Help Desperately Needed with Cycling and Ammonia!

[janegael]

I have a 29 gallon tank I'm trying to cycle. It has Carib Sea Eco Complete substrate and is planted. There are no fish in it. The temperature is 80 degrees and I have both a Aqueon Quiet Flow 10 and a XY-2822 Air Pump Double Sponge Water Filter running. I'm adding Stability every day and adding water as needed using AquaSafe. I absolutely can't seem to get the ammonia at the desirable level. I am hopeless at math and so many posts say different amounts. I tried using this calculator Calculator and my ammonia (Ace pure ammonia) is staying at about .5 on my API test kit.

Yesterday I found a post saying to use "4-5 ml's of 10% ammonia for every 10 gals of water to produce an ammonia level of around 4ppm's." Since I had a .5 reading I decided to use 10ml just to make sure I didn't overdose. Well this morning it still reads .5.

HELP! My plants don't look very good and after two weeks I feel like I'm no further ahead.

Ps. Sorry if you read this on more than one forum, I really am that desperate.

 

[Exigenn]

Personally i have never dosed ammonia or any of that, just used already seeded media. But Cycling a tank can take up to a month fishless. Do you have anywhere else you can put the plants for the time being?

 

[ScotJudd]

Hi Jane.
Firstly, are you testing with a good quality liquid test kit, such as the API Freshwater Master Test Kit (an essential fish keepers tool) or using test strips which at best are not very accurate and at worst fail totally if they have become damp at some point.
Secondly, to work out your ammonia dosage get a gallon of water and add enough ammonia to raise it to 4ppm. This is your base line for adding ammonia to your tank. Just add 29 times that amount of ammonia and your tank should read 4ppm as well.
Plants are good in a tank when cycling, they introduce bacteria needed to start the cycling. But new plants into a new tank will nearly always struggle to establish, unless you have super green fingers, so don't get to disappointed about the plants. The cycling is the main issue.
If you can get some seeded media from a friend or even the fish shop then putting that into your filter will help to kick start it, otherwise it's a waiting game - a long waiting game in some cases. The outcome, a well cycled tank with a filter capable of protecting your prized fish when you get them, is well worth the wait. Try not not to get too stressed, testing daily and fretting, just let nature do its job.
Patience! Good luck with your tank.


Sent from my iPad using Aquarium Advice

 

[janegael]

I have the API Master Freshwater test kit with a recent date on it. I don't know anyone with fish so I can't get seeded materials. I suck at math but I can read the color strip. What is driving me crazy is trying to even approach 4ppm. My wife is also testing the kit and the ammonia readings are all over the place.

When I posted this I had just dosed with a relatively high amount as the test was showing only .25ppm for two separate tests. The tank looked awful with the water cloudy and brown crud building up on the floor. So I siphoned off 6 gallons and cleaned up the crud. The next day I checked it the next day and the ammonia was darker than the darkest square. WTF?? I pulled 6 gallons and replaced it with fresh treated water with some Stability in it. And it went from .25 to 8+ overnight?? The nitrates were also darker than the highest level 160ppm+.

I drained 12 gallons and replaced it with treated water yesterday and today took a sample to Petco to check. They got .25 ammonia and a high nitrate (he only used the strip on that). I came home and used my own kit and got a reading of .25 on the ammonia like he did and a test for nitrate that reads 80ppm.

Tomorrow I will do the 1 gallon ammonia test. I was actually going to do it when I found that the tank was way over-loaded. I feel like it's screwing with me to go from .25 to 8+ over night. That's what's causing the stress. I'll be very glad to see the last of the ammonia.

Thanks for the help. I appreciate it.