Could the water conditioner I'm using be stalling my cycle?

[Gunk]

Just a quick question while waiting for my tank to start cycling. I'm using Aqueon Water Conditioner. On the back label it states that it detoxifies heavy metals and ammonia but I still get ammonia readings with api kit. Could this have anything to do with why my cycle won't budge? I'm going to be starting 6th week monday and my Dads tank is almost done cycling in 2 1/2-3 weeks. I used the Aqueon And he used Tetra Aquasafe(it's not the one that has Nitraban or Bio Extract in it). I just trying to follow all avenues i can find. thanks

 

[OhNeil1969]

Are you cycling with fish or performing a fishless cycle? If you're performing a fishless cycle then I really don't see the need to add conditioner other than to dechlorinate in the beginning. I wouldn't even recommend water changes during a fishless cycle unless you've overdosed the tank with ammonia.

 

[Gunk]

Yes its a fishless cycle. I only used it on the first day but after a month with no movement (see my other posts) I was (to make a long story short) advised that maybe ammonia was to high and try a partial water change at which time i added the appropriate ammount more of the water conditioner

 

[OhNeil1969]

Are you continuing to add ammonia to keep the bacteria that has grown fed? I recommend an initial dosage that gets you around 3-5 ppm of ammonia. After you see it drop then add smaller amounts of ammonia to keep that colony of bacteria alive. If you don't continue to add ammonia in some form those bacteria will eventually starve to death. Once they die you cycle will be stalled.

 

[Gunk]

See that's the problem. I initially had it dosed to 4-5 ppm and it never moved on ammonia nitrites or nitrates for a full month. Me and my Dad are fishless cycling his tank right now also. Although he got his 2 weeks after i got mine his is almost finished and mine hasn't even started.

 

[OhNeil1969]

See that's the problem. I initially had it dosed to 4-5 ppm and it never moved on ammonia nitrites or nitrates for a full month. Me and my Dad are fishless cycling his tank right now also. Although he got his 2 weeks after i got mine his is almost finished and mine hasn't even started.

That's really weird. I just finished cycling a 60 gallon tank in a little over 3 weeks. Within a week the ammonia started to drop after the initial dosing. After that I would add maybe 1 or 2 ml's of ammonia to keep the cycle going. My goal was to never go below 0.25 ppm of ammonia. After it went down I had a serious spike of nitrItes. That took the longest time to come down, about 2 weeks with no change. When the nitrItes did come down they fell fast. At that point I started water changes to bring the nitrAtes down. Since it took me a couple of days to do all the necessary water changes I would add 1 ml of ammonia to keep the bacteria alive. What kind of ammonia source are you using? If it's the ammonia you get from the store and it has surfactants/dyes/perfumes, it won't work. Since your dad's tank seems to be nearing the end of it's cycle, I would recommend you seed your tank with some of his media to kickstart your cycle.