Fishless Cycle help?

[Animag771]

I'm doing a fishless cycle on my 20g tank and it has been about 20 days now. I have been using this guideand am at K). The tank will turn 4ppm of Ammonia into 0 in 24hrs, the Nitrites and Nitrates are off the charts, but the nitrites haven't dropped. Do I just need to wait longer until it happens or should I lower the amount of Ammonia I'm adding?

 

[rodpreston]

I'm doing a fishless cycle on my 20g tank and it has been about 20 days now. I have been using this guideand am at K). The tank will turn 4ppm of Ammonia into 0 in 24hrs, the Nitrites and Nitrates are off the charts, but the nitrites haven't dropped. Do I just need to wait longer until it happens or should I lower the amount of Ammonia I'm adding?

HI, the nitrobacter (nitrite to nitrate) takes considerable longer to multiply than the Nitrosomonas (ammonia to nitrite). So if for example you saw your your ammonia reduce after say 10 days I would double that so add another 20 days. I say this for two reasons primarily the nitrobacter won't multiply until it has a food source ie nitrite and this has to first wait for the ammonia to be convert, hence a delayed start.... Secondly the bacteria for converting ammonia reproduces approx 7 hours yet nitrobacter reproduces approx every 15 to 20 hours so as you can see taking approx 2x times longer in its stage.

I would suggest, doing a partial water change, chlorine free of course... To bring your nitrite level and nitrates down to a readable level (for your own piece of mind) and slow down your ammonia dosing maybe to 1 or 2ppm max as this is already established so just need to feed just enough to keep that bacteria alive, check your ph, nitrobacter likes ph around 7.6 and water temp around 27c - 28c.

But most importantly.
Patience my friend. But if you do all this you'll be up and running in no time. On a last note. Lights off!! Particulaly if you have lights at the blue end of the spectrum.

I hope this helps a little. Your so close to finishing just a little more time!!

Goodluck

 

[Animag771]

Wow lots of info. Thanks for the quick response and great explanations. I will reduce the ammonia levels to 2ppm and do a water change. My ph level is at 7.5 and the temperature is at 82F (not sure what that is in Celsius). I can't to turn the lights off though, due to having live plants. I'm sure that's slowing things down a bit.

 

[rodpreston]

Once your nitrites are in a readable level, and once you see the reduction nitrites start, you can bump your ammonia dosing up to 4ppm as stated in the article.

With your lighting, no need to turn it off if it is standard fluro, providing its not on the heavy side of the blue spectrum. Your plants with need some light, maybe a few hours a day, to help keep them healthy toooo....

Let me know how you go, your certainly on the right track, and that article is a great start, once of the best I've seen for a beginner. Also if you have another aquarium or a friend with one, try seeding, (again) as the nitrobacter will all seed just to speed things along even further.

Happy Fishing!!!...

 

[Animag771]

Once your nitrites are in a readable level, and once you see the reduction nitrites start, you can bump your ammonia dosing up to 4ppm as stated in the article.

With your lighting, no need to turn it off if it is standard fluro, providing its not on the heavy side of the blue spectrum. Your plants with need some light, maybe a few hours a day, to help keep them healthy toooo....

Let me know how you go, your certainly on the right track, and that article is a great start, once of the best I've seen for a beginner. Also if you have another aquarium or a friend with one, try seeding, (again) as the nitrobacter will all seed just to speed things along even further.

Happy Fishing!!!...

You rock Thanks again. I will be more patient and hopefully I will have some fish in this tank eventually and happy fish at that!