Help! Fishless cycle-Now worms appeared!

[gzeiger]

That light should be ok. If the plants are just living and not growing though they won't take up much ammonia.

Plants should be ok at 90 degrees.

Just to rule things out, the tank hasn't ever been cleaned with soap or treated with antibiotics right? A month does seem like a long time. Good luck to you.

Even with no source of seed provided, the bacteria you need are present in low numbers in the environment. Soil from your yard may help, actually. It's definitely possible to cycle a tank without ever adding a source though.

 

[Da Squid]

The tank was purchased from a friend of mine who had it in his garage for a good 10 years probably. I used vinegar and hose water to clean it out, but no soap products. I know everyone says those bacteria in a bottle things are hoaxes, but I'll probably pick some up and try it. In a few weeks if nothing is going right I may do water changes to remove the ammonia and just toss in a few hearty fish.
Its quite a head scratcher why things arent cycling. This has got to be a record.

 

[Yellow Eye Tang]

If I could add my experiance here.... I'm sittin on a 20g tank that went through a bacterial bloom 1 month AFTER I set it up and the bloom lasted for 6 weeks. I don't know why it took so long to turn over but my tank took forever to cycle. I had Nitrite reading at 1ppm and nitrates at 10 for at least 5 weeks. I was doing water changes like crazy to help the fish and then I finally got the nutrafin cycle. I dosed with it 3 times over a week and my tank went clear. Just like that I went to sleep and woke up and BAM it was clear and the nitrites / nitrates were at 0. Go Figure,... sometimes it just takes longer than others I guess.