Fishless cycle: ammonia 4 ppm, nitrite finally 0?!

[Captain Stress]

Hi,

I'm new to the hobby. I'm attempting a fishless cycle of a 36 gallon bow front with clear ammonia. All was going as expected for three weeks. My ammonia stayed at 4 for awhile. Then it started going down and then went to 0 as nitrites skyrocketed off my API color chart. I then started daily dosing ammonia back to 4 ppm while nitrite stayed high for over a week.

A few days ago, I wanted to get nitrite to a level where I could at least match it to my API test kit chart, so I did a 50% water change. During the change, I accidentally overdosed Seachem Prime by about 4 times the expected amount. I have read that this is okay, though. I then dosed ammonia again to 4 ppm.

For three days now, ammonia refuses to go back down. Also nitrite stayed extreme purple (off chart). Yet this morning, I test and ammonia is still high, but nitrite is finally 0!!! But what happened to my ammonia eating bacteria?? What should I do?

Thanks!

 

[Captain Stress]

A couple of additional notes.

1. I have a Seachem AmmoniaAlert wheel in my tank. It is yellow, showing no ammonia. That could be inaccurate because the overdosed Prime is probably masking the total ammonia count.

2. My theory is that I overdosed ammonia because I forgot that my tap water is already 1ppm and I put in another full dose.

 

[jlk]

Hmm... well, I wouldnt trust the ammonia alert wheel. If you potentially OD'd on the ammonia dose, this very well may have hampered your cycle. This is what I would do- do another 50% water change with temperature-matched, properly conditioned water. Wait an hr after the change & retest all of your levels & let us know what they read. This should bring your amm down to 2ppm. Skip adding anymore ammonia for today & see how things look in 24hrs.

I am not positive your nitrites are 'zero'- they look like they may be @ .125ppm but I have actually seen the nitrite test turn this odd color before when they are actually crazy, off-the-charts high. I am not sure if this is your case or not yet. A 'zero' nitrite reading looks baby blue (like on the chart) without a hint darker blue or purple. Let us know how things look after the water change!

 

[librarygirl]

Overdosing the Prime shouldn't have affected anything. I also wouldn't trust the ammonia wheel. Unless you dosed ammonia to something like 8 it shouldn't have stalled things. Are you testing nitrate as well? What do those numbers look like? Also what about PH? Ph drops are common during cycling and if it falls too low it can stall the cycle.

I agree with Jlk; do a large water change (50% at least, more would be good too), wait an hour and then test ammonia and see what it is. Don't add ammonia today and then test again in 24 hours. Also test your nitrate and PH as well.

 

[Captain Stress]

Thank you jlk and librarygirl. I did as you suggested. I did another 50% water change being very careful with the Prime dosage and water temperature (84 F). I then measured ammonia, nitrite and nitrate about three hours afterward.

ammonia might be a tad better - between 2 and 4 maybe
nitrite looks the same - around 0
nitrate looks above 80

I also took nitrate before today's water change. It looked the same.

Screenshot attached.

Hopefully tomorrow morning or afternoon will show a lower ammonia concentration. Meanwhile, I'm not dosing it with any more ammonia.

I didn't do a ph test today. I did one Friday and it was alkaline, around 7.6. My tap water runs about the same.

I was so happy to see nitrite finally go from really high to zero, but I never hear about anyone losing their ammonia eaters at the sametime.

 

[librarygirl]

It could have been an overdose of ammonia; if you did a 50% water change and it still looks to be 2-4 then before the water change it was 4-8 which could potentially have stalled things. It might take a day or two to catch up again but let's see what happens. Everything else looks great!

 

[Gish]

What flora and fauna are you going to put in this 40 gallon?

 

[Captain Stress]

Plastic flora and fauna at first with the exception of a few moss balls. Eventually, I would like to switch little by little to live plants, but my light isn't very good. I also want to concentrate on fish care before plant care at this time. I have a pool filter sand substrate with no mineral additions for plants.

 

[Gish]

Go for some live plants. There are quite a few low light and hardy ones that look great. They will help your cycle, compete with algae, and your fish will like them.

 

[Ld123]

Hi I have been trying to battle an ammonia spike for a couple of weeks now. My ammonia readings can be fine one day an high the next? Why?!

 

[jlk]

Hi I have been trying to battle an ammonia spike for a couple of weeks now. My ammonia readings can be fine one day an high the next? Why?!

Hi Ld03!! We would need some more information in order to be able to help you. You would probably receive more help if you posted a new thread in the 'getting started' section. What size tank is it? Is it a fishless or fish-in cycle? Lets start there & try to figure out whats going on!

 

[Ld123]

Im not sure how to! It is 29l and 5 to 6 weeks old

 

[jlk]

Are there fish in it?

 

[Captain Stress]

Sorry.. back to my original thread...

I am down to 1 ppm of ammonia 28 hours after the second 50% water change. The bio filter was quicker at disposing ammonia before my first 50% water change. Hopefully tomorrow it will go down to 0.

At that point I will dose one teaspoon (5ml) of ammonia again and hopefully 24 hours after that both ammonia and nitrite will be 0!

I will report back later.

 

[jlk]

Sounds good! Keep us posted how things are going!

 

[Captain Stress]

Ammonia was still stuck at a little over 1 ppm this morning and again this afternoon. On a whim, I checked pH and it was 6.4! I immediately did a 70% water change to get it back to roughly 7.4. This may have been the cause of the cycle breakdown from what I have read on this site.

Anyway, I dosed it back to 3 ppm of ammonia and a speck of crumbled fish flakes. We'll see what another 24 hours brings.

 

[jlk]

Yep, a big drop in ph can upset your good bacteria & cause a cycle to slow or stall completely. Definitely keep daily tabs on your ph to try & catch drops before they become drastic. Keep us posted!

 

[Ram8349]

You really need to be patient. It took me more than 3 weeks just to see the first sign of nitrite. It wasn't funny without heavy seeding of live bacteria, and it can take up to 6~8 weeks for the nitrogen cycle to complete. Only the transferring of live bacteria can greatly shorten the cycle time. Other tips to speed it up include raise the temperature to high 80s, and turn up your air pump. Nothing much else you can do besides wait.

Fishless Cycle ( Nitrogen Cycle )


And yeah, during the process of forming nitrate, the water buffer will be slowly gone and the PH can crash at some point. Do not let the nitrate go too high, the higher the nitrate, the lower the buffer is left.

 

[Captain Stress]

The thing is I have already been through almost the complete cycle (in four weeks). Ammonia spiked, ammonia went to 0, went to daily dosing of ammonia, nitrite spiked, nitrite went to 0, then immediately ammonia stopped being processed by the bacteria.

It seems that pH is affecting my tank now. After 12 hours since my last water change the pH has dropped again. Looking at the guide to cycling, maybe I should purchase some crushed coral or aragonite to keep it stable. If I'm going to have to do daily PWC for pH issues, I might as well do a fish-in cycle.

 

[jlk]

This will be up to you. Crushed coral or argonite in your filter does work well to help keep ph stable but its a bit of trial & error to figure out the correct amount. Otherwise, theres nothing wrong with finishing this up with a fish-in cycle. Let us know what you decide!