Fishless Frustration

[heavy_heart]

I'm attempting to fishless cycle my tank for the 3rd time. I'm sure if I had asked for help and persisted the first time I would be cycled by now. I have one of those 5 gallon mini bow tanks and I heard they can be difficult to cycle. Anyway, here is what has been going on...

When I got my little tank, I set it up with gravel, a heater, thermometer, decor, and the small filter it came with. I filled it with tap water (Aqueon Water Conditioner added). I let it run for 48 hours like that before I tried anything. The first time, I tried the grocery store shrimp method. Yuck. I don't remember what my readings were but I abandoned it for whatever reason.

So I did almost a 100% water change, but I left everything in there (decor, etc). Then I tried the fish food method but couldn't get high enough readings (I knew this method was a bit hit-or-miss). I abandoned this, too.

For attempt number 3 I started from scratch again, doing an almost 100% water change (there was still some left in the gravel that I couldn't suck up). I rinsed the decor. This time I bought janitorial strength 10% ammonia from ACE hardware plus a medicine dropper. I found a website with step by step instructions on how to do this. I got everything going like it said to (I had the ammonia reading up to 4-5ish ppm). I even made a nifty chart to write in my readings. After two weeks, my ammonia has stayed at 4-5ish (hard to tell exactly with the API test kit) and my nitrites have stayed at 0. I tested my nitrAtes just for fun about a week ago and they were at 0 also, which I expected. I should also note that a few days after starting with the ammonia, I had a sudden appearance of worms, which I and a guy at PetCo determined to be detritus worms. They went away a couple days later. I remembered reading that if you want to jump start your cycle you can "seed" the tank with filter media from an established tank. So I cut some of the filter from my tank at work a couple days ago and put it right inside the filter in this tank. I checked my readings yesterday and today, and while the ammonia and nitrites have still not changed, I had a nitrAte reading of about 2.5 yesterday and a reading of almost 5 this morning. Oh, and one of my decorations has some greyish fluffy looking stuff on it that I didn't notice a couple days ago. And when I test the water, the test tube has clear/white floaty things in it.

What? I thought that nitrates were supposed to come last. I'm extremely confused and frustrated at this point. Why aren't my ammonia and nitrites doing anything? And why do I have nitrates? Also, what can I do to get my cycle going?

Here are my parameters....

TAP WATER:
Ammonia, 0
Nitrite, 0
Nitrate, 5
pH, 6.4
Hardness, 25 (very soft)
Chlorine, 0
Alkalinity, ~100 KH

TANK WATER:
Ammonia, 4-5
Nitrite, 0
Nitrate, 2.5-5
pH, 7.6
Hardness, 25 (very soft)
Chlorine, 0
Alkalinity, ~100 KH

 

[shellieca]

Sorry you are feeling so very frustrated. Nitrites on average take 2-3 wks (can take longer) to show up, so the fact you haven't seen them at the 2 wk mark is not unheard of. Nitrates can show up at anytime IME, plus the fact that you have ntirates in your tap & you added some filter media from an established tank so you are seeing them when you test your tank. Fully cycling a tank takes on average 6-8 wks so you've got a ways to go. I wouldn't worry at this point. Keep an eye on your parameters as you are, do a water change if anything gets too out of whack (Ph drops too low, nitrites or nitrates get too high). You'll get there.

 

[Bix22]

You are still early in the process I am 8 wks in and still not cycled....
Ill be glad when I don't have to do so many water changes!

 

[Cecil2010]

In fishless cycles you don't want to do water changes. Your just starting it back over again and again

 

[shellieca]

In fishless cycles you don't want to do water changes. Your just starting it back over again and again

You don't do as many as you would if you were fish IN cycling but there are instances when a water change should be done during a fishless cycle; too low Ph, off the charts nitrites or nitrates. Otherwise the cycle tends to stall & a properly done water change does not restart the cycling process, IME.

 

[Cecil2010]

Yes you are right it's more of a if it needs to be done. I was meaning that it shouldn't be a regular thing if there is no fish

 

[heavy_heart]

Thanks for your replies, everyone. The website I was using as a guide did advise that the timetable for the author might be different than other people. But it was saying by week two there should be a nitrite reading. So I was getting worried. I've just been feeling clueless and I start to think "what am I doing wrong?"

So you are all saying that the addition of the ammonia was all I had to do thus far and now I basically just have to wait for it to do its thing?

Another question: My tank's water is getting a little low due to evaporation and frequent testing. Should I add more water to the tank? And when I do, should I add the dechlorinator or avoid using it? I think I read somewhere that those can mess with the ammonia and bacteria. My tap water does not have chlorine in it, as you saw, but I'm not sure what other heavy metals or whatever are in it. Since I don't have fish, I wouldn't have to worry about them being affected by the tap water, but could it hurt any bacteria that are trying to colonize? Errr...I just read the bottle of dechlorinator and it says it "detoxifies heavy metals, chlorine, chloramines, and ammonia released from fish waste." When I filled the tank to begin with, I used the dechlorinator. Could that cause problems with the ammonia that I put in afterward?

 

[jlk]

No, your conditioner is fine to use. Your bb are content with both ammonia (NH3) and ammonium (NH4)- no worries! The effects of conditioner detoxing ammonia by converting it to ammonium are also only temporary, typically only up to 1-2ppm for about about 24-48hrs. I would condition any water your adding to the tank. I honestly would do 50% or so water change and drop your ammonia level down to around 2ppm. 5ppm on a 5g is a bit beyond overkill and simply is not necessary to cycle it as stocking options are limited for this size tank. A single betta or some shrimp or nano fish are not going to produce 5ppm of ammonia on daily basis unless you are dumping half a container of food into the tank on a daily basis. Please ask if you have questions!

 

[heavy_heart]

Okay thank you! I will think about doing that tomorrow.