Fishless Cycle No Nitrites but Ammonia and tons of Nitrates

[kevan07]

So I origionally was trying to cycle my tank with platys (who were sick when I bought them). That did not work out very well and they all ended up dying within a couple of weeks. So after reading all the good things about fishless cycling I went out and bought a bottle of ACE brand ammonia. I started dosing the tank with it on Saturday (3/1) at 4ppm a day. The past few days I have been testing the ammonia and it has been going down (generally the first day it goes from 4ppm to 2ppm then the second day drops to 0.5 ppm and then I dose it back up). I have been testing for Nitrites but the readings have always been zero. Today just for the heck of it I did a Nitrate test and my ammonia is at 0.5ppm and the Nitrates are around 30ppm.

Does this sound right? It just seems incredibly quick (although I know I had fish in there previously and I did stick a sponge from my cycled 5gallon in the filter so I guess maybe some of the bacteria I needed is already in the tank?) Do I now go ahead and dose the ammonia up to 4.0ppm and just wait till the tank can completly clear it in 24 hours or should I only dose 2ppm so I don't accidentally stall the cycle? Also do I need to do a water change or since the Nitrates are still on the scale it should be fine for awhile still?

Thanks!

Note: Here is a chart of the cycle and what I have been doing in case that helps.

Day 1 (3/1): Dosed ammonia to 4ppm, added some fish food and raised temperature to 83 degrees.

Day 2 (3/2): Ammonia 3-4ppm (stormy day and no good lighting so difficult to read), did not dose.

Day 3 (3/3): Ammonia 1ppm. Added 3.3ml of ammonia to bring reading back up to 4ppm, no nitrites or nitrates.

Day 4 (3/4): Ammonia around 3ppm, no Nitrites. No ammonia added

Day 5 (3/5): Ammonia between 1ppm and 2ppm. No ammonia added. 0ppm Nitrites

Day 6 (3/6-today): Ammonia: 0.5ppm, Nitrites: 0ppm, Nitrates: 30ppm

 

[kevan07]

I ended up dosing the tank to 3ppms of ammonia yesterday because I was not sure what else to do. Today the test results were:

Ammonia: 0.25ppm, Nitrites, 0ppm, Nitrates: 40-80ppm (quite red but hard to tell the exact color).

Today I am going to dose back up to 4ppm and wait and see what happens. I need to do a water change tomorrow on the betta tank so I think I will wait till then to do a water change on the 29 gallon to lower the Nitrates a bit so they don't end up off the scale and stall something.

 

[SonicsDC25]

Just wondering, did you clean out the tank and sterilized it before the fishless cycle? Don't want any lingering diseases from the platies to spread to your future stock. How old is your test kit as well? If its an API master test kit, the Nitrite test should last about 4 years, so it's unlikely that's an issue unless you got it from someone who was in the hobby for years and it was second-hand. You can also rule out Nitrates from your tap water since you did say that you had 0 nitrates on Day 3.

 

[kevan07]

I didn't empty and scrub down the tank before the fishless cycle... I figured most diseases needed a host so without fish and with that much ammonia they would just die on their own... What should I do now? Is there anyway to test and see if there are lingering diseases in the tank?

I had a 10 year old API test kit but it wasn't testing right so I threw it out and bought a brand new one the first part of February. So yep the new one is brand new.

 

[SonicsDC25]

It's only my opinion, but I'd dump out the tank and give it a good clean with bleach or hydrogen peroxide (prefer the peroxide). The last thing I'd want is to spend 2-4 weeks cycling a tank and then have my long awaited fish to get sick and possibly die off, better safe than sorry as they say. As for tests, the only thing that you can use to test if there are any diseases in the tank is by having fish in the tank itself to see symptoms directly.

 

[kevan07]

That does sound like a good idea and I do agree I would much rather be safe then sorry. Especially since it is a 50minute to an hour drive to my lfs of choice. I don't mind spending the money getting them but I am not going to be happy if I end up killing them due to the bad stock from the previous fish.

That being said I have never actually bleached a tank. What type of bleach and how do I do it? I am assuming take all the water out, but then what? Dump all the driftwood and plants in a bucket of bleach water? I am wondering if that will also bleach my plants and make them pale?

Also do I bleach the filter? And how do I make sure I don't kill the new fish with the bleach residue, or does bleach not leave residue?

Thank you for the help and suggestions!

EDIT: On a side note does this mean this will completly kill my cycle?

 

[SonicsDC25]

I personally use 3% hydrogen peroxide since in 24 hours it'll turn into water and oxygen. I hear that people use 1 parts bleach (unscented, just plain bleach with no additives) and 9 parts water, then afterwards they let it air dry for a few days. As for the process, you can put it in a spray bottle then spray & scrub the tank down with a sponge. You can also put the bleach & water into a 5 gallon bucket and let your filters and heaters soak for a little bit, then let it air dry as well. When it comes to the plastic plants, I have no clue if it'll effect it TBH. Hopefully someone who has cleaned their tank with bleach can chime in, but I'm sure you can also find other sources on how to clean your tank with bleach.