Tank Cycling Sagas

[missmercury83]

Hi all,
This is my first post on the forum.
I am currently cycling my 4ft tank in the hope for a new axolotl.

The tank cycling process, although long and frustrating, seemed to be going as planned for the first 7 weeks. At the end of week 7, the day finally came when my Nitrite dropped to 0 overnight. The Ammonia however, was at 2ppm.... so i waited, thinking surely within the next 24-48 hours i would expect a drop in ammonia to 0 but it never came. I wasnt sure what to do , so I did a water change to try and help the ammonia drop. Now im not sure if that was a good or bad idea..... then i realised i was probably supposed to let it happen by itself. After reading way too many forums, I got myself confused and thought maybe i should add some ammonia .... anyway to cut a long and annoying story short - its now at 4ppm and my nitrite has gone back up to 0.25.
Basically my question is.... what do I do now?? I dont want to interfere anymore. Its like ive reversed my cycle.



thank you in advance!!

 

[Fresh2o]

Has there been any maintenance on the filter and/or filter media recently? That’s the only thing I can think of.
Do you have access to filter media from other tanks (yours, other hobbyists, or LFS)? This can help jump start the cycle.

 

[missmercury83]

No nothing has been changed
The thing is it looks like its at the end of the cycle its just the ammonia wont go down. After writing the post last night i tested the water again today and the nitrite has once again shot back down to 0 and the ammonia is STILL at 4. isnt it supposed to both go down to 0 together once the cycle is finished?

 

[Angellove78]

Test your nitrate. It should be there. You'll just have to do a few water changes to zero out ammonia. Don't touch the filter.

 

[Fresh2o]

How much ammonia have you been dosing? What have you been using as an ammonia source? Are the nitrates very high? Any water changes since start up? <- not usually needed in a fishless cycle but sometimes performed when persistent nitrites are present
Ammonia and nitrite drop do not always occur at the same time. In a mature setup, the ammonia will rise and fall within several hours after dosing and the nitrite will do the same after that; after 24 hours it should be zero ammonia and nitrite and elevated nitrate.

 

[missmercury83]

Thanks for your reply ! At first I was putting in fish food to rot for the first few weeks. Then i discovered store bought ammonia!. Ive dosed up to 4ppm. The nitrates are sitting at maybe just over 20.
Im a little confused now as one person has said to do water changes to get my ammonia to 0 but are you saying that this needs to occur by itself?

 

[Fresh2o]

Can you list the brand of ammonia you used? Do you know if it is “safe” for use (free of dyes, perfumes, detergents, surfactants, etc)? Some brands are fine, some are not.
If there is livestock present, then do water changes to reduce the amount of ammonia. If not, leave it alone.

 

[missmercury83]

It’s just a generic Australian supermarket brand. The ingredients listed are just ammonia NH3.
Ok I’ll leave it for now and see what happens in the next few days.
Thanks for your advice