need help with fishless cycling!!

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GraceCC

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
May 6, 2009
Messages
4
Location
New Hampshire
Hi, I'm Grace and this is my first post. I'm new to the hobby and have recently purchased a 20 gal freshwater tank. I've done quite a bit of research on aquarium set-up and I decided to try fishless cycling using household ammonia (the good kind with no additives) to prevent harming fish. But, unfortunately, I seem to be stalled in the process. Here's what I did: I was able to add an artificial plant and a little bit of gravel from an established aquarium to help seed the tank (from a trusted aquarium shop.) Every day I added ammonia so that the level reached a measurement of 5ppm until I started getting a nitrite reading, and then I started adding a little bit less every day. Shortly after nitrites began appearing, I started getting readings for nitrates and the ammonia level started going down to zero within 12 to 24 hours or so. After this it seemed to take quite a while for the nitrites to spike but eventually they did, and then two days later the nitrites went down to zero with the nitrates showing a nice increase to 80ppm. This whole process took a full 8 weeks. Now here's the problem - ever since the nitrites have gone down to zero (about 4 days now) the ammonia levels are decreasing at a much slower pace and now appeared to have stopped decreasing. I stopped adding ammonia to wait for the current levels to go down. For more than two days now I have zero nitrites, a measurement of .5 ppm of ammonia, and a high level of nitrates (80ppm). I know that the tank is not finished cycling until the ammonia and the nitrites are both at zero. What could account for the current stall in the ammonia decrease when it was previously decreasing overnight? Is it possible that the bacteria-producing nitrates are consuming the bacteria-producing nitrites before the nitrites have time to consume the ammonia? I was told that I could add fish (after a large water change) since I do have some bacterial growth. But after investing so much time cycling the tank to avoid harming fish I'm concerned that the bio-filter won't be able to reduce the ammonia produced. Any advice on how I should proceed at this point would be very much appreciated!!!!!

-an added point: I did top the aquarium water off when the water level was getting too low for the heater. To avoid using ammonia-reducing dechlorinators, I let the water sit out overnight in a bucket and then added it to the tank. I am certain that my town does not use chloramines (called water dept.) Could there have been residual chlorine left in water that may have killed the nitrite bacteria? If so, what do I do now???? Please help!! :confused:
 
get some tetras, they are very hearty fish, I cycled 4 tanks with the same tetras and they are still alive and in great health.

What are your water parameters? all of em.
 
Thanks for the reply. The water parameters are as follows: ph 7.5, ammonia .5ppm, nitrite 0, nitrate 80ppm. Hardness may be a problem as apparently my tap water comes from a combination of different places and varies from week to week (sometimes soft and sometimes on the hard side.) I thought that I would eventually populate the tank with a few platies, white clouds, a dwarf guarami, and maybe a smallish bottom feeder. Should I just get three white clouds and let them finish cycling the tank (after large water change)?
 
Not all tetras are hardy IME. I'd wait to get this all sorted out before you add any fish; you've already come this far. I'm guessing that it would be fine, but still. Sorry if I missed it, but what kit are you using to test your water? If you use test strips, they are often very inaccurate and can give you some really misleading readings. If it's a liquid kit, is there an expiration date? Double checked the instructions to make absolutely sure you are running the tests correctly? Dumb questions I know, but I'm just trying to rule everything out, lol. As for the dechlorinator, I use Prime and I know it won't interfere with cycling. I would recommend it to you even though you don't have chloramine in the water. I would personally feel more comfortable playing it extra safe, but of course that's just my opinion.

Welcome to AA! :)
 
Not dumb questions, I started doubting myself so I checked and double checked the instructions and the expiration date. I'm using the API freshwater kit. Good to know about Prime. Not sure how to proceed from here, though.
 
I think the best thing to do at this point is just to wait it out and see what happens, and keep testing the water. :)
 
You might want to do a water change. High Nitrate values can cause the cycle to stall.
Also, you said you stopped adding ammonia when the nitITEs first appeared. It could be that some of the ammonia processing bacteria died when you stopped adding ammonia. Continue to add ammonia while the nitITE spike is appearing. Looks like you are almost there and that ammonia should be down to zero in short time.
 
I think I will do a water change, it can't hurt and then I'll wait a while and see what happens. Thanks everyone!
 
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