It has been over three months since I have started my cycle. I have had my ammonia spike and all my other water parameters are correct except my ammonia is at about .10. Now I have things like feather dusters and other things that are alive and doing well. Do you think it would be safe to add a fish or 2 since everything else is doing fine in my tank?
Cycle Still Not Complete???
- Thread starter rtoycrow
- Start date
The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
roka64
Aquarium Advice Addict
- Joined
- Mar 21, 2006
- Messages
- 13,858
I would not add anything to your tank if you are seeing ammonia or take a sample to your LFS and let them double check your results. Have you added and LR lately?
roka64
Aquarium Advice Addict
- Joined
- Mar 21, 2006
- Messages
- 13,858
Do you have a LFS that can doublecheck your water?
nh3 kits go bad and I agree you need to verify with your lfs. Also since you haven't added anything to your tank in 3 months you possibly could experience a mini cycle if you add stock too quickly. Since you have a 125 gal tank and lr I think as long as your nh3/no2 is 0 ppm and no3 less then 20 ppm you would be safe to add a clean up crew and 1-2 <4" fish at this point without the risk of your nh3 spiking. Just wait a month after adding the first 1-2 fish and check your nh3/no2 every 3-5 days to make sure.
Kurt_Nelson
Aquarium Advice Addict
Several things come to mind...
If you've been "cycling" for three months, have you been supplying it with an ammonia source all that time? What did you do to start the cycle? Reason I ask is that without an ammonia source, over that long of a period, you might've had a die off of the bacteria. And somewhere, I've read that a bacterial die off can actually trigger an ammonia spike in itself. It's hard for me to believe that, but I *think* I read it in Fenner's book.
Do you have any measurable nitrates? If you've truly cycled, then you should have some nitrates in your tank.
Also... were you measuring nitrites while you were cycling? Did you see those go up, then come back down? If so, then you probably did cycle. Whether or not the bacteria are still alive and kicking... I guess that goes back to my comments in my first paragraph.
And as others have mentioned, best to rule out a faulty ammonia test kit by getting another one, or having the LFS test it for you.
If you've been "cycling" for three months, have you been supplying it with an ammonia source all that time? What did you do to start the cycle? Reason I ask is that without an ammonia source, over that long of a period, you might've had a die off of the bacteria. And somewhere, I've read that a bacterial die off can actually trigger an ammonia spike in itself. It's hard for me to believe that, but I *think* I read it in Fenner's book.
Do you have any measurable nitrates? If you've truly cycled, then you should have some nitrates in your tank.
Also... were you measuring nitrites while you were cycling? Did you see those go up, then come back down? If so, then you probably did cycle. Whether or not the bacteria are still alive and kicking... I guess that goes back to my comments in my first paragraph.
And as others have mentioned, best to rule out a faulty ammonia test kit by getting another one, or having the LFS test it for you.
roka64
Aquarium Advice Addict
- Joined
- Mar 21, 2006
- Messages
- 13,858
That sounds reasonable to me since the nitrifying bacteria is the stuff that converts ammonia to nitrAtes...if the bacteria dies, the decay would cause ammonia to rise and with no bacteria, there would be another cycle.....right...?Kurt_Nelson said:
Nikkiheartsfish
Aquarium Advice Regular
- Joined
- Jun 24, 2007
- Messages
- 51
Agreed-- Bacterial population is entirely dependent on what there is for it to live off of. If all that you had in there was the LR you must have waited too long, and everything that there was to eat could have died, or there just wasn't enough to keep the population stable. I'd reccomend also to see your LFS for a secondary opinion on your water. Let us know what they said it looks like. I wouldn't reccomend buying anything if you have any type of ammonia, nitrite, or nitrate >10ppm. Tell us your results first 
Good luck!
Good luck!Similar threads
