Fishless cycle opinions....

[chazeman2]

I have been cycling for almost three weeks now. My ammonia is disappearing in less than 24 hours. My nitrites are off the chart and my nitrates are staying at about 5 ppm(the same as the tap water). should I ever take a day off of adding ammonia or should i continue to add it every 24 hours.

I have read the "almost complete guide to fishless cycling" on her several times, but have seen post on other forums telling people to take a day off. I am a bit hesitant to do that though because some people(on forums) say the bb will die off in hours and some say it will take days. Does anyone actually know?

thanks everyone.

 

[jlk]

Do a big water change and drop your nitrites down to a readable number (under 2). Temperature match and condition all new water. Add a few pinches of crushed fish food & skip the ammonia. The fish food will add phosphates. Let know how things look in 24hrs. Quite contrary to popular opinion, your bacteria will not starve nor will they die. I actually have a study I can link (its a bit scientific & technical though) that demonstrates nitirifying bacteria can actually survive almost a year without food. What will kill them is temperature extremes, disinfectants and being dried out. So, no worries about skipping ammonia for a couple of days or even a week while waiting for your nitrite>nitrate bacteria to get up to speed.