5gal fishless cycle - shoot me

[rkolb86]

I started my fishless cycle on 10/21/11...about 6 weeks ago.

Ever since the 2nd-3rd week of cycling, I've have about .5-1ppm of Nitrite with no real fluxuation....it's been stuck, however, my ammonia drops down to about 1ppm before I dose it back up to 4ppm.

Some More Info:

• I have never had a single trace of Nitrates.

• I run the heater and filter 24/7...tank is about 82F all the time...can't get any higher with what I have

• I test every 2 days. I lose about 3L (3/4 Gal) every 2 days due to evaporation (tank doesn't have a lid...Fluval Chi)

• The water has been cloudy for about 2 weeks

• I couldn't get my hands on any seeding material

• I'm using pure ammonia (well, 10% solution with water - Ace Hardware stuff) with no sufficient, dies, or scents (passes the shake test)

• Every time I add water to my tank (every 2 days), I add some Prime in the correct ratio (5mL/200L = .5mL/19L[5gal] = 0.075mL/3L [lost water]) = 0.025mL Prime to dechlorinate the added water.

I decided to test my pH today...it was about an 8.2. I did a PWC (50%) to see if I could lower the pH and maybe help out my cycle, it only brought the pH down to about 8.0.


My tap water is about 7.8





I think I'm stuck somehow, but I'm not sure. I'm new to all this, but I've picked up on it all pretty quickly.


What do you think? I'm worried because the Nitrates haven't changed in a few weeks as well as not having a single hint of Nitrate.

 

[Nubster]

Perhaps the pH is slowing things down. I also wouldn't do any more water changes. Just let it ride. Is there anything else in the tank? Plants, wood, decorations?

 

[jlk]

I wouldnt be too concerned with the ph. As long as it is staying fairly stable & you dont experience any crashes or jumps, its fine. Doing a pwcs wont hurt your cycle & will help re-establish buffers. The nitrite>nitrate portion of cycling does take the longest (typically 2-3x as long as amm>nitrite) & requires the most patience. But, because your nitrites arent particularly high, i am wondering if there may be some degree of conversion happening. Have you seen any high nitrite spikes (5ppm or greater)? Are you making sure you really shake & bang the nitrate bottles on a hard surface for a full minute before testing? The nitrate tests have reagants that can clump & will result in an inaccurate result if not well mixed. Lets start there & see if we can figure out whats happening (or not)!

 

[rkolb86]

Perhaps the pH is slowing things down. I also wouldn't do any more water changes. Just let it ride. Is there anything else in the tank? Plants, wood, decorations?

There is a single fake plant

 

[rkolb86]

I wouldnt be too concerned with the ph. As long as it is staying fairly stable & you dont experience any crashes or jumps, its fine. Doing a pwcs wont hurt your cycle & will help re-establish buffers. The nitrite>nitrate portion of cycling does take the longest (typically 2-3x as long as amm>nitrite) & requires the most patience. But, because your nitrites arent particularly high, i am wondering if there may be some degree of conversion happening. Have you seen any high nitrite spikes (5ppm or greater)? Are you making sure you really shake & bang the nitrate bottles on a hard surface for a full minute before testing? The nitrate tests have reagants that can clump & will result in an inaccurate result if not well mixed. Lets start there & see if we can figure out whats happening (or not)!

That's a big reason why id did the PWC...I figured the bacteria had depleted my water of something.

Not a single NitrIte spike. It has never gone over 1ppm.

Yeah...I shake the **** out of those bottles. I follow the directions exactly.



My numbers as of tonight:
Ammonia: 4ppm
NitrIte: 0.25ppm (after 50% pwc)
NitrAte: 0ppm (no trace even before pwc, and no live plants)
Temp: 82F
pH: 8.0

Like I said, I'm 6 weeks in and that is all I have. Water is slighty cloudy still after my 50% PWC...its been cloudy for a few weeks now.

I just ordered a lid for my tank. Fluval just came out with one because of all the evaporation complaints. I doubt it will help much because the filter shoots water up outside the tank. I think all the evaporation is messing with my numbers.

I guess I'll wait 2 days and see what happens

 

[jlk]

Thanks Rkolb!! Its always easier to try & figure out simple answers to problems before we try anything unusual. Lets see how things look when you test again (since doing pwc) & see if that has any effect first & we can go from there!

 

[rkolb86]

You know, with all the frustration this 5 gallon has given me, maybe I should just go pick up a 10 gallon and see if I can cram this proprietary filter in the new one as well as the substrate and use it to seed.

From what I gather, the bigger the tank, the easier it is to stabilize.