Help - Tank Cycle sending me crazy...

[missmercury83]

Hey everyone,

So i've been cycling my tank for almost 8 weeks now....
At week 7 I thought I could celebrate as it seemed my cycle was coming to an end - The Nitrates were around 20, the Nitrite finally dropped to 0 overnight.... and then i waited...... for the ammonia to drop andddddddd..... nothing. It just stayed the same at 2, for days! As i was under the impression that it was supposed to drop to 0 with my nitrite within 24 hours of each other, I thought that maybe I was doing the right thing by doing a water change. Then someone on facebook told me it should happen by itself. So i stopped and then maybe made the next stupid decision to add ammonia again up to 4ppm. Its been like that for a week, then yesterday the nitrites spiked up again, and today theyve dropped back down to 0 again but the ammonia is STILL sitting at 4ppm.

huh???

I need help. Is this normal? Do i just wait for the ammonia to drop by itself? do i help it out with water changes?? have I done something drastically wrong to my cycle??

any help is much appreciated.

Thank you.

 

[Angellove78]

No, at the end of your cycle when you have nitrate and your nitrite zeroed out and if you still have ammonia readings you just need to do water changes to zero it out.

 

[Fresh2o]

^^^ If you have to do water changes to reduce ammonia in a fishless cycle, then something is not right. I would let the filter convert the ammonia instead (and do water changes to reduce the nitrates assuming ammonia and nitrite are zero).

 

[drjallen3]

I hope this is not an insulting question, but as you are cycling a new tank, my assumption is that you may be new to the hobby. When you do water changes, you do add chlorine remover to the fresh water before you refill the tank with it...right? It really is abnormal for ammonia to just sit at 4 ppm with no change in a tank thats been cycling for 8 weeks.

Hey everyone,

So i've been cycling my tank for almost 8 weeks now....
At week 7 I thought I could celebrate as it seemed my cycle was coming to an end - The Nitrates were around 20, the Nitrite finally dropped to 0 overnight.... and then i waited...... for the ammonia to drop andddddddd..... nothing. It just stayed the same at 2, for days! As i was under the impression that it was supposed to drop to 0 with my nitrite within 24 hours of each other, I thought that maybe I was doing the right thing by doing a water change. Then someone on facebook told me it should happen by itself. So i stopped and then maybe made the next stupid decision to add ammonia again up to 4ppm. Its been like that for a week, then yesterday the nitrites spiked up again, and today theyve dropped back down to 0 again but the ammonia is STILL sitting at 4ppm.

huh???

I need help. Is this normal? Do i just wait for the ammonia to drop by itself? do i help it out with water changes?? have I done something drastically wrong to my cycle??

any help is much appreciated.

Thank you.

 

[missmercury83]

Hi! No not insulting at all.
Yes I have put water dechlorinator in each time I’ve done any water changes!
So confused.