Fishless cycle help

[lovell2576]

Hi all,
I am new to the forum and I need some advice. I have a biorb 60l which I have had for 8 weeks now and I decided to do a fishless cycle, which is proving to be a good learning experience but frustrating at the same time

About a week ago I realised my cycle had stalled. Ammonia was static at about 3ppm nitrite static at about .8 and nitrate static at 50-110ppm. I added some aqua clear balls when I started as they supposedly have bacteria in them to get me started so thats how I accounted for the nitrate levels.

I realised I had overdosed ammonia so I did a big water change, dosed ammonia up to between 1-2ppm and within 24 hours I am getting zero ammonia readings, which is a good sign. This is happening everytime I dose ammonia up.

Now I have Nitrite and Nitrate both off the scale, which I guess is also good, however, I am unable to get the levels down. Over the past 4 days I have changed 80l of water and still the levels are sky high. I have read that these high readings can stall the nitrite to nitrate cycle.

Current readings after a 60l water change are ammo 0 nitrite 3ppm+ and nitrate at least 110ppm


Am I being too impatient? Should I leave ammo at 0 for a bit to try and reduce the nitrite level?
Any advice appreciated

Mark

 

[Mebbid]

The nitrite consuming bacteria will eventually catch up. I would drop the ammonia dose down to 1ppm daily and call it good at that.

 

[Fishperson]

I agree with mebbid, in fact you really don't need to dose ammonia that often anymore, maybe only once every 2 or 3 days. Once the nitrite comes down you can up the dose to 2-3 ppm daily and then eventually 4 if you want.

 

[threnjen]

Agree with advice from Mebbid and Fishperson and sounds like everything is going "swimmingly"

 

[Fishperson]

Agree with advice from Mebbid and Fishperson and sounds like everything is going "swimmingly"

Thank you, but your puns smell a bit fishy to me!

 

[lovell2576]

Phew so I am still on track. Thank you all for your replies, I will keep you posted on the results. I kept fish before but did not go into much detail. This time around i decided to learn a few things. The great thing about the fishless is you learn about the cycle which I have actually enjoyed and also the fact I give the fish a happy home and I dont sacrifice them to cycle the tank. Its worth the wait.