No Nitrite spike? week 3.5

[Jobin13]

Hey all,
My brother recently gave me a 55 g tank. It has a marineland 350b filter on it. Heater is set to 80 degrees. The tank has been running for 3.5 weeks now, and my ammonia level has not dropped. I've added Stability to it, and ended up using the entire bottle (I originally used the recommended dosage but bumped it up to double when nothing happened after the 3rd week). Since that my ammonia levels have never dropped or even moved... I went and got Special Blend Microbe lift hoping that would help. I find it hard to believe my ammonia levels would shock the bacteria right out of the bottle. I've tested my water probably 100 times in the past weeks and the results are always very similar.

Ammonia: .5-1ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 0 ppm
pH: 7.2-7.4
kH: 3
gH:2

I'm also in the process of re-cycling a 6 gal and a 40g breeder and they are doing fine. the 55 doesn't have fish but the other two tanks do. I wanted to do fishless cycling because it's the "humane" thing to do but I'm having difficulty... Recommendations?

 

[Delapool]

I can't see anything obvious. KH a little low but PH/KH look ok still. Ammonia level should be fine for bacteria. Hmmmm.


Have you tested tap water to get eg a 0 ammonia reading and thus check test kit is working.


You could try a water change but I'd be tempted to see if some media from the other tanks can be pinched to seed this tank.


I've never really used the Stability product in anger (been more of a help after filter clean) but puzzled it isn't working.

 

[Jobin13]

I can't see anything obvious. KH a little low but PH/KH look ok still. Ammonia level should be fine for bacteria. Hmmmm.


Have you tested tap water to get eg a 0 ammonia reading and thus check test kit is working.


You could try a water change but I'd be tempted to see if some media from the other tanks can be pinched to seed this tank.


I've never really used the Stability product in anger (been more of a help after filter clean) but puzzled it isn't working.

Yes, I've tested my tap water plenty! tap water in our area comes in at
pH: 7.8 (once aerated it can get up to 8.6,you should always check both yo find your stock levels)
ammonia:0
nitrite:0
nitrate:0
kh:0-1
gh:2

I'll try the gravel trick

 

[Delapool]

Looks good. Kh very low.

Just checking but only difference between tanks that are cycling is that the 55 doesn't have fish and 40 or 6 gal do?

I'm wondering at the moment if the fishless cycle is missing elements - maybe kh or something else.

 

[Jobin13]

Yes as of right now, the 6 gal and the 40 gal have fish. The 55 does not. I addressed the kH value by adding some carbonate and now my levels are exactly the same as above just with kH at 4.

I turned on my aquarium light and swapped biowheels from my 40. Hoping this helps! (also hoping I don't ruin my 40 gal by doing this...)

 

[Jobin13]

UPDATE! the 55 now has nitrite it spiked incredibly high my test kit only goes to about 5 and it was definitely over that. I did a 50 percent water change to get the levels to a low enough level for the bacteria to grow. it's at about 2 ppm right now. hopefully the bacteria can grow fast enough to convert this to nitrate!

 

[Delapool]

Grand news!