*WEIRD* water parameters.. help!

[blipblop]

i've been in the midst of a fishless cycle in my 10g and i just tested it TWICE.. my ammonia still has a little bit of trace like .25, my nitrITE is ZERO and my nitrATES are ZERO... i have no live plants or anything in here!! what's wrong =( i thought i was getting close to finishing my cycle but then this happens! help!!!

[TankGirl]

Are you still adding ammonia daily?

[blipblop]

yea! i'm adding 3 drops of it every single day!

[blipblop]

what should I do now? do i need to start all over again? =\

[TankGirl]

Well, starting all over again would involve simply adding ammonia, which you are doing, so I say soldier on as you have been - the cycle can and must happen eventually (BrianNY said it first )

It can be a very frustrating thing to wait weeks and weeks, but try a "set it and forget it" attitude, just plunking in your ammonia (3 drops sounds light for a 10-gal, I would put a bit more in there) and don't test it for a while. Before too long, if you are not testing it every day and aren't fretting over it, you will be cycled. It's just gotta happen. Upping the ammonia dose will provide you with tons of bacteria, hopefully more than you will need when you get the fish.

Good luck-

[blipblop]

yea, i'm going to up it to 8 -10 drops a day i don't test every day hehe and it's summer so i have work so it isn't so bad, so i'm gonna plop in about 8-10 drops per day

[blipblop]

yea i guess i need to start it over again, the bacteria prolli didn't have enough to eat, i'm putting about 1 capful each day now... blah, is there anything i can do to quicken to process? even if i'm in no rush i was almost done! until i didn't put enough ammonia... is it a good idea for me to use bio-spira? if i can get my hands on some? what would be the pluses and minuese of this? thanks!

[Overstocker]

If nothing in there, dump a bunch of ammonia and when it disappears then done.... Bio worked wonders for me. I had fish in and was going thru a cycle because of the loading and such and Bio knocked it out in a couple days...

[blipblop]

what's a bunch? isn't it good to add some every single day?

[Overstocker]

IMO, you make bacteria based on your load so... if you put in enough to make your ammonia read 10ppm or so you would make lots of good bacteria in a hurry. No worries on killing anything in the tank because it is empty. Also, I am forgetfull and a tad lazy=one big dump of stuff being better than trying to remeber lots of little additions....