PWC? Fishless cycle stalled

[jlbfish]

Not planaria not flatworm. (that I can tell at least). It may be a polychaete or oligochaete or something. It looks like this under the microscope:
New member from MA. Tank with white worms

I can remember if we used flake food in the beginning I don't think so and if we did it was like 2 grains of rice. I haven't added any since Easter.

Nitrites are 0'd out now so I am tempted to call this tank cycled. Anyone have any opinions? it took 26 hrs to zero

 

[jondamon]

If your Nitrates are high above 80 then I would perform a massive PWC. To try and bring them down to around 10-20ppm then redose ammonia to 3-4ppm and see if it zero's out in 24hours.

If it zero's out again in 24hours, do a PWC to bring nitrates as low as you can 5-20ppm then you can stock.



Jon

 

[jlbfish]

Sigh well 32 hrs later my tank tests at:
pH 7.2
Ammonia 2
Nitrites between 0 and .25
nitrates 40.

My cycle just took major steps backwards.

 

[jlk]

Water change time! Recheck your amm levels after the water change & add enough to bring it up to 3ppm. Newly cycled tanks will have fluctuations so its nothing to be too concerned about.

 

[jlbfish]

How much of a water change? 50%?

 

[jlk]

The more you can do, the better! I honestly would do 90-100% because I suspect your buffer levels are starting to fall & thus the ammonia not being fully converted.

 

[jlbfish]

Wow! Ok we did 1 100% and 1 80% on Saturday until the Nitrates were back in check. I will do another big one this afternoon. Thanks! I WANNA PUT FISH IN THIS!!!! WAAAAHHHH

 

[jondamon]

I agree about the water change.

Try to do as much as you can or do some back to back.


Just to make sure you are conditioning your water that you're adding in to your tank right?

Jon

 

[jlbfish]

Yeah I condition with Prime.

I'll do it the water changes and dose back up to 3

 

[jondamon]

Yeah I condition with Prime.

I had to check. Lol.

Just incase you were adding unconditioned.


Towards the end of my cycling process I had to do lots of PWC to keep things moving.



Jon

 

[jlbfish]

Nope I've been pretty good about remembering it. I forgot it on my sons tank once (during a fish less cycle).

How long does it take to get the pH back up? I have done 1 big water change and it was still low. I assumed it would be up at least for a little while.

Well I hope I am near the end. I have a small bioload to put in this tank so I am tempted to cut it short so I can use my 28 for a QT tank.

 

[jondamon]

Are you sure your source water is still in the 8's?

My pH sits at 7.2 source is 7.4.

If you've done a 100% PWC then your pH should be close to that of your source water.

Ammonia can cause pH to rise. When I first introduced Ammonia to my empty tank it shot my pH up into the 8's.

What pH do your other tanks run at?



Jon

 

[jlbfish]

Yup it's typically 7.8-8.0 or sometimes 8.2. We live on top of limestone so it probably runs higher.

 

[jondamon]

What do you have in the tank?

Any DW or Mopani ?

DW can cause pH to fall.

As long as your pH remains stable I wouldn't worry too much right now.

Let's get your cycle finished and see how your pH is at the end.



Jon

 

[jlbfish]

Nope no driftwood or limestone or anything. Just stuff from the store so far.

I am going to do one more big water change it is still below 7.6 which (while lower than what we are used to) where it sat through most of this cycle.

Thanks for everyones help. I will update soon!

 

[jlbfish]

Well today it is
pH 7.6
Ammonia 1
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 30'ish

I dosed it to 3 ppm ammonia (MAYBE) 24 hrs ago maybe more maybe less I lost tack LOL.

 

[jondamon]

Something similar happened to me on my cycling process.

Here is what I did.

After dosing to 3ppm I allowed the tank to process ALL of it in whatever time frame it takes. Then I allowed the tank 24hours with no ammonia (yellow API reading) then after the 24hours I redosed up to 3ppm. Again allowing the tank to process it all

Each time it processed the ammonia slightly quicker than the last until I was processing 3ppm in 24hours.

Then I did 2x90% PWC's to bring my nitrates down, turned my heater down and stocked the following day.

I stocked my 50g initially with 7 Zebra Danios and 2 Chinese Algae Eaters. Then a week later with 7 Penguin Tetras and then 2 weeks later 4 Bolivian Rams.


Hope this helps.



Jon

 

[jlbfish]

Thanks I think I am going to do something like that. I have got to get these fish out of my 28 so I can QT some more and get the 75 stable before I leave for vacation. LOL. Now to cure the ones in my actual QT tank. Hopefully I am int he clear now and won't bomb this cycle like I bombed the last one.

 

[jlbfish]

I'm actually thinking about stocking today after a good cleaning. My ammonia is around .25 BUT the nitrites haven't gone above 0 the whole time and the nitrates are mostly in check.

 

[jondamon]

I'm actually thinking about stocking today after a good cleaning. My ammonia is around .25 BUT the nitrites haven't gone above 0 the whole time and the nitrates are mostly in check.

After a PWC my ammonia is always 0.25 due to chlorine being bound. Then around 2 days later all the ammonia has been gobbled up by the BB.

Jon