Cycling fast?

[phoebekatee]

Heya! So I have a 30g tank with a bubble wand, external filter and heater. I put 5ppm of ammonia in and the next day it was at 1.5. The same thing happened yesterday and today. My test kit is right I am using prime AP ammonia liquid drops. It could help that my seed is used gravel, tons of really used filter media and used bogwood and an octopus. Is something wrong here?

 

[bIGTIMER]

Are you doing a freshwater tank? I thought octopus were saltwater.

 

[phoebekatee]

Octopus as in a used ornament! yes it's tropical tank

 

[librarygirl]

With all of that seeded media yes it's possible. Just don't jump the gun and add fish yet. Ammonia should be consistently 0 a full day after you redose and nitrites should stay at 0. Let the ammonia drop to 0 and see if nitrites show up. But yes I'd say it's a good start!

 

[phoebekatee]

Happened again today with the dropping ammo. Will never let it get to 0 so having to test twice or more a day. Nitrites not showing up at all though. Also did I mention it is a used tank so probably came packed with bacteria. Hope you can help!

 

[Chino1130]

The lack of nitrites is odd. Unless they are being converted to nitrates just as fast as ammonia is being converted to nitrites. What are your nitrate levels like?

 

[phoebekatee]

I don't know. I stupidly only have ammo and nitrite as they are the most toxic. Other than buying a kit, what can I do?

 

[phoebekatee]

I literally have tons of seed and constantly adding more. Could I be a very lucky cycler?

 

[Chino1130]

I don't know. I stupidly only have ammo and nitrite as they are the most toxic. Other than buying a kit, what can I do?

The thing is without the nitrate kit, you have no way of knowing if you are converting nitrites, or not creating them at all. Nitrates can be toxic as well. I would highly recommend buying a test kit for nitrates if you really want to get a good idea of what is going on.

 

[eco23]

Don't add ammonia more than once every 24 hours...it only leads to an ungodly amount of no3 at the end and it's unnecessary. There's no harm in letting the ammonia drop to zero as long as you don't leave it there for more than a few days. Once every 24 hours is fine.

Since you have a lot of established media, its perfectly plausible that the ammonia is constantly being converted through the nitrIte phase and appearing as nitrAte. I agree having a liquid nitrAte test is going to be vital to know when your tank is cycled.

 

[phoebekatee]

Just bought a kit online. I have been adding ammo more than once a day. Is my cycle ruined?

 

[eco23]

Just bought a kit online. I have been adding ammo more than once a day. Is my cycle ruined?

It hasn't ruined anything...it's just unnecessary and can make things take a bit longer. There's no harm in letting the ammonia hit zero...in fact that's exactly what we want to happen. I'd just pick a time of day, and every 24 hours do your testing and dose the ammonia back up at that time.