NYFishGuy714
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Hi I'm new to the site so I don't know if I'm posting this in the right section. If I did please let me know and I will move it. Ok so my question is in regards to the fishless cycle. I have a 36 gallon bow front that is currently going through a fishless cycle and I have been following the almost complete guide to fishless cycling sticky to do so. I followed all directions and over time had an ammonia spike followed by a spike in nitrites and then had nitrates show up and build up really high. Once the nitrite and nitrate levels were sky high I followed what the sticky said and did a 50-60% water change and added a small pinch of ground up fish food to the tank after the water change. That was done yesterday morning. That night I tested the water and the ammonia was low like it has been. I've been dosing it to 3-4 ppm each time I see it get around 1ppm. The nitrites were high and the nitrates weren't as high as they were before the water change but they were still there. I dosed the ammonia up to 3ppm and went to bed. Today I test the water and the ammonia was low again maybe 1ppm and that's pushing it. Nitrites are still high and the nitrates were a little higher than last night. I know on the fishless cycling guide I'm at the part where I'm just supposed to keep dosing ammonia up to 4ppm, watching the PH for any fluctuations and then it says wait for the magic to happen as in waking up one day to test and the ammonia should be zero along with the nitrites and the nitrates should be built up pretty high by this point. Then it says to do the 24 hour test with the ammonia to see if your cycle is done.. So after a long story here are my questions. Do my readings seem right? If my nitrites keep staying so high can that stall the cycle? and if so should I keep doing water changes when I see the nitrites so high? Once again after I did the 50-60 pwc, a day or so later I'm getting ammonia readings that drop quickly nitrites are staying high and nitrates are building back up again. Does this seem right? From this point as long as I dose the ammonia when needed and the PH levels don't fluctuate should I just wake up one morning and the ammona and nitrites should be gone?? I guess I'm confused as to what happens to the nitrites.. I mean if my ammonia levels drop pretty fast each time after I dose them up and the nitrites stay high and then the nitrates build up high again what happens that just makes the nitrites disappear? Sorry if this is confusing I'm in a huge rush to get out of the house while typing this. Thanks for any help I can get!