What to do next? Tank cycling...

[Maltee]

I am trying to do a fishless cycle of a 5 gallon aquarium. I have a heater set at 80 degrees and a few live plants in there. It's my first time cycling an aquarium.

I followed the instructions from the pinned article on this website, which was very helpful, but I seemed to get stuck on the last few steps. I had the large nitrite and nitrate spike, then did the 50% water change as the instructions said, but as I waited, my ammonia never went down to 0. It would only go down so far as .25, and then stay there for days. I decided to keep dosing up to 2 ppm of ammonia and hopefully it would soon go down to 0 in 24 hours, but that never happened.

I last dosed up to 2ppm of ammonia a week ago, and it's STILL at a full 2 ppm of ammonia today.

These are my readings:

ammonia - 2
ph - 7.0
NitrItes - 0
nitrates - 20

It seems to me that my cycle has stalled. Where should I go from here?

 

[Fishanatic]

I am trying to do a fishless cycle of a 5 gallon aquarium. I have a heater set at 80 degrees and a few live plants in there. It's my first time cycling an aquarium.

I followed the instructions from the pinned article on this website, which was very helpful, but I seemed to get stuck on the last few steps. I had the large nitrite and nitrate spike, then did the 50% water change as the instructions said, but as I waited, my ammonia never went down to 0. It would only go down so far as .25, and then stay there for days. I decided to keep dosing up to 2 ppm of ammonia and hopefully it would soon go down to 0 in 24 hours, but that never happened.

I last dosed up to 2ppm of ammonia a week ago, and it's STILL at a full 2 ppm of ammonia today.

These are my readings:

ammonia - 2
ph - 7.0
NitrItes - 0
nitrates - 20

It seems to me that my cycle has stalled. Where should I go from here?

Do you have a filter running?

 

[Maltee]

Yes, I forgot to mention. I bought a filter that said it was suitable for 5 gallon tanks.

 

[Fishanatic]

Yes, I forgot to mention. I bought a filter that said it was suitable for 5 gallon tanks.

Okay, well did you test you're tap water's pH, and other toxins?

 

[librarygirl]

What test kit are you using?

So you had the nitrite spike where nitrites rose...how high did they go and how long did they stay high and when did they fall again?

Without knowing more info, I'd start with a full water change to restore buffers and minerals in the water (don't forget to dechlorinate prior to putting the water back in), then test everything after an hour or so. If ammonia is at 0, redose to 2. If ammonia is higher than 1, then leave it alone and check again in 24 hours and let us know what happens.

Sometimes nitrites rise so high it can stall things and if they are very high it looks like they've gone back to 0 on the kit but they're really so high that the test can't read it. When you do the nitrite test, check the tube----see if at any point it turns color (gray, purple, lavender, etc) before it turns back to blue.

If ammonia was dropping to near 0 and now it's not, something is stalling things. Sometimes just a larger water change can help kick-start things again.

 

[Maltee]

Fishanatic, sorry this may be a dumb question, but should I test the tap water before or after adding my declorinator? I have tested it before adding declorinator, and it has .25 ammonia in it. Others on this forum told me this shouldn't be too much of a problem. The tap water has a ph of 6.0, which I have been told is low. The water in my tank right now is 7.0 though. I don't know how that works.

librarygirl, before I was using the API test strips. I have recently bought the API liquid test kit for ammonia, so I am using that now to test the ammonia. I'm planning to buy the rest of the API liquid tests once I get my paycheck.

I had the nitrite spike about a month ago. I let them go up to past what my test kit could show (it shows up to 10 for nitrites, 200 for nitrates), then did a 50% water change as the directions said. These are the directions that I followed:

J) When your levels of nitrItes and nitrAtes get so high that they’re off what your test kit can show you… do a 50-60% water change. A water change will have no negative impact on your cycle and will help keep things moving and bring your levels low enough so you can actually tell what they are. You can also add another pinch of ground up fish food just to make sure the bacteria has lots of nutrients and phosphates to grow. A water change will also restore the buffers in your water to prevent any fluctuations in pH at the end of your cycle. Remember your dechlorinator!

After that I just kept the tank up by adding ammonia up to 2 ppm, then testing every 24 hours. According to the directions, the tank is fully cycled once the ammonia goes down to 0 within 24 hours. For me that never happened. In 24 hours, the ammonia would drop from 2 to 1 or .75 ppm. I continued to dose it back up to 2 and just waited for the day when it would go down to 0 in 24 hours, but then this week everything just stopped. The ammonia stopped dropping and even several days later was at 2 ppm.

I will do a water change and test like you say. Thanks.

 

[Fishanatic]

Fishanatic, sorry this may be a dumb question, but should I test the tap water before or after adding my declorinator? I have tested it before adding declorinator, and it has .25 ammonia in it. Others on this forum told me this shouldn't be too much of a problem. The tap water has a ph of 6.0, which I have been told is low. The water in my tank right now is 7.0 though. I don't know how that works.

Test after you dechlorinate, as the product might affect the water quality.
.25 is a bit high if you want to make sure you're fish are safe. If you have the bacteria in you're water(cycled tank), it shouldn't be much of a problem.
If you're pH is too low, there are some methods. Like using baking powder is really cheap and easy.