Stalled cycle

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stevenht

Aquarium Advice FINatic
Joined
Jul 26, 2016
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My tank has been going for almost a month now. I've done probably 3 water changes (got kinda lazy) I just did a 40% WC and the ammonia went from 1.0 to 0.5 ppm. The nitrites are still steady between 2.0 and 5.0 ppm. Do I just need to keep doing big WC's or something else? I've been using stability to help with the BB
 
Let your tank get between 2-4ppm ammonia and leave it there until you have 0 nitrites. That will kick start it a bit.
 
How do I get it that way? I've never had this much problems cycling a tank
 
You can get ammonia to 2-4 ppm by simply adding bottled ammonia from Ace or a hardware store. You can also add a pinch of fish food to the tank every day although it will dirty it up a bit. If you are doing a fish less cycle you don't really have to change the water that often and if you do a PWC only do like 20%.
 
Ok found some ammonia for cheap at ACE. Do you know how much to add? I have a 46 bowfront
 
First, it has to be 100% pure ammonia. Hopefully that's what you got. Now...you are asking me to do math. Lol. I use the trial and error method a lot. I don't know the math equation to get 4 ppm ammonia in your 46 gallon tank. If I had to make an experienced guess I'd say add a half an ounce. That should put you around 4 ppm. Test your water a couple hours after you add ammonia. See where it's at. If it's over 5 ppm then do a 25% water change to drop it down. You can always do water changes to lower the ammonia. Also, raise your tank temp to around 84 degrees.
 
I read on a different post that the ACE branded ammonia is a good one cause it doesn't contain anything buy ammonia hydroxide or something. It doesn't have surfecant in it. I could also go the dead shrimp route
 
Sounds like you got the right one.....whatever you want to use to get the ammonia. Just keep it between 2-4 ppm consistently.
 
How long do I keep it consistent for? I read it was until nitrites spike but my nitrites are already really high
 
If your nitrites are at 2 ppm then that isn't high. If it's 5 ppm then it's high. Do a water change until you get your nitrites to 2 ppm. Then add ammonia until it's at 2 ppm. Leave it here. Test your water once a day or two. The idea at this point imo is to have ammonia and nitrates present. You seem to be on your second phase of the cycle
 
Another thing, when you turn the heat up to about 84 degrees you are gonna need to create more oxygen. Do you have airstones? And what are you using for filtration....a power head?
 
Turned the heat up, kept ammonia at around 3 to 5 ppm (think I added too much), nitrites are now at 0, but my nitrates are at 160 ppm. I do have an algae bloom that I've slowly been working on but I want to keep the back wall portion for fry and the fish to graze on.
 
Checked today and my ammonia is at 1ppm, nitrites are at 0, nitrates between 5 and 10ppm
 
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