Hey look, another cycle question!

[Ficklewinds]

So yeah, no fish for me this weekend. Sniffle....

For the past two days my ammonia has been between 0 and .1 ppm and my nitrite and nitrate off the charts. Ones a nice pretty magenta and the other is redder than the valentine day hearts all over the place. I haven't dosed ammonia in two days. I do have some plants in the tank and am not sure if I should or not. I'm also thinking a massive water change? The ammonia is most definitely going down as it was a paler green this morning than yesterday afternoon.

The nitrates confuse me. I tested my tap water and it was 0, so I'm pretty sure it's not that. Only thing in the tank is two pieces of driftwood, a few plants, a stupid clam that opens and shuts, and a LED bubble wand thing. I used a little Prime when I did a minor water change on Monday and so far added a little bit of Flourish and Flourish Excel for my plants. Could that spike the nitrates so high?

I think the most important thing I've learned from all of this is that if you ever want to test your patience, fishless cycle an aquarium....

 

[fish wrangler]

The nitrates are there because if the BB that consumes the nitrites.

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[Ficklewinds]

Thanks for the reply!

Yeah, I figure it's the BB, and hope it is, but I didn't expect them to make so much and the nitrite still stay so high. I take it that's normal?

 

[FishayFishay]

I don't know what you might think of this but have you thought of using safestart? It's amazing. I used it on both of my upcoming tanks the last month and worked wonders for me considering I'm just getting into this and learning the hard way.(lost 7 fish the last month) but I've improved on my knowledge and am happy with 3 mollies.

 

[Ficklewinds]

I've thought about the SafeStart, or Dr. Tim's One and Only, in my refurbished Fluval chi I'm setting up to one day be either a betta home or a QT. For this tank however, I used filter media from my tank at work, which probably didn't do squat since my tank at home is a 36 gallon and my tank at work is a 5 gallon with one lonely mean betta in it LOL. (He's like super mean. Flares up at me everytime I look at him LOL)

I figured even a little wouldn't hurt? I was dosing the ammonia up to 4ppm, but since my nitrites have super spiked, I stopped thanks to conflicting research.

Sadly, all my family members got out of the tank keeping business right before I decided to get into it. So I didn't have anyone to turn to to get well established media.

 

[FishayFishay]

Safestart is amazing. Try it and it'll get you where you want within 48 hours. I was a little iffy about it too since I try to be as natural as possible when it comes to fish keeping but it turns out it isn't a chemical at all but actual live bacteria that'll get those water parameters right where you want them.

 

[treemanone2003]

Dr. Tim's is probably the most reputable available. TSS being next in line with good results. The most often talked of issue is that you need to take into account where the product ships from or to, and how long it's been on the shelf. If it travels long trips in cold to very cold environments as much of the U.S. is, it tends to be a useless product.


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