Cycling Nightmare

[Corbo]

SOOOOO.. I'm an idiot. And I'm lucky I have no fish in my tank.

I have a 29 gallon planted I am trying to get cycled, and I ordered a test kit that took like.. over a week to come in... So I figure- Why not start before it gets here?

WHAT A NOOB.

I get my test kit and my Ammonia is OFF THE CHART- the liquid was blue... the highest ammonia on the chart of my API chart is green. Yeah. I'm terrible. I figured my plants would take care of more Ammonia than that.. I was terribly wrong. :|

Then, to top it all off... I test my local water... Just my luck- It has Ammonia already in it (I wanna say almost 1ppm)! Wonderful. So now I have to go buy a python and do like 2 PWC and I'm all sweaty and just... GRRR! Frustration. Thank you for listening to me vent. I'm trying to hang in there. I just want some darn fish.

On the brightside--- My CO2 levels are green! My plants are pearling. Woohoooooo. Sometimes I wake up and they're letting off a steady stream of bubbles.. is this odd?

Hopefully in the morning when I check my Ammonia the level will be significantly reduced.

Any suggestions or tips are highly appreciated!

Thanks in advance everybody.

---Corb

 

[Marconis]

I'd just start over and do a 100% water change. If your ammonia is off the chart, it could stall it for quite some time. Best to wait a day or two and see.

 

[TraceyB4602]

I agree I would just get rid of all that water and start over. With the ammonia that high no beneficial bacteria could have formed so it would just be better to start over.

Sent from my iPhone using Aquarium

 

[Pecktec]

I'd just start over and do a 100% water change. If your ammonia is off the chart, it could stall it for quite some time. Best to wait a day or two and see.

Or go ahead and fill a bucket or two with tap water, add what ever water conditioner you use, and let it set uncovered for 24 hours. Then dump out most of the water replace some with the bucket and some strait from the tap.There are lots of bad desolved gases in tap water that while not a big deal in a PWC could be bad also if all the water is that way. Next find some fish friends in your area and borrow some part of a filter, gravel, or drift wood. I used a bio wheel contraption I made from a filter part I have had sitting in one of my other filers for awhile. Here it is on Youtube.
YouTube - Box Filter Bio- Wheel

 

[BigJim]

I didn't know the ammonia test could turn blue. You taught me something today.

A python is a life saver. It's worth every penny if you have a big tank or multiple tanks.

If your tap water actually has 1ppm of ammonia in it, you may have to look into an RO filter. Your future fish certainly won't appreciate the ammonia.

I'm not surprised that your plants are happy. The plants in my 40B grew best when I was fishless cycling.

 

[Corbo]

Well, I did two 35% ish water changes and my ammonia is back down to a readable level. I see what I think is a bacteria bloom on the walls of my tank- little white particles(confirm/deny?) thank you all for the help. I really just needed to vent. Haha!

 

[Corbo]

Yeah. Well my 10g tank with fish seems to do fine and was easier to cycle... This 29 gallon seems to be rough on me. I don't know. Haha. Glad I could "help" (?) teach you something Jim! Haha. If that's a good thing to learn?

 

[BigJim]

If all the particles are on the glass and you're providing light for live plants, there's a good chance that you're seeing the start of a GSA outbreak. My 20H high-light tank gets that on the glass. The tank looks cloudy, but it clears up when I take a razor blade to the algae.

 

[Durvish]

I think your on the right track now.

 

[Corbo]

Its not cloudy. Just microparticles of white on the walls. I don't know. Haha. I just wish there were an easy answer.

 

[Durvish]

I got those when I was cycling my 35 gal. It was right before my nitrAte spike.

 

[Corbo]

Well.... That's definitely a good thing!! Sweet. Let's hope I'm following in your footsteps

 

[Kat1103]

If u have ammonia in your tap water maybe u should get a filter for yourself too my tap water is just hard where I live. I started cycling a tank a week ago and haven't had any ammonia so at least u have something....

 

[Durvish]

Kat you'll have to add an ammonia source. It won't show on it's own.

 

[CoyoteWildfire]

I recently took my water to get tested because it was cloudy as well. Unfortunately, the ammonia test turned out deep green. And this was with multiple plants AND fish living in the tank. Clearly the plants weren't getting rid of as much ammonia as I thought they would, and it was bad news for the fish...

The real kicker? I had been treating my water for ammonia regularly. I hadn't gotten the opportunity to get it properly tested, so to help keep the ammonia down in the meantime, I treated it weekly. Yet my ammonia was off the chart... I'm really happy my fish made it through okay...

 

[Corbo]

I recently took my water to get tested because it was cloudy as well. Unfortunately, the ammonia test turned out deep green. And this was with multiple plants AND fish living in the tank. Clearly the plants weren't getting rid of as much ammonia as I thought they would, and it was bad news for the fish...

The real kicker? I had been treating my water for ammonia regularly. I hadn't gotten the opportunity to get it properly tested, so to help keep the ammonia down in the meantime, I treated it weekly. Yet my ammonia was off the chart... I'm really happy my fish made it through okay...

Did you end up getting your tank to finally cycle?! That sounds like a bad experience! You got lucky. Haha. I just want my dang tank to cycle so I can get my fish

 

[CoyoteWildfire]

Right now, I'm in the midst of getting it to cycle. I'll be getting the water tested again this weekend after treating it a little more heavily. The fish themselves are doing okay, and the water didn't seem to be displaying such high amounts of ammonia initially. But the only way to tell is to have the water tested again, which I'm going to do. I'll keep you posted on the results!

 

[Corbo]

Alright, well good luck, definitely! I hope everything turns out alright.. All I have to look at right now is driftwood and plants (and my driftwood is still floating :|) haha. So at least you have fish that are seemingly ok. Keep us posted!

 

[James_in_MN]

SOOOOO.. I'm an idiot. And I'm lucky I have no fish in my tank.

I have a 29 gallon planted I am trying to get cycled, and I ordered a test kit that took like.. over a week to come in... So I figure- Why not start before it gets here?

WHAT A NOOB.

I get my test kit and my Ammonia is OFF THE CHART- the liquid was blue... the highest ammonia on the chart of my API chart is green. Yeah. I'm terrible. I figured my plants would take care of more Ammonia than that.. I was terribly wrong. :|

I did the same thing back when I was cycling a 5 gallon hex tank. I didn't know how much ammonia to put in, so I dropped in a capful; basically recreated the surface of Venus in my tank.

 

[Durvish]

Coyote -- do you have a test kit? Or are you totally depending on the lfs?