Nothing after Cycling for 24 hours

[HooKooDooKu]

So I just bought one of those 5 Gallon Eclipse corner tanks and I'm trying a fish-less cycle.

I filled the tank with untreated tap water and let the filtration system run for a day. Then I treated the water (Prime) and added washed play-sand for the substrate.

To help seed the new tank, I stole about 1/4 cup of play-sand and three pebbles from the recently cycled 10 gallon goldfish tank. I sprinkled the stolen sand over the new sand, and placed the pebbles inside the Eclipse filter box.

Based on a discussion I found online, it seems like a source of "pure" ammonia is ACE Hardware store brand ammonia cleaner (the bottle ONLY lists a 10% ammonia solution for the ingredients, nothing is said about any additives). So I picked up a bottle for a few bucks.

So I added this ACE ammonia until my APC liquid test kit indicated the ammonia levels at about 5ppm.

After letting the system run for 24 hours, I tested the ammonia and nitrIte levels. The ammonia was reading that same 5ppm while the nitrIte was at zero. I figured I'd get SOMETHING after seeding the tank.

Is this to be expected, or am I using a poor source of ammonia?

 

[neilanh]

You've got the right source of ammonia, that's exactly the same stuff I use.

In all honesty, you didn't bring over very much seed material, so I'm not surprised. You have a few options - wait it out or get more seed material. The more you get, the faster the cycle will go.

 

[jsoong]

Patience ......

Cycling takes at least a week or 2. Unless you seeded heavily from the other tank (say 1/2 of the filter material), don't expect to see much in the first day!

 

[HooKooDooKu]

Patience.... yea yea....

Well it's now been 48 hours and I've got a nitrite level of 0.25ppm

And just to show that I've got SOME patience, I didn't even bother to measure for nitrate levels yet.

I just expected that after lightly seeding the tank that 24 hours was going to be enough time for at least the smallest amount of nitrite to be detected. I would have been happy with 0.1 ppm. I was just a little surprised to see ZERO. The color of the nitrite test just wasn't changing at all yesterday.

I'm actually surprised to see it go from undetectable to a strong 0.25ppm indication in the second 24 hours.

Now over all, I expected the cycling to take about 2 weeks. After all, it took just over a full month cycling WITH fish and daily PWCs.

Now I've just got to finish working on my piece of drift wood. I picked it up at the LFS, but it came from the reptile room. The person at the store claimed that it should be fine for fish tanks since it was bleached on the outside (at least on side) but I can tell it's in need of some work. I've already hollowed it out to make a good cover once it's in the tank, and it's got a lot of character for such a small piece. I've boiled it twice already (and it was floating a lot less after just the 1st boiling). I've read basic instruction... but I guess it's time to start a new thread.

 

[Sombunya]

With a tank that small I'd seed it with material from a cycled tank and then add a (small) fish or two and let it cycle that way.

You'd be doing water changes every day but with a tank that small it would be easy to keep the nasties at or below .25 ppm.

 

[HooKooDooKu]

With a tank that small I'd seed it with material from a cycled tank and then add a (small) fish or two and let it cycle that way.

You'd be doing water changes every day but with a tank that small it would be easy to keep the nasties at or below .25 ppm.

I just finished cycling a new 10 gallon tank with fish in it... requiring daily PWCs. I'm NOT doing that again if I can avoid it.

And I DID seed the new tank with some material from the old tank (not much I'll admit, but something).

I only started this thread because I was surprised that my first nitrite reading was completely ZERO, not even the slightest hint that there was ANY nitrite in the tank after 24 hours with PLENTY of ammonia to feed off of.