Restarting cycle

[Azure Lord]

So a couple days ago I decided I was going to restart my cycle. Lot of mistakes, unforeseen circumstances, bad luck, who knows. let's not dwell on why.

This time around I decided I was going to use Dr Tim's one and only nitrifying bacteria. You can burn me for witchcraft, but I tried cycling the natural way for 4 months with no success.... My patience is demonstrated.

Starting over, I performed a major water change to get all the numbers back down to zero. I followed his video exactly as instructed. I poured the entire bottle in, and followed it with 10 drops of his ammonium chloride solution for fishless cycling that would have raised the ammonia up to 2 ppm.
It has been 24 hours, and the water quality results are as such:

Ammonia-0.50pm
Nitrite-0.25ppm
Nitrate-5ppm

I'm hoping I understood correctly from the video, and I'm going to wait an additional 24 hours and check again... Making sure not to dose ammonia unless it is 0ppm.



While I will welcome commentary and advice, please do not burn me for choosing this method or slander the product unless you have tried it.

I really don't have ready access to colonized filter media.... So it's this or all natural..... Which is just spent the last 4 months failing miserably.

Dr Tim seems to know what he's doing, so that's why I'm giving it a shot.

I am mainly just posting this.... So that I have witnesses!

Any of you who have seen my past posts know good and well...... I have tried!

Four......&@$#ing.......months bro..........

Side note: I find it fairly incredible that I could not cycle a tank in 4 months .... I have no idea how things went so wrong!
All I know is I quit overdosing ammonia, jacking with the filter, and filling the vials directly from the outflow of the filter. I don't know if trace amounts of the chemicals in the tests were killing the bacteria on a regular basis or what, but I now use eye droppers that stay washed.

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[Masha]

Thanks for posting, I did wonder... And it's great to share your suspected mistakes in case anyone else might have the same problem.

For what it's worth, who cares HOW you get the cycle going, as long as it's going! I don't think there's anything wrong with using bottled bacteria, and I really hope you have a smooth ride from now on.

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[Azure Lord]

Honestly....its a matter of pride. I wanna raise fish and i cant even grow bacteria.....


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[trennamw]

Honestly....its a matter of pride. I wanna raise fish and i cant even grow bacteria.....


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And you start raising fish by buying fish right? Not by waiting for them to drop from the sky into your tank ...

Sounds like your cycle is going. It's nice to hear another good reference for Dr Tims product.


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[Azure Lord]

What I mean if I can't keep bacteria alive what hope do fish have?

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[Azure Lord]

Second day test results

Ammonia-0.25 ppm
Nitrite-1ppm
Nitrate-10 ppm

I was really expecting ammonia to be 0, but oh well. I know something's happening because I've got nitrate. Any thoughts?

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[trennamw]

What I mean if I can't keep bacteria alive what hope do fish have?

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I know. I was just kidding.

Seriously though, cycling is hard because getting your starter bacteria is harder than getting your starter fish. No harm in buying the bacteria.

Sounds like it's going very well.


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[Azure Lord]

Well I was expecting ammonia to be 0. The video instructed me to add 1 drop of ammonia per gallon. So I added 10. Problem is this only about 6 gallons of water in the tank. So I suspect it will take a little longer I expect good things tomorrow.

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[trennamw]

Ah yes. Well it's good that there wasn't so much ammonia it prevented a cycle. There are claims the getting ammonia, nitrite, or nitrate too high can stall a cycle.

But having 40% more than needed sure will add time until it is gone.


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[Azure Lord]

When I first started the first cycle, I ended up with so much ammonia that the test vial contents turned black.......

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[Azure Lord]

I believe that a high anything will always stall the cycle. But I don't think it was abnormally high. Like I said it was down to 0.50ppm last night and 0.25ppm tonight

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[Azure Lord]

When i have to add more...i may just add 6 lol

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[Azure Lord]

I really just don't know what to do....

I conditioned my water according to the bottle, I'm following the instructions on cycling with Dr Tim's aquatics, nay,cycling in general- to the letter...


Day 3 test results are:
Ammonia-0.25ppm
Nitrite-2ppm
Nitrate- 10ppm

I condition my water in the bucket, then mix it to make sure!

What am i doing wrong?

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[sinibotia]

With the ammonia vial: Try looking through the bottom and into a light source. For some reason, 0 ammonia often looks like .25, but if you look through the bottom of the vial it'll be pretty clearly yellow.

I know it's 0 and not .25 because if it were .25, then my GBRs would have been dead weeks ago.

If it turns out your ammonia is in fact a 0, then just wait for your nitrites to drop and youll be all set.

 

[Azure Lord]

no, its very clearly greenish....no matter what.

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[sinibotia]

Just give it a bit of time. Sometimes the BB are just weird. I had a 2 month cycled tank suddenly start showing nitrites, the night before I was expecting a shipment of fish I'd been looking for for almost 2 months. Make sure your tank is warm, has good circulation, and just keep testing till you're all set!

 

[Azure Lord]

This morning i added about 1mL of prime. I just now tested water.
Ammonia-0ppm
Nitrite-0.25ppm
Nitrite-5ppm(i may have incorrectly tested until now)

Any thoughts?

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[jennandjuicetm]

What kind of test kit are you using?

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[Azure Lord]

Api ammonia test kit.....the test tube onees

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[trennamw]

It looks perfect, considering you started with more ammonia than was necessary. What do you find to be wrong?


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