Fishless cycling

[Megan33]

I'm scared to do this again. My ammonia shot to 5ppm last time and continued to go up. I feel that my ammonia and nitrites are fine but my nitrates isn't strong enough to take care of it yet.

 

[King Fisher]

Nitrates could easily go 80 ppm or higher. It's not going to affect anything during a Fishless Cycle. Simply do a 50% water change if it shoots up there and you cut it in half.

Most people keep ammonia at 4ppm during a Fishless Cycle. Although 2ppm isn't bad either. The more ammonia the larger your BB colony will be.

 

[Megan33]

I will see what my tests come back as tomorrow. Add a few drops of ammonia after. I've stupidly not been keeping track of how many drops of ammonia I've been putting in each time. So I feel like im not in control.
From tomorrow, I will do this though!!
Silly mistake

 

[Megan33]

Today NH3 2.0, NO2 4.0, NO3 40.0
I don't know why its stayed the same, but didn't add any ammonia cos it's not budging.
Don't know where to go from here...

I've let the test tubes sit with distilled water in today and hope this helps.
I've also added my UV sterilizer as I'm sure it will only remove floating bacteria in the water, and not any in the filter.

 

[ZxC]

Today NH3 2.0, NO2 4.0, NO3 40.0
I don't know why its stayed the same, but didn't add any ammonia cos it's not budging.
Don't know where to go from here...

I've let the test tubes sit with distilled water in today and hope this helps.
I've also added my UV sterilizer as I'm sure it will only remove floating bacteria in the water, and not any in the filter.

Leave as is, watch and wait for 80ppm NO3 then a 50% water change and dose ammonia back up to 2-4ppm.

Once the tank can consume 2 - 4ppm ammonia without any trace of NO2 within 24 hours, run to the the fish store and buy some new pets

 

[Megan33]

Seems stuck as is at the moment, but hope this happens effortlessly over next week!

 

[King Fisher]

I second Z, leave it be for now.

 

[Megan33]

Nitrates were 80.0 today, so I did a 60% water change. I used prime and stability. I hope I get some zeros for the other 2, so I can get things moving again. Fingers crossed

 

[ZxC]

Nitrates were 80.0 today, so I did a 60% water change. I used prime and stability. I hope I get some zeros for the other 2, so I can get things moving again. Fingers crossed

did you dose ammonia back up to 2-4ppm? after the water change?

 

[Megan33]

I didn't. I'm going to test the water again now to see what the results are

 

[Megan33]

6 hours after w/c
PH 7, NH3 0.2, NO2 0.5, NO3 10.0
I've added a dose of ammonia

 

[Megan33]

I got 2 fantails yesterday!
My ammonia and nitrite kept coming back as 0. I did one big water change and got the 2 babies.
Still been testing water twice a day and will continue to do this. Adding handful of matrix and purigen to filter also

 

[FreshwaterCent]

There's really no need to do a water change unless you're ammonia or other levels are getting high enough to actually kill the beneficial bacteria (I believe that starts at ~4-5 ppm). Your ammonia is at 2 ppm tho - I recommend just testing and keeping it at that level, it shouldn't go up unless you add a bunch more which isn't necessary.

 

[King Fisher]

I got 2 fantails yesterday!
My ammonia and nitrite kept coming back as 0. I did one big water change and got the 2 babies.
Still been testing water twice a day and will continue to do this. Adding handful of matrix and purigen to filter also

Congrats on zeroing out the bad stuff [emoji16]. Good luck with the fish and enjoy.