Sorry this is long, but I’m really needing some advise from the cycling experts out there.
Background: 29 gal tank from my sister-in-law. Her 10+ year old goldies finally gave up. The tank has been completely cleaned, and yes, rinsed, rinsed, rinsed… new decorations and substrate, both cleaned properly. However, I am reusing the Aqua-Tech HOB that she had with it. The filters are new, but the Bio-Fiber is the same. Not sure if this is causing some issues, see further down. By the way the tank sat empty for several months, before I cleaned it.
I started fishless cycling the tank back on 3/22 and it has yet to be cycled to this day. I believe the process stalled. I started the ammonia level slightly above 4ppm but definitely less than 8ppm using the API master kit. Original water parameters were temp 84-86, pH 8.2, ammonia 0ppm, nitrites 0ppm, nitrates 5ppm. The tank was not seeded and I use NovAqua+ water conditioner that sis-in-law gave with tank. Over the next three days the ammonia levels originally started to slowly drop, until I added more to bring it back up to slightly above 4ppm. At 7 days I tested again: ammonia 4ppm, nitrites 0ppm, nitrates 10-20ppm (colors are too close to tell any difference on the card). Day 29, ammonia never dropped again, and 0 nitrites had formed. Nitrates were definitely at 20ppm (nitrates must have been eating all nitrites up?) At this point I was giving up and was going to start over once I got back from our vacation, now 6 weeks and 0 nitrites and no more movement in ammonia. Came back on 5/10 and the process started: ammonia <1ppm, nitrites <.25ppm (not light blue anymore), nitrates 20-40ppm! The temp had also risen to 90, a/c in house was off while we were gone. I read the nitrogen process doesn’t do well past 86?
Now I have been keeping the ammonia no greater than 4ppm to make sure I wasn’t the cause of the stall. Parameters as of yesterday 6/6: temp 86, ammonia ~4ppm, nitrites off the scale, nitrates ~80ppm. At this point the ammonia takes several days to go down to 2ppm, where I dose it up again. Things seem to not be improving anymore. It has been 11 weeks since the start! I need advice for where to go now.
Should I just continue from where I’m at? This is beyond slow compared to what others have stated for the length of even a slow process. Should I do a full water change to get rid of the nitrates and bump back up to 4ppm ammonia? I feel that the nitrates have been overpowering the nitrites from the beginning, being they are already present from the tap. The other question is, does the bio-fiber look normal in the pictures? I even saw the same white-ish fuzz in the top of the tank corners above the water line This fuzz has been present in the bio-fiber since about 3 weeks or so (obviously in smaller amounts). Are issues maybe being caused by the previously used HOB and media? Please help!
Background: 29 gal tank from my sister-in-law. Her 10+ year old goldies finally gave up. The tank has been completely cleaned, and yes, rinsed, rinsed, rinsed… new decorations and substrate, both cleaned properly. However, I am reusing the Aqua-Tech HOB that she had with it. The filters are new, but the Bio-Fiber is the same. Not sure if this is causing some issues, see further down. By the way the tank sat empty for several months, before I cleaned it.
I started fishless cycling the tank back on 3/22 and it has yet to be cycled to this day. I believe the process stalled. I started the ammonia level slightly above 4ppm but definitely less than 8ppm using the API master kit. Original water parameters were temp 84-86, pH 8.2, ammonia 0ppm, nitrites 0ppm, nitrates 5ppm. The tank was not seeded and I use NovAqua+ water conditioner that sis-in-law gave with tank. Over the next three days the ammonia levels originally started to slowly drop, until I added more to bring it back up to slightly above 4ppm. At 7 days I tested again: ammonia 4ppm, nitrites 0ppm, nitrates 10-20ppm (colors are too close to tell any difference on the card). Day 29, ammonia never dropped again, and 0 nitrites had formed. Nitrates were definitely at 20ppm (nitrates must have been eating all nitrites up?) At this point I was giving up and was going to start over once I got back from our vacation, now 6 weeks and 0 nitrites and no more movement in ammonia. Came back on 5/10 and the process started: ammonia <1ppm, nitrites <.25ppm (not light blue anymore), nitrates 20-40ppm! The temp had also risen to 90, a/c in house was off while we were gone. I read the nitrogen process doesn’t do well past 86?
Now I have been keeping the ammonia no greater than 4ppm to make sure I wasn’t the cause of the stall. Parameters as of yesterday 6/6: temp 86, ammonia ~4ppm, nitrites off the scale, nitrates ~80ppm. At this point the ammonia takes several days to go down to 2ppm, where I dose it up again. Things seem to not be improving anymore. It has been 11 weeks since the start! I need advice for where to go now.
Should I just continue from where I’m at? This is beyond slow compared to what others have stated for the length of even a slow process. Should I do a full water change to get rid of the nitrates and bump back up to 4ppm ammonia? I feel that the nitrates have been overpowering the nitrites from the beginning, being they are already present from the tap. The other question is, does the bio-fiber look normal in the pictures? I even saw the same white-ish fuzz in the top of the tank corners above the water line This fuzz has been present in the bio-fiber since about 3 weeks or so (obviously in smaller amounts). Are issues maybe being caused by the previously used HOB and media? Please help!