Fishless cycle - Very dirty water

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grahamo83

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Jun 7, 2010
Messages
15
Hi All,

I've been cycling my 1st tank for about three weeks now and at the moment I'm having some problems with very dirty/dusty water.
My tank water has always been a little dusty - mostly at the surface but it seems to have rocketed in the last few days.

I've deviated a little from the fishless cycle:
- After week 1 I changed the water because the water wouldn't clear up and I got frustrated looking at a dirty tank.
- I put some Interpret filter aid in the tank - it turned the water brown so I added an API biochem zorb to the filter which I have now removed.
- Last week I did a 100% water change as I wanted to move some of the substrate to a different part of the tank (I have some white substrate that make a little island). After filling up the tank the water was quite dusty (from the substrate I think) but I left it to settle ( it never really settled).

I have two annubias barteri var barteri plants and have to keep the lights on for these plants (10 hours a day)- I am planning on getting more plants (Java fern/Java moss) but don't want them to suffer in the dirty water. These plants have recently starting developing brown dust/algae on the leaves which I rub off daily - I dose with Seachem flourish twice a week.

My ammonia has been stuck at about 3.0ppm since I did the 100% water change. Nitrate has dropped quite a lot recently but seemed to go back up yesterday. What should I do - should I/could I do a water change? I would really like to keep my plants as they were a little expensive... I'm getting a bit tired of waiting for this cycle but I'm hanging in there..

dirtyWater.jpg
 
i wouldn't do a water change. your ammonia level is good. what is your nitrite level? if you have nitrates in the tank, it sounds like the cycle is almost over... or does your tap water have nitrates? maybe you could give us your exact readings as of now.

after your cycle is over you will need to do a large water change before getting fish, so you can clear out the debris then. cloudiness could also be from a bacteria bloom (which is a good thing right now)

your anubias should be fine, i wouldn't worry about losing them. they would be fine with only 8 hrs of light, which will be better for the cycle as well.

what kind of substrate do you have? if it is sand substrate, and it's really fine, the filter output could be stirring it up and causing the water to stay dusty.
 
Thanks for the reply Mommytron.

I've not tested my tap water before.

Just tested my levels and I have:
Ammonia: 3.0ppm (0 under tap water)
Nitrite: 0.25ppm (0 under tap water)
Nitrate: 5.0ppm (40 under tap water!!)

Forgot to mention that I recently added Tetra safestart as I read that this may have some effect but didn't hold much faith that it would do the job.
 
Ok So today I have

Ammonia 3.0 (not changed)
Nitrite 0 (dropped)
Nitrate 8-10 (up)

So my Ammonia has not dropped for a week now. My understanding is the bacteria feed off the ammonia. If the ammonia is not dropping the bacteria are not active - but this is strange because my Nitrite has dropped and Nitrates have risen- unless the tetra safestart has been up to something?

I'm tempted to add a little more ammonia (up to 4.0ppm) and see if the level drops in the next few days. My theory, based on no science whatsoever is that I seem to have a residual level of ammonia, I just want to see something happening...

Any thoughts? Suggestions?
 
Did you seed the tank with filter material from an established filter? This will help speed the cycle up as it introduces bacteria to the tank. Otherwise you have to wait for them to show up.

The drops and rises you saw from one reading to the next are probably due to reading errors. I don't think your tank parameters are moving yet. When the tank will process 4ppm of ammonia to nitrate in twenty-four hours, your cycle is finished.

Be patient with it. Six weeks seems to be a pretty common length of time to fishless cycle a tank.
 
Unfortunately I cannot not get any filter material.

My ammonia level has not dropped since my last post - so now it has been stuck for something like 11 days. When I first started my cycle (before the water change/adding the tetra safestart etc...) the ammonia did drop from 4 to about 1.5 before hanging there.
I am a bit concerned that i've just overdone it (water changes/chemicals/plant 'stuff'/moving the substrate around) and its stalled.

Any suggestions as to how to get it going again?

I'm not really enjoying this...
One of my anubias barteri has been rotting at the rhizome (white jelly like substance) and the leaves just fell off - this is only affecting half of the rhizome - the other half seems to be ok I thought these plants were almost impossible to kill! What should I do?
 
i would wait the cycle out a bit longer. it's going to take over a month to finish since you don't have any seed material. just be patient :)

as far as the anubias, how did you plant them? they are best attached to driftwood or a rock, and if you plant them in the substrate you need to make sure the rhizome is above the substrate. i would cut the lights back to 6-8 hours a day to cut back on algae (if you're still having that problem)
 
The anubias is tied to driftwood. I will cut the light as suggested. Thanks
 
Should I do anything to the anubias? - i've tried my best to gently remove the rot. A google search found a forum post that said it should be dropped in hydrogen peroxide to kill the bacteria. I don't have any hydrogen peroxide and have know idea where I can obtain such a thing - is there something similar I could use?
 
are you sure that there is bacteria on it that's causing the problem? if so, you can do a bleach dip, in something like 1:10 bleach to water (you will want to check that ratio, i'm not sure if that's right) and then a fresh water dip.
 
Sorry - I'm not sure what if its bacteria - I am only recounting what I read elsewhere on the web for a person who had a simlar problem. All I know for certain is that there is/was a white jelly like substance where the rhizome used to be - and it smells quite bad. The plant is pretty big so I still have quite a few large leaves on the half of the rhizome that looks healthy - I think the leaves look reasonably healthy (even the ones that came off)- though not as good as they looked when I bought the plant.

The other anubias I have looks fine. I will look more into the bleaching. Thanks once again mommytron you have been very helpful to me.
 
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