Hello :-)

[phin9009]

Hello! Just joined today and wanted to introduce myself. I am currently fishless cycling a 46 gallon bowfront aquarium that will not have live plants, just fake plants and decorations. I have an Aquaclear 110 powerfilter with BioMax media, AC sponge filter insert, and a ton of filter floss. I had put in a normal amount of filter floss but then obtained some used from a tank at my LFS (in the hopes it would speed up my cycle).
I began my fishless cycle on August 3rd, and added the filter floss August 16th. I originally dosed the tank to 4ppm ammonia (Ace brand Janitorial pure ammonia). It had dropped to 2ppm and stayed there since about 4 days after the start of the cycle. Since that, my tank has shown no progress. I have done tons of research and decided to try the advice I found on an article on here. I re-dosed my tank with ammonia tonight and will keep dosing it when it drops down. I also finely ground up a very small amount of fish food to provide trace elements. I added half as much ammonia as originally used, waited an hour and tested. It showed only a small change in color (not nearly as dark as 4ppm but darker than 2ppm. So I added more. And waited. And tested. And i hadn't changed! (Maybe I was starving the bacteria from the filter floss and they ate what I had added??). I added more, waited the hour and tested, now it's at 4ppm. We shall see what it reads tomorrow (I'm really hoping its gone down and nitrites show up!)

My planned stocking is 1 angelfish, 1 german blue ram, 9 harlequin rasboras, 9 cherry barbs, 3 dalmation mollies, 3 sunset platies, 3 blue platies, and 4 african dwarf frogs.

Any advice and comments are welcome and appreciated!

 

[Sidman24]

How tall is the tank? African dwarf frogs can't Live in anything taller then 15' ... They need to swim up for air. Thought I'd just check

 

[phin9009]

With my gravel in the tank, it is right at 15 inches (I'm also prepared with an extra 10 gallon tank ready to set up in case I need to take the frogs out)

 

[Mebbid]

It can sometimes take quite a while for the nitrites to show up and the ammonia level going down is likely caused by the ammonia finally circulating through dead spots in the tank. Have you thought about trying to get some seeded material from a lfs or fellow fish keeper to put in the tank to speed up the process?

 

[phin9009]

I got a bunch of used filter floss from my lfs that I put in about 2 weeks ago but my ammonia hasn't changed at all after I added that

 

[Mebbid]

What's your pH at?

 

[phin9009]

Around 7.5

 

[Mebbid]

Alright, my last idea which may be halting your progress, did you use any type of dechlorinator in your water?

 

[phin9009]

Yea I did. I used api water conditioner.

 

[phin9009]

Tested my ammonia this morning (12 hours after dosing 4ppm ammonia last night) and it's still 4ppm Will test again tonight (24 hours after dosing) and hope that it has gone down. I'm getting really frustrated at the lack of progress with my cycle. Really don't want to do a fish in, don't want to put the fish through those conditions.

 

[flitabout]

If done carefully fish in cycles can be very safe for the fish. It is work and sometimes daily water changes, but it can be safely done. I ended up using nutrafin cycle to get my cycle going. It took me 2 weeks to get the tank another week to get the tank set up and the stand built. After a week of trying to cycle it I lost all patience and added the Cycle. It worked after some really weird readings. When I say weird I mean like the ammo was rising on it's own for about 5 days. I had to keep doing water changes only to find that in 12 hours it went from .5ppm after the change back up to 4ppm and sometimes higher than that. Then the nitrates started going through the roof like so high they where unreadable. I had finally had it and I did a 90%-95% water change I took every drop I could out. Refilled the tank with prime treated water and waited. It started rising again This time it stopped at around .5ppm. So I decided to dose the tank back up again that morning to 4ppm first time in 5 days. I checked it again the next morning and my ammo and nitrite were both 0 and again the nitrates were off the charts! I did another water change brought the nitrates down to 5ppm and said to heck with it and added a couple of fish. I figured that if I was doing huge daily water changes anyway I may as well have some fish to look at! Since that point I still test twice everyday water change every couple of days because of high nitrates but I have had consistant 0 ammo and nitrite readings.
Now I am not telling you to add bb in a bottle especially if you can't handle freaky readings, and constant checking because they are iffy at best. But it may be worth a shot if you are at the point I was and just wanting to get it done.
My levels are finally starting to get more stable but since I used the bb in a bottle I don't trust it. Not sure how long it will be before I do.

 

[phin9009]

I'm trying to stay away from the bacteria in a bottle (heard horror stories of the readings and tanks not truly being cycled despite seeming like they were). I already have a bunch of filter floss from a lfs to seed my tank (added almost 2 weeks ago) and I am getting some sponge filter "mud" (the squeezings from a sponge filter) from a lfs today to add. I have no patience so hopefully this will help. If my ammonia still hasn't changed, I will be ordering one of the "active" sponge filters from Angelsplus

 

[flitabout]

I totally understand. That's why I am still testing so frequently. All I can do at this point is to watch it.

 

[phin9009]

Yeah that's about all you can do. Hopefully they did work for you and its truly cycled

 

[phin9009]

Maybe something is finally happening (too soon to tell)...tested ammonia tonight and the color was lighter...too light to be a 4, but too dark to be a 2...definitely lighter than it had been (had solidly been a 4, matched the color chart for 4 exactly). Fingers crossed that this is really progress, not just a trick being played on me by my test kit!

 

[Liberty2k4]

Wow your cycle is scary similar to mine! I'm 4 weeks into fishless cycle and ammonia dropped from 4ppm to 1ppm around week 2. Dosed back up to 4 and that's where it stayed. After a week I did a 70% water change and added pinch of fish food. Ammonia has been stuck at 0.5 ever since. I just got two active sponges from angelsplus today hoping to kick start things!!

 

[molliwopp]

I'm trying to stay away from the bacteria in a bottle (heard horror stories of the readings and tanks not truly being cycled despite seeming like they were). I already have a bunch of filter floss from a lfs to seed my tank (added almost 2 weeks ago) and I am getting some sponge filter "mud" (the squeezings from a sponge filter) from a lfs today to add. I have no patience so hopefully this will help. If my ammonia still hasn't changed, I will be ordering one of the "active" sponge filters from Angelsplus

Ooo sponge slugde is great stuff. Its definitely give your cyclea kick up the ***. Even better than any active sponge marketing ploys.

 

[phin9009]

Yeah the place squeezed out 2 of their sponge filters so I'm hoping the cycle will finish soon now

 

[molliwopp]

Yeah the place squeezed out 2 of their sponge filters so I'm hoping the cycle will finish soon now

It will, its the most effective way apart from using a whole filter from an established tank. I hope you put it straight into your filter and didnt just dump it into the tank. Putting it straight into the tank would benefit the cycle but nowhere near as effective as stright in the filter.

 

[phin9009]

Yup. Poured it right into my power filter
Is it normal to see a several day lag between putting it in and any change in ammonia our any Nitrites?