Cycling Issues- Please help!

[snafusnake]

Hi there,

I am new to the forum. I recently began trying to do a fishless cycle for an freshwater 8.5 gallon tank for my male betta. My friend who keeps aquariums told me to put a table shrimp in the tank and let it rot to serve as a source of ammonia. That was Dec. 11th. I also added a 2 oz bottle of Dr. Tim's nitrifying bacteria. Fast forward to yesterday: still no nitrites showing up. Just a ton of ammonia. I switched out about 75% of the water thinking maybe there was just way too much ammonia? I dunno, I'm new to all this! Plus I added a large bottle of bacteria. I believe it was a 10 oz bottle this time. Today I have about 4 ppm of ammonia, no nitrites, and about 30 ppm nitrates...as far as what I know, nitrites are meant to come first. I can't figure out why I have nitrates and a bunch of ammonia. Can someone please advise me on what I can do and what might be happening?

 

[King Fisher]

You should cycle with 2-4ppm ammonia in a fishless cycle. At this point, I'd leave it alone and test daily. If 4 ppm ammonia zeros out in around 48 hours, 0 nitrites and a nitrate reading then your tank is probably cycled. The standard gauge of a cycled tank is if it zeros out 2 ppm ammonia in 24 hours.

 

[snafusnake]

I see. So it's possible that the nitrites can convert to nitrates that fast? I tested everything 24 hours after adding the bacteria. I expecting much longer. If it is cycled, then it should start to zero out that ammonia like you said, and then the nitrates will fall as well?

 

[King Fisher]

I've never cycled a tank faster than 3 weeks but I've heard good things about Dr Tim's. I've never used it.

Your nitrates will rise when your ammonia zeros out.

I'd keep a close eye on it though and test often.

 

[snafusnake]

Do you just water changes till the nitrate is gone? Cause from what I understand any nitrate is harmful for the fish as well, right?

 

[King Fisher]

During your fishless cycle it doesn't really matter how much nitrates you have because there's no fish in there. Once your tank is for sure cycled then you'd do water changes until you bring the nitrates down to 5-10 ppm. Then add fish.

 

[King Fisher]

Nitrates are ok up until 40 ppm with fish in. So essentially you don't want your tank to get over 40 ppm by day 7 before your water change. Anything less than 40 is fine.

 

[snafusnake]

Okay. How often on those water changes to bring it to 5-10 ppm? once a day?

 

[King Fisher]

You can do as many as you want in a day to get the nitrates down. Just remember, if you got 60 ppm and you do a 50% water change you'll then have 30 ppm. So on and so forth until you reach your target ppm.

 

[snafusnake]

Okay cool. I will see what happens over the next 48 hours. Thanks so much for taking the time to help me out!

 

[King Fisher]

No problem. Keep us updated

 

[snafusnake]

Welp, 48 hours later, ammonia is still at 4 ppm and nitrate at about 30 ppm

 

[King Fisher]

I'd still leave it alone at this point. Do you have good aeration? What's the temp?

I think you're in the middle of a cycle

 

[snafusnake]

As far as aeration, I'm not sure. It's a Fluval Vista tank. It has a lid, but there is the fairly sizable hole in the back for the water to flow from the filter into the tank. I don't have any type of air stone or anything though. The temp seems to go back and forth between 79-80. I use a 50 watt heater and one of those digital thermometers with the probe.

 

[King Fisher]

Looks like it has an aquaclear 20 on it so it's pretty good filtration for an 8.5g tank. Just let it do it's thing. On average you are looking at 6 weeks to cycle a tank. Just make sure you have good surface agitation for oxygen.

 

[snafusnake]

Oh I was thinking it was the 30. Okay, hopefully it works itself out lol I had actually tried once before to cycle this tank and used seachem stability for some bacteria but the same thing happened then and nothing ever showed up over the course of about 8 weeks.

 

[King Fisher]

If you are really good about water changes, if after 6 weeks your stuck, just add fish slowly. If you're changing out water frequently and testing the water and not overloading it with fish right away you can get away with cycling with fish in.