give it some more time, if something happened and killed the bacteria, it will start up again with ammonia in the tank