Fishless Cycling Tank - Ammonia No Longer Being Processed

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
See posts with no answers
kc27 said:
William - yes, when the ammonia was processed down to zero, I added more ammonia to get it back up to 4 ppm. Based on your comments, that was too much.

These are the directions I was following that recommended maintaining the ammonia at 4ppm
Fishless Cycling - Paw Talk - Pet Forums

I changed 90% of the water in the tank this morning, replacing it with tap water dechlorinated with Prime. I am tempted to test the water to benchmark the water conditions, then add ammonia to see if any of the ammonia gets processed by tomorrow. However, after tomorrow I will be away and won't be available to add ammonia for 5 days.

I just would like to know if the tank has any capability of processing ammonia, or if I am starting from square one again.
Click to expand...


Hmmmmm... I used that same article to cycle and I don't remember reading anything about keeping it at 4. My tank cycled successfully with that article and in fact it says this:


As soon as you notice high levels of ammonia, stop adding ammonia to the tank. Now is the part where your patience is tested! Let things run their course, and keep testing the water. Once a day is fine, or once every other day. After a few days, you can begin testing for nitrites as well as ammonia. If you aren't getting any readings for nitrites at all, that's OK. These things take time. Don't do any water changes yet, and continue to let everything sit. When your ammonia starts dropping, you should definitely be able to read some nitrites. After the ammonia reading drops to zero, start adding just a little bit more ammonia again every day, just a teaspoon or so...not enough to force the reading above zero again, but just enough to keep the newly grown "ammonia-eating" bacterial colony happy.


I think it would be good to record your parameters just so you know what is going on. I started recording mine as well that way if things start going crazy I can go back and check them.
 
I think you put the wrong link in that last post; I jsut read the first page and you stated that you followed a different link. In fact I gave you the latter lol.
 
So are you having any luck yet? I take it you haven't been on your trip maybe? I hope this will help. Do you know anyone with an established tank? Sometimes the LFS will give you seeded filter media, but Iwould be leery of that if they have any sick or dead fish around. Hopefully there will still be enough bacteria in your tank that it won't take long this time. I am keeping my fingers crossed for you! :D
 
After 24 hours:
Ammonia: 25 ppm
Nitrite: 5 ppm (supposed to be a false reading, see excerpt from the directions I am following below)
Nitrate: 5.0 ppm

So ammonia is being processed, but the nitrites are not yet being processed - which is where I was earlier in the week when the ammonia all of a sudden stopped being processed. Since I will be away for the next 5 days, I will just have to hope for the best that the cycle does nott back pedal too much since I won't be adding ammonia for that those 5 days..

Every time the ammonia drops back to zero, raise it back up to 3 to 4 ppm and continue to check nitrites. The nitrite reading will go off the chart. NOTE FOR API TEST KIT USERS: When you add the drops, if they immediately turn purple in the bottom of the tube, your nitrites are off the chart high. You do not need to shake the tube and wait 5 minutes. If you do, the color will turn green as the nitrites are so high that there isn't a color to measure them with. Once the ammonia is dropping from around 4 ppm back to zero in 12 hours or less you have sufficient bacteria to handle the ammonia your fish load produces. Continue to add ammonia daily as you must feed the bacteria that have formed or they will begin to die off.

The nitrite spike will generally take about twice as long to drop to zero as did the ammonia spike. The reason for this is two-fold. First, the nitrite processing bacteria just develop slower than those that process ammonia. Second, you are adding more nitrite daily (every time you add ammonia, it is transformed into nitrite raising the level a little more) as opposed to the ammonia, which you only add once at the start and then waited on it to drop to zero. During this time, you should occasionally test for nitrate too. The presence of nitrate means that nitrite is being processed, completing the nitrogen cycle. The nitrate level will also go off the chart but you will take care of that with a large water change later. It will seem like forever before the nitrite finally falls back to zero but eventually, almost overnight, it will drop and you can celebrate. You are almost there. Once the bacteria are able to process 4 or 5 ppm of ammonia back to zero ammonia and nitrite in about 10 to 12 hours. You are officially cycled. You can continue this for a few days just to make sure it isn't a one time thing and of course, you need to continue to add ammonia up until the day before you get your fish.
Click to expand...
 
I think he (or she) means .25 . If your nitrites are that high than you are definitely in your spike. Don't add any more ammonia until it is at zero again, then add just a little bit of fish food into the water to give the bacteria something to live off of. Your tank should be finished soon! If you are using the API kit sometimes the colors can be pretty close, so just keep a close eye on the nitrates! As soon as your ammonia and nitrites are zero, and your nitrates are (ideally) 10 or under your tank should be good to go! Some people put fish in with nitrates higher than that, it is just the higher the level the more possible harm to your fish. Good luck! The end is near lol
 
ammonia is .25 not 25

OK, so don't add ammonia, add fish food. Since the ammonia was nearly zero, (it probably is by now) should I add some fish food now since I'm not going to be around after tonight to add ammonia once it zeros out?

And if so, how much fish food are we talking about?
 
Well you could add some more ammonia instead of the fish food but it's easier to add the food. How long will you be gone for? Definitely add some more before you leave; but I don't know if the cycle will stall if you are gone for a long time. Without the ammonia there is nothing for the nitrifying bacteria to eat and it might stall it. Not too sure about that though... maybe someone else can jump in here.

I would add a decent size pinch if you are going to be gone for a while, maybe a little more. It will rot and turn to ammonia.
 
I am away for five days. I guessed and added a "pinch" before I left.

The nitrite processing portion of the cycle seemed to stall last week, with a high nitrite level over several days, and then eventually a halt to ammonia being processed. When the tank was drained and refilled the ammonia began being processed again, so perhaps whomever suggested that high level of nitrite was preventing the ammonia from being processed was correct.

I guess if it gets stalled again with high nitrites, and no ammonia processing, I can always do another water change. Hopefully by next week the nitrite level will have dropped.

Thanks again for all the help on this. I'm not on any deadline to get the tank cycled, but I am grateful that I did not have to start from square one again.
 
Here is where I am now. The tank is processing ammonia. It goes from 4 ppm to 0 ppm in 24 hours.

Nitrite level is still high. API test kit turns purple as soon as the drops are added.

Nitrate is at 20 ppm

According to the fishless cycling directions I am following, I am to keep adding ammonia to a level of 4 ppm, letting it process to zero, and keep doing that until both the ammonia and the nitrite level are zero. When I was a that point a couple of weeks ago, the cycle "stalled": ammonia was no longer being processed and nitrite levels were very high (same as they are now). I had to do the 90% water change to get the ammonia processing again. So now it appears I am at the point I was at two weeks ago. Ammonia is being processed and nitrite is being produced, but nitrite is not being processed.

What do I do next?

Leave the water in the tank and keep adding ammonia, then wait for the nitrite level to drop to zero? If so, what ppm level of ammonia should I be striving for when I add ammonia?

Do a 90% water change to get the nitrite levels down. Then proceed as in the paragraph above?

Any suggestions would be appreciated.
 
If you've got nitrates, your nitrite is (maybe was) being processed. Do a 50% PWC to get you nitrites down a bit and redose the ammonia back to 4ppm. You're almost there.
 
Of what I read and have been told. Once nitrites appear ammonia level should be cut in half. Wait for the ammonia drop to near 0 and the bring it back to around 2 ppm. As I have been told bringing it up to high will burn out the cycle.
 
I was recently in the same position with a small 5 gallon tank I was cycling, the ammonia was being processed but the nitrite stalled at ridiculously high levels. At the point where all the ammonia was being processed in 24 hours I reduced ammonia to around 2ml per day, sometimes skipping a day. The unreadably high nitrites went on for a week and then out of frustration I put a canister filter from my main tank under the filter intake from the cycling tank and within 12 hours the nitrite dropped to zero and over the next 24 hours the cycle was completed. I left the canister in there for a week just to make sure it was all ok then added a fish to keep the cycle going until the shrimps I had ordered arrived.

From what I have read, the nitrite drop normally seems to happen really quickly so it would probably have happened as quickly without the filter. I must admit to a satisfied feeling when I tested the water and for the first time the Nitrite test was clear :)

With regard to phosphates, I have read that they are needed for the cycle, can't remember why, but the article said that a pinch of flake food supplies enough for what is needed.


Edit: I see you used a sponge filter that had been in an established tank, as has been said it probably wasn't in there long enough. In my personal opinion I think you need 2 seedings, one when you start the cycle to seed the ammonia eating bacteria. Then, when the ammonia is being processed and Nitrite is being produced, another seeding to kickstart the Nitrite eating bacteria.
 
SHARPiE said:
Phosphates? I was under the impression you wanted to reduce phosphates as much as possible to control nuisance algae? Do you mean ammonia?
Click to expand...


Stalled cycles are often attributed to a lack of phosphates. I stalled a cycle many years back and all I did was add a pinch of fish food and within 2 days ammonia and nitrite were being processed. For a week before that, it stayed steady at 2ppm ammonia and 10ppm nitrite.

In general, yes one will want to reduce phosphates to prevent algae. However, in newly established tanks it is a necessary evil in order to keep the cycle going.
 
Ahhh - well that makes sense - I was reading the other night that the Phosphate Cycle is quite important, but it is little known. Couldnt find any info about it. Will do some digging - Cheers Sum22
 
Thanks for the advice.

The tank is processing ammonia, only now I add enough ammonia each day to get to 2 ppm instead of the 4 ppm that I was doig a few weeks ago.

I added a pinch of fish food and put a sponge filter from an established tank.

The API nitrite test solution turns purple as soon as it hits the water sample, so I still have high levels of nitrite.

Hopefully with these adjustments the tank will finish the cycle. Several years ago, when I set up my first aqarium, it cycled with no problems. That one was cycled with fish. Maybe that was the difference, or it was just beginner's luck!

Thanks again for the help on this.
 
kc27, so where is your cycle at now? I'm in a nearly same situation where my cycle is completely out of whack. I too had to do a pwc to remove to high nitrite and nitrate. How much fish food did you add in your "pinch" and was that just once?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Mud puppy
Rising ammonia in fishless cycling...
Replies
6
Views
451
Mud puppy
Mud puppy
A
39 gallon tank fishless cycling, with Dr Tim's ammonia
Replies
2
Views
429
Apex_wolf
A
M
Strange Nitrate problem in fishless cycle
Replies
8
Views
778
Andy Sager
Andy Sager
Aiken Drum
Fishless Cycle Guide using Ammonia
Replies
2
Views
320
Aiken Drum
Aiken Drum
M
Fishless Cycle Question
Replies
8
Views
584
Andy Sager
Andy Sager

Latest posts

Back
Top Bottom