fishles cycling

[mark shirah]

i am on day 28 of fishless cycling. followed the usual procedure of adding and keeping ammonia around 4-5 ppm. at day 14 i got the nitrite spike. reduced ammonia to keep a lower level. now on day 28 nitrite went to 0, but still have ammonia level around .5 ppm. what are my next steps and when should i lower temp. i kept temp around 85 during cycle.

 

[rich311k]

I would do a water change 50% or so, test the ammonia if it still says .5 then I would bet your test kit is faulty. Take a sample of water to the LFS to test or get a new kit. If it goes down to zero or really close to it in 24 hours then you are done. I would turn the temp down now, your bacteria is pretty much done populating.

 

[malkore]

You're likely just in the last few days of the cycle, but as Rich mentions, your test kit might be reading false ammonia levels.

how much ammonia are you dosing now? 2-3ppm should be plenty.

are you detecting nitrates now as well?

 

[Zagz]

Malkore brings up a good question about the nitrates. If there are no nitrates the test kit may be faulty or your cycle isn't quite done yet.