Frustration about ammonia level

[Zelda]

I've been doing a fishless cycles for about 3 weeks now. My ammonia is not dropping. I put in the filter media from the other tank,and some of the fake plants. I also have an air bubbler stone in it. Also some fish food, which I think I over did on, cause the water turned green. I don't have the light on and the tank isn't in direct sun. I did put Algae Destoryer (made by Aquarium Pharmaceuticals,Inc)about 4 days ago. That didn't help. Today I did a pwc,about 15 to 17 gallons. My tank is a 42gallon. I put the dechlorinator in and waited a while to check the ammonia level. It was still just as high (4ppm to 8ppm). The ammonia I used was ROOTO, in fact I did call the company and the lady I spoke with assured me it was pure ammonia, no soap or anything else. Do you think I should get a few real plants or just keep doing the pwc? I'm getting a little frustrated and just need advice.

 

[Nubster]

Well...if the ammonia is in fact that high...you need to do a water change to get it lower. Too much ammonia will slow down or even stop the cycle because it will kill off the bacteria. Get the ammonia down to around 2-4ppm. Also, shake the bottle of ammonia...if it suds up then it's no good. It should have on the label a list of ingredients or somewhere that it contains surfactant if it does indeed contain that. If it does, don't use it in your tank.

 

[eco23]

3 weeks is definitely past the timeline where you should have seen movement. Some causes can be a serious overdose of ammonia, not dechlorinating the water before it is added to the tank, impure ammonia, extreme pH levels and in rare cases a lack of nutrients / phosphates, etc... in the water supply.

Since you checked on the ammonia I'd assume it's good. Are you using a liquid test kit? Do you know your pH level? Are you dechlorinating the water before it is added to the tank?

One thing to try would be to do another large water change and reduce the ammonia down to ~2ppm. It's difficult to tell the difference on an API test with high levels of ammonia...so it's possible it's dosed to high and preventing things from getting started.

Purchasing plants can help bring in beneficial bacteria if they're purchased from a cycled tank, but other than that they really don't have an impact on fishless cycling.

 

[Zelda]

I checked the PH and it was at 7.6. The high range PH is at 8.0.
Now for the dechlorinating the water. I have a hose I connect to the facet and fill the tank like that and add the stuff to the tank as the water is going in. That's not how it should be done? I am planning on a large water change but now I'll wait to see if I need to change how the dechlornating is supposed to be done. Thanks all of you

 

[Nubster]

You can do it that way...many people do. But make sure you are adding enough conditioner to treat the entire amount of water in the tank, not just the amount of water you are replacing. So you need to treat 42 gallons, not just the 15-17 you are adding after the water change. Now if you were refilling from buckets, you can treat just the amount of water in the bucket. That's what I do.

 

[eco23]

I'd definitely advise adding the dechlorinator first whether you are using buckets or a water changing system. I have a Python, and when I do water changes I turn off the filter, drain the water I'm removing, add Prime directly to the tank based off the entire volume of the aquarium (not just what you're replacing), swish it around really good, refill the tank with temperature matched water, leave the filter off for a few minutes (to make sure the dechlorinator works on it before it is sucked into the filter media), then plug it back in.

Chlorine is added to the water with the sole purpose of killing bacteria. If it comes into contact with any of the beneficial bacteria in the tank or in the filter media before the dechlorinator works on it...it's basically giving your bacteria a quick bath in a mild bleach solution.

I'm not saying that's what the issue is here...but definitely worth noting. I'm still leaning towards the ammonia being too high.

 

[Zelda]

We are doing the big pwc as I type. and I didn't know that I had to put in the dechlorinator like that. I was doing it by the gallons I took out. I'm used to the 10 gallon tank yet I guess. Thanks soooo much for the info and patience

 

[sobersteve323]

Are you seeing any nitrItes or nitrAtes? I had the same problem with my ammonia not dropping even though I was converting nitrItes and nitrAtes.

You mentioned you had green water. Halfway through my cycle I had an explosion of white hair algae which a lot of it was sucked into my canister. I had started another thread on here and some users agreed that the decomposing algae was probably releasing ammonia in addition to the dose I originally added.

At one point my ammonia was increasing ~1ppm every day. I finally took the filter media out and swished out all of the dead algae and gunk and my ammonia began to drop. As of now, I'm converting so much ammonia that my nitrites will go from baby blue to neon purple in 1 day and my nitrates will also increase a shade daily!

I hope my 7 week long experience helps, haha.

 

[picture_117]

I had that problem with ammonia not dropping, I had dosed it to high to begin with, when I got it down to 2 ppm with PWC nitrites began to show.