fishles cycling - Aquarium Advice

mark shirah · 05-09-2006, 10:52 AM

i am on day 28 of fishless cycling. followed the usual procedure of adding and keeping ammonia around 4-5 ppm. at day 14 i got the nitrite spike. reduced ammonia to keep a lower level. now on day 28 nitrite went to 0, but still have ammonia level around .5 ppm. what are my next steps and when should i lower temp. i kept temp around 85 during cycle.

rich311k · 05-09-2006, 10:57 AM

I would do a water change 50% or so, test the ammonia if it still says .5 then I would bet your test kit is faulty. Take a sample of water to the LFS to test or get a new kit. If it goes down to zero or really close to it in 24 hours then you are done. I would turn the temp down now, your bacteria is pretty much done populating.

malkore · 05-09-2006, 11:58 AM

You're likely just in the last few days of the cycle, but as Rich mentions, your test kit might be reading false ammonia levels.

how much ammonia are you dosing now? 2-3ppm should be plenty.

are you detecting nitrates now as well?

**Zagz** · 05-09-2006, 09:10 PM

Malkore brings up a good question about the nitrates. If there are no nitrates the test kit may be faulty or your cycle isn't quite done yet.

05-09-2006, 10:52 AM	#1
mark shirah Aquarium Advice Apprentice Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: georgia usa Posts: 35	fishles cycling i am on day 28 of fishless cycling. followed the usual procedure of adding and keeping ammonia around 4-5 ppm. at day 14 i got the nitrite spike. reduced ammonia to keep a lower level. now on day 28 nitrite went to 0, but still have ammonia level around .5 ppm. what are my next steps and when should i lower temp. i kept temp around 85 during cycle.

05-09-2006, 11:58 AM	#3
malkore Aquarium Advice Addict Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Nebraska, USA Posts: 6,540	You're likely just in the last few days of the cycle, but as Rich mentions, your test kit might be reading false ammonia levels. how much ammonia are you dosing now? 2-3ppm should be plenty. are you detecting nitrates now as well? __________________ Visit my aquarium pages - see specs on my tanks, and photos of how they've evolved My other passion: TheNinja 500R - updated 9/18/05

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05-09-2006, 10:57 AM	#2
rich311k Aquarium Advice Addict Moderator Emeritus Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Long Island, NY Posts: 8,972 Images: 35	I would do a water change 50% or so, test the ammonia if it still says .5 then I would bet your test kit is faulty. Take a sample of water to the LFS to test or get a new kit. If it goes down to zero or really close to it in 24 hours then you are done. I would turn the temp down now, your bacteria is pretty much done populating.