Walkthrough needed please (fishless cycle)

[Fishy monkey]

I'm just about ready to give up on my fishless cycle, I've been trying since September with my 60 litre tank and am so frustrated with it, I'd really appreciate someone helping me through til it's done with.

Started by using fish food as an ammonia source, things went well for about a month or so then the cycle crashed. I then decided to go another route, so I emptied the tank and restarted it, this time using pure ammonia.

Things were going really well, about 2 months ago my ammonia was converting within 24 hours (4ppm dose) and I was just keeping up with the dosing til the nitrites went down.

Nitrites never went down (was off the scale), pH was really low too so did approx 50% water change. Since then my ammonia has never converted faster than 2 or 3 days, my nitrites remain really high and my pH stubbornly refuses to rise above 6.6 even though my tap water is 7.6 after gassing out for 24 hours.

I've done water changes to try and lower the nitrites in case they're the culprit, and they're still high, and even after a 75% change the other day my pH was still 6.6. 2 days later and pH is now between 6.0 and 6.4 (api liquid master tests). Nitrites are still off the scale and ammonia which was dosed to 4ppm after that change is still at 2ppm.

The only thing in the tank is sand so I don't understand the pH problem at all.

Please someone help me :-(

 

[Riane22]

When I started my tank, I ran it for 2 days then added a fish to do a fish in cycle. He is still my favorite and is big and healthy.

 

[Fishy monkey]

When I started my tank, I ran it for 2 days then added a fish to do a fish in cycle. He is still my favorite and is big and healthy.

Ive done fish in cycles before, but for this tank I don't want to do a fish in cycle, I'm planning on dwarf puffers in the tank so want to make sure it can handle the bioload for them since they have to be specially ordered. Don't wanna chance losing them to ammonia poisoning.

 

[librarygirl]

I suspect the pH crashes are stalling the cycle. A PH of mid-low 6's can slow or even stop the nitrification process. A large water change should bring the PH back up to near your tap's PH but then it can crash again as ammonia and nitrites are being converted. I'd get some crushed coral or crushed argonite (usually sold at most pet/fish stores in the saltwater section) and put a teaspoon or so in a mesh media bag or clean nylon stocking and add it to your filter if there's room (if not, just put it into the tank near the filter intake tube). Keep testing PH and adding/removing coral until you can get PH to stabilize at about what your tap's PH is. Once the PH is stable the cycle should finish up pretty quickly.

 

[twoodrough]

If you don't have fish in, maybe you can just let it go without water changes for a longer period of time. Give the cycle time to work. Keep dosing up to 4, then let it drop down to 1, and dose up again. Eventually the bacteria will build up to be able to handle the 4ppm in 24 hours. Then you can do a big change to get the nitrates out.

The hardest part of this hobby for me was learning to leave the tank alone. Every time I messed with it something bad happened. I am finally learning my lesson. Let nature take its course and things tend to work out better. Hope this helps.

 

[jlk]

I suspect the pH crashes are stalling the cycle. A PH of mid-low 6's can slow or even stop the nitrification process. A large water change should bring the PH back up to near your tap's PH but then it can crash again as ammonia and nitrites are being converted. I'd get some crushed coral or crushed argonite (usually sold at most pet/fish stores in the saltwater section) and put a teaspoon or so in a mesh media bag or clean nylon stocking and add it to your filter if there's room (if not, just put it into the tank near the filter intake tube). Keep testing PH and adding/removing coral until you can get PH to stabilize at about what your tap's PH is. Once the PH is stable the cycle should finish up pretty quickly.

+1
I agree as well. Lets get your ph stable and get your nitrites under control and keep them there until things start progressing at a better rate. A low ph will stall your cycle but high nitrites will as well so your fighting two different things here. I would do a 100% (well, close as possible) wc, add some cr coral or aragonite and see if your ph stays stable for a few days before adding any ammonia. When you go to add ammonia, start at 1ppm and we can work on gradually increasing it as your bb picks up speed. No worries! I expect things to progress quickly once everything is stable.

 

[Fishy monkey]

Brilliant, I was thinking it was a wasn't ever going to happen, feeling much more positive now. I'll go to the LFS later and restart the tank. Thanks loads for the help, I'll post updates here

 

[Fishy monkey]

Right the LFS gave me a bag of crushed coral for free, I've done an 80% wc- most I could do without taking the sand out- and refilled the tank with the coral sat in an old stocking next to the filter. Fingers crossed!

 

[Fishy monkey]

Looking good so far- pH 7.6, high range pH 7.4

How long does it need to be stable for before I start adding ammonia?

 

[jlk]

Go ahead and add 1ppm of ammonia (use the calculator) and lets see how things look in 24hrs. Keep us posted!

 

[Fishy monkey]

Done, checked the pH again too just to see if it was stable, same as yesterday

 

[librarygirl]

Great, keep us posted!

 

[Scottyhorse]

I'm glad that the crushed coral is helping! My fishless cycle is also giving me some problems, but I changed some things around today so hopefully it'll finish up!

 

[Fishy monkey]

Hmm, tested and results are-

Ammonia 0.5-1.0
Nitrites 5
PH 6.8 I think, bit hard to tell but pretty sure it's that.

I'm going to bed now, kinda feel like I should do another water change to bring the nitrites down and pH back up but I'll wait for instructions here!

 

[librarygirl]

DId you recently do a large water change to try to get nitrites down and if so how low did you get them? If you just did a water change and nitrites are rising again I'd wait it out a bit (but maybe add a bit more coral since PH is dropping again). But if you didn't do one or if you did and nitrites have been 5 consistently then you might want do to a full water change, wait an hour or so, test nitrite; if it's <2, then redose ammonia to 1. If it's higher than 2, do another water change to get them down then redose and add more coral.

 

[jlk]

+1
I agree with Librarygirl. Adding more crushed coral and water change are in order. We need to get your ph stable and keep it there so your cycle keeps moving forward.

 

[Fishy monkey]

All I've done is what's written here. I've no more crushed coral left so will try and get to the LFS in the next couple of days. There's more snow forecast though so may not be able to get there til weekend, should I do anything to keep the filter cycling at all til I get some?

 

[jlk]

Water changes will help to keep the ph up. Keep the amm dose low to try & keep the ph from crashing. As it has not bottomed out yet, you can just leave things be for now until it does then do a wc & add back bit more ammonia. Keep us posted!

 

[Fishy monkey]

The LFS wouldn't give me any more crushed coral (they don't sell it, just gave their own supply that they gave me a bit of last week), they said it takes a few weeks for it to have an effect on the water and just to wait. I hope that's right!

 

[Fishy monkey]

Ok, I haven't done any water changes and my pH went back to 7.6, I dosed to 4ppm 2 days ago, today's readings-

Amm-0.25
Trites- 2-5.0
Trates- 80
PH-7.0