No ammonia after two weeks

[dalto]

So.....I have a pretty confusing issue. I have a 200g aquarium that have had up and running for a few weeks now.

I have yet to have any ammonia, nitrite or nitrates show up. The latter two are not really a surprise but the first one is.

For the first week I only had 3 2" fish in the tank so my thought was there simply wasn't enough bio-load to register meaningful ammonia compared to the volume of the tank.

However, over the last 10 days I have added 40 fish. They are all small fish so this should not be an unreasonable high bio-load. But it certinaly shouldn't be 0 after a week. My pH is ~5.8 so I am not worried about ammonia poisoning too much but I am very confused about why I am not getting a reading.

- I am using an API test kit.
- I tried opening a new one and got the same result.
- I am getting positive readings from other tanks that are cycling

This is baffling me. I am toying with the idea of running to the store tomorrow and getting some of the paper strips to see if they have a different answer.

 

[Delapool]

Ah, it's the new anti-ammonia atomiser thingy by you-beaut-tanks-ltd.

Got any plants? Wondering if plants or algae could be using the ammonia.

 

[Sands_88]

Did you use any use filter media/substrate etc that bacteria could have been on?

And +1 with plants. I'm just wondering if you've managed to kick start your cycle and plants are taking things out?

Otherwise - you've realised all of our dreams!! An ammonialess tank!

 

[dalto]

Nope, no plants.

Also, no media with bacteria was used. Also, I have no nitrates so the tank definitely isn't cycled.

Quite baffling.

 

[dalto]

So I borrowed my neighbors test kit which is a different brand than the one I have and the results were not that different. It maybe showed a tiny bit of ammonia but significantly less than 0.1. I continue to be baffled.

 

[irdajoh]

I can assure you that using strips will not help, their inaccurate compared to liquid test. I'm not familiar with large tanks and ammonia being diluted because of it but it seems like your blessed! Sounds like you know what your doing; keep up the test and hope for no change?!

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[Delapool]

Could it be heterotrophic bacteria deciding to use ammonia??

http://www.bioconlabs.com/autoheterobac.html

 

[dalto]

Could it be heterotrophic bacteria deciding to use ammonia??

Auto vs Hetero Bacteria

It looks like if they were it would still end up as nitrite which I am not seeing.

 

[jlk]

Have some patience! You may not see a large spike in ammonia due to tank size and small fish with a minimal bioload.

How often and how much are you feeding? If (and I state this as a big 'if') you wish to see a more dramatic spike in ammonia levels, simply increase the amount and frequency of your meals (start by doubling amount/frequency). Just be careful of what you wish for as wcs on a big tank are a bit more effort than a small one.


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[dalto]

Have some patience! You may not see a large spike in ammonia due to tank size and small fish with a minimal bioload.

As hard as it is for me to believe, it seems this is really the case. I put a group a 4-5" Geophagus in the tank yesterday and today I have a slight ammonia reading! So I have to conclude that it just wasn't enough bioload as compared to the water volume.

 

[Delapool]

It looks like if they were it would still end up as nitrite which I am not seeing.

Good point