Fishless cycling help

[Ian14]

I've been cycling my 46 gallon bowftont tank for over 3 weeks now and I'm still not seeing any drop in nitrites. Both nitrite and nitrate readings are off the chart and the ammonia disappears after a day or so. I even did a 50 percent water change yesterday and the nitrite readings were still off the chart. It's heavily planted and I have a penguin 350 and eheim 2215. Temp is 80
I've been dosing ammonia back up from 0 everyday and even put in food to help create ammonia
Am I doing something wrong?

 

[RobbieHadley]

Im not familiar with planted tanks, as a matter of fact Im just getting ready to start my first in a 10 gal, so I hope someone else chimes in if I'm wrong. But with your nitrates and nitrites being high, you can try using Prime to lower them if the water changes aren't helping.

 

[Ian14]

I've used prime before and I just used it again today

Sent from my XT1080 using Aquarium Advice mobile app

 

[threnjen]

You're not doing anything wrong at all. Your cycle is right on track. All that is required now is patience I know it's so hard to wait! My first cycle was agony!

Prime does not lower nitrites or nitrates, it is for dechlorinating your source water and will also temporarily detoxify ammonia by converting it to less toxic ammonium. Not important anyway in a fishless cycle, but definitely keep using it of course any time you add water!

 

[fishybuisness]

You're not doing anything wrong at all. Your cycle is right on track. All that is required now is patience I know it's so hard to wait! My first cycle was agony!

Prime does not lower nitrites or nitrates, it is for dechlorinating your source water and will also temporarily detoxify ammonia by converting it to less toxic ammonium. Not important anyway in a fishless cycle, but definitely keep using it of course any time you add water!

Prime also converts the nitrates and nitrites to a harmless compound . it does it all..that's why its the best..anyways I would do a 40% water change every day for a few days to get them back on the chart.

 

[threnjen]

Prime also converts the nitrates and nitrites to a harmless compound . it does it all..that's why its the best..anyways I would do a 40% water change every day for a few days to get them back on the chart.

Why do you recommend all the water changes? He doesn't have any fish. He just did a 50% water change. The cycle is right on track.

I actually did not know that about the Prime, but Seachem doesn't even seem to know how it does that, or how much. Regardless not relevant to his fishless cycle, but good information nonetheless.

 

[Mebbid]

Prime also converts the nitrates and nitrites to a harmless compound . it does it all..that's why its the best..anyways I would do a 40% water change every day for a few days to get them back on the chart.

The conversion of nitrite and nitrate with prime is a temporary thing. It will detoxify them for approximately a day unlike ammo is which is permenantly detoxified.

 

[Caliban07]

The conversion of nitrite and nitrate with prime is a temporary thing. It will detoxify them for approximately a day unlike ammo is which is permenantly detoxified.

Can the bacteria also use nitrites in their detoxified state?

 

[Delapool]

Also interested - this is from their FAQ.

http://www.seachem.com/support/FAQs/Prime.html

I always see it as a temp fix but intrigued on how it works now lol.

 

[Caliban07]

My point is, If it doesn't effect bacteria consummation. Why don't people just stock their tank fully and just dose prime for a month or half their stock? The only thing I see stopping this is cost of prime per volume of tank per frequency of dosing.

 

[Mebbid]

My point is, If it doesn't effect bacteria consummation. Why don't people just stock their tank fully and just dose prime for a month or half their stock? The only thing I see stopping this is cost of prime per volume of tank per frequency of dosing.

The overwhelming amount of disapproval that particular method has among aquarists is the main thing stopping people. So far I've seen two people that chose this particular method for their tank. Apparently it worked.. kind of. Not sure what happened since then though as I stopped following those threads.

 

[Delapool]

I've always thought they could only do so much as well. In the directions below it says it can handle 1 ppm ammonia - actually just thinking about it, if it can handle 1ppm of actual ammonia that would be a lot!

http://www.seachem.com/Products/product_pages/Prime.html

 

[Caliban07]

I've always thought they could only do so much as well. In the directions below it says it can handle 1 ppm ammonia - actually just thinking about it, if it can handle 1ppm of actual ammonia that would be a lot!

http://www.seachem.com/Products/product_pages/Prime.html

1 ppm free ammonia is quite substantial. My question is, does it actually change the male up of nitrite to make it less toxic or does it use chloride to prevent the nitrite from entering through the fishes gills? Also does nitrite toxicity have a direct correlation with pH as ammonia does?

 

[Delapool]

1 ppm free ammonia is quite substantial. My question is, does it actually change the male up of nitrite to make it less toxic or does it use chloride to prevent the nitrite from entering through the fishes gills? Also does nitrite toxicity have a direct correlation with pH as ammonia does?

The FAQ seems to imply it is converted to less toxic form.

I know sodium thiosulfate will dechlorinate tap water but not sure if same stuff.

 

[Mebbid]

Ammonia gets converted into ammonium with the use of prime. Not exactly sure what it does to nitrite or nitrate.

 

[Ian14]

When I test the nitrite now and shake it up it takes a lot longer for the test tube to turn from light blue to purple. Am I closer? And should I still be putting in ammonia

 

[threnjen]

Yes you should still be dosing every other day.
It's hard to say where you are at in the cycle. It just takes patience. Your cycle is totally on track from what I see.
It's just taking longer to turn dark because you did water changes and took nitrites out of the water.

 

[Ian14]

Nitrites are 0 now

 

[threnjen]

That's fabulous!! You might be there!!
Dose your full amount of ammonia (4ppm) and if it clears in 24 hours, you are DONE~!

 

[Ian14]

I did that and now I have nitrites again.. Why?