Fishless Cycle - What's Wrong?

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Daner

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Feb 26, 2014
Messages
21
Location
Boston, MA
So I have a 29g tank, freshwater currently doing the fishless cycling and not sure if I'm just not being patient enough or if something is stalling things for me.

Set up tank almost 4 weeks ago, have gravel substrate, fake plants and some decorations/hiding places for fish in there. Rinsed all things before putting in the tank with tap water. Filled tank, added dechlorinator, let sit for a few days until I found some Ammonia.

Fresh tank specs were pH 7.4 Temp ~82F, Ammonia/ites/Ates 0
Added my Ace Hardware Ammonia according to a webpage (which I can't find anymore if anyone has the link to what I may have used) that you punch in the concentration of ammonia you have and the size of your tank to give you the appropriate ammonia mL to get you to 3-5ppm.

I am really bad at trying to decipher shades of green for Ammonia on the API Master test kit, but I thought my Ammonia was between the 2ppm and 4ppm. And that's the shade of green it has stayed for the last three weeks.

Today is exactly 3 weeks since I added the ammonia, have been checking ammonia and periodically nitrites with no changes. Am I missing something? pH is still 7.4, Temp is still right around 82F, water is a little low so that the filter drops lots of bubbles, I even added some microscopic fish food flakes this weekend in desperation.

Attached is two images of my API test kit results from tonight just for verification. Am I just being impatient? Unfortunately I don't have any friends with tanks around here to get seed material from. Thanks in advance!
 

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Crank that heat up to around 86 degrees. ... The bacteria can form faster at that temperature. To my eyes, your ammonia looks to be 2ppm.

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Thank you both for your replies. I will bookmark that Ammonia calculator site this time! ;)

The closest LFS I have are big box stores, and I'm not very confident in their seeded material being free of disease. There are two mom & pop LFS that are further away from my house that I've been meaning to look into so maybe this weekend I'll get a chance to ask for some seeded material there if their tanks looks nice and healthy.

I will also crank up the heat a little more when I get home tonight just to give an extra boost. As far as the Ammonia test result, thank you for your input, that's why I posted the pictures for reference. Some light it looks closer to 2ppm and other light it looks closer to 4ppm. Maybe boost the Ammonia up tonight to try to reach 4ppm color result. Would the ammonia being at 2 rather than 4 make a huge difference in time? In my mind as long as there is some ammonia for food in there I figure bacteria will grow, but I'm no expert yet! :)
 
So the ammonia has never dropped? Just holds static?

I was thinkin Jen..

This is the second person seeming to be in the same situation as another member - post...Using Ace Ammonia? Wonder if other ingredient/s added..?
 
I was thinkin Jen..

This is the second person seeming to be in the same situation as another member - post...Using Ace Ammonia? Wonder if other ingredient/s added..?
It shouldn't be though, it's basically the "gold standard" for perfect cycling ammonia, unless they have come out with another type that has some sort of surfactants. I mean, anything is possible I guess! I didn't notice when I purchased mine if they have more than one type available on the shelves.

Op, when you shake the ammonia bottle, does it get frothy/soapy looking?
 
As far as I know the Ammonia has held static. Possible decrease early this week but I'm terrible at deciphering 2 vs 4ppm. I added some more Ammonia then to make sure I was back to the same color, but have yet to see any other changes.

I cranked the temp up to 84-86 last night and dosed Ammonia per the calculator from 2 to 4ppm.

The Ammonia from Ace that I have I shook before buying and any bubbling dissipates immediately.
 
So I checked the Ammonia today, shook it real hard and any air bubbles I created floated to the top and disappeared immediately after I stopped shaking. Took pictures of the label just in case. Doesn't say anything about Surfactants or anything added and was the only one available at my local Ace. So I hope it's been the right one :/

Also today when i got home from work, Ammonia read a legit 4ppm (that I felt confident of for once when reading) but the nitrites are still 0.

If the Ammonia had only been at 2ppm these last 3.5 weeks would that have slowed down the cycle like this? Or should it not have mattered since there was at least some present to be used (and I hadn't seen any decreases in the level anyway)?

Thanks for all your help you guys (and gals)!
 

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I have read about fish less cycling on other sites and they all talk about 8 or 10 weeks with the static ammonia problem. Many end up with bacteria starters. I use the Microbe-lift Special Blend. I have tried API stress zyme and it does nothing, Nutrafin Cycle works good but is double the cost.

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OK I'm getting to where I have no idea, but I'm going to make a wild guess here. I looked at your water quality report and there is no mention of testing for phosphorus, and I looked at another document for MA nutrient management that describes a phosphorus policy of .2mg/l which is really low. The bacteria DO need some level of phosphorus for their reproduction. I'm really grasping at straws here but I'm going to toss out phosphorus deficiency as a possible culprit here. It's better than no ideas at all, right?

I would suggest you take a nice, healthy pinch of fish flakes and pulverize them really tiny into your tank. This is going to add some phosphorus. It might jumpstart things. Best idea I have at the moment...
 
I'll see if I can look up some water quality reports for my specific town, but that's not a bad idea on the phosphorous, I added a few crushed flakes of food last weekend and again last night. How often would you recommend adding flakes for phosphorous? Would a phosphorous test kit be reasonable thing to get?

I only work half days on Saturdays and will be heading to a friend's house tonight for a bbq and she just happens to live in the town with the LFS I wanted to check out. So I plan on checking if they'll gift me some seeded material or maybe try a bacteria starter if I'm desperate.
 
Thank you Fresh2o, if necessary that might be a good idea to consider. Too bad I don't live in SC anymore, would be able to drive to get seeded material from MrFisher! :p
 
Just to update everyone. Was able to get some seeded filter material from one of the tanks at the LFS by my friends house. Hopefully the bacteria survived okay in the bag until I got home this morning to put it in my tank. Kept it inside at least so it didn't get cold overnight.

Cross your fingers for me! Will be adding in some small amounts of fish flake every couple days too to try to keep phosphorous up. Unless I shouldn't need to do it that frequently?
 
So, to update....I'm still stuck.

It's been 5 1/2 weeks of fishless cycling with no changes. Added filter material from LFS that was supposedly seeded 2 weeks ago. I even added a bottle of Safe Start out of desperation early this week. (Mostly because the LFS gave me the seeded material for free and I felt I should buy something :p) The only change I've seen so far is a slight drop in Ammonia from 4ppm to 2ppm, but I've topped off the evaporated water (with dechlorinated water) a couple times.

Any thoughts or ideas of why fishless is stalling so hard with me? :/
 
Daner check classifieds in the forum. There is a member selling seeded sponge filters. Or, go to Dr. Tim's website and buy his One & Only Denitrifying Bacteria. You can check there for local stores.
 
MonkeyMonk86, I did put in some seeded filter material from the LFS about 2 weeks ago, and also added a similar bottled denitrifying product earlier this week as well. Have heard mixed reviews about all bottled "live bacteria" products, but figured I'd try anyway. Still no changes yet.
 
Others don't work. I cycled a tank in 3 days with Dr. Tim's. I originally wasted money on the others. His videos explain why his works and others don't.

Also, regarding seeded, our member is trustable and would ensure your satisfaction. Look for Mr. Fisher.
 
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