3rd week into the fishless cycling process... HELP!

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Mr. Aquaforce

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Hello to all you fellow aquarists,

I have recently set up a new 55 gallon planted aquarium. I am just about to finish up my 3rd week of my fishless cycling process, my ammonia is .25 ppm - Nitrites are at 5.0 ppm - Nitrates seem to be around 20 - 40 ppm which has me concerned due to the fact that it seems to be pretty high.. I do have a huge green algae bloom (assumes it has to do with the high levels of Nitrates.) Been thinking should I add my Pelco from my currently set up tank ( not planted, have around 10-15 corys - 1 Pelco - 3 Black fin tetras - 2 red skirt tetras - 2 Lamp eye tetras; believe it is a 25 Gal / Not to mention I didnt let it do a full cycle when I set it up a few years ago, which I feel bad about......) has not been taken excellent care of due to me moving to a new house and focusing a bit to much on establishing a new perfectly cycled tank unlike the one that currently has fish in it. I have made sure it gets new fresh water every other week since I usually do a 50% water change on it.. some advice would be greatly appreciated, however on my 55 gallon tank I am using Seachem products for my plants and everything else..
 
Hi welcome to the forum :)

Nitrates shouldn't be the main issue here. Planted tanks will usually have nitrates, phosphates, potassium, etc available so the plants don't run short and start to suffer (in which case algae can show on the leaves). My tank has nitrates at about 5ppm at the moment but has been at 20 to 40ppm nitrates with no issues. I aim to have the tank at 2-4ppm phosphates, say 20ppm nitrates and pretty high in potassium.

I would look at light duration and/or if the tank is getting any natural sunlight. Are there any plants in the tank at the moment? If not I'd drop lighting period down to say 4 hours. You could also look into getting a uv filter to kill of the green algae but I'd suspect once the tank settles and the plants start growing the green algae will go away.
 
I wouldn't move the pleco into the tank with those readings. Your tank is well on it's way to being cycled! Your nitrates aren't too high, they will continue to increase. Mine were off the chart for a while before my cycle finished.
 
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I'd give it another week, maybe add some ammonia to push it along.
 
Hello to all you fellow aquarists,

I have recently set up a new 55 gallon planted aquarium. I am just about to finish up my 3rd week of my fishless cycling process, my ammonia is .25 ppm - Nitrites are at 5.0 ppm - Nitrates seem to be around 20 - 40 ppm which has me concerned due to the fact that it seems to be pretty high.. I do have a huge green algae bloom (assumes it has to do with the high levels of Nitrates.) Been thinking should I add my Pelco from my currently set up tank ( not planted, have around 10-15 corys - 1 Pelco - 3 Black fin tetras - 2 red skirt tetras - 2 Lamp eye tetras; believe it is a 25 Gal / Not to mention I didnt let it do a full cycle when I set it up a few years ago, which I feel bad about......) has not been taken excellent care of due to me moving to a new house and focusing a bit to much on establishing a new perfectly cycled tank unlike the one that currently has fish in it. I have made sure it gets new fresh water every other week since I usually do a 50% water change on it.. some advice would be greatly appreciated, however on my 55 gallon tank I am using Seachem products for my plants and everything else..
Yes i currently have 4 different kinds of plants, not to mention i did a water change 2 days ago.
 
1482806775988.jpg heres a current picture of my new tank, i have a surface skimmer / co2 reactor on the way to help distribute the co2 through out the tank more effectively. Would love to get more plants and some floating plants as well. As for fish im been aiming towards the unusual spieces that are not so popular (yes I like my rare/ different speices), but yet hardy. Any adivice guys?
 
The air powered sponge filter will reduce the CO2 from the diffuser; it's counter productive IMO.
However, removal of it may set back the cycle a bit if a healthy amount of BB is residing in it. I would take it.
 
The air powered sponge filter will reduce the CO2 from the diffuser; it's counter productive IMO.
However, removal of it may set back the cycle a bit if a healthy amount of BB is residing in it. I would take it.
A local aquairum store suggested it has alot of bentifits and def wouldn't hurt to have one to help prevent major shifts in the water. But as for using co2 with the bio-filter got me intrigued.
 
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Nothing wrong with using a sponge filter. It's just that the surface agitation created by the bubbles may off gas the injected CO2 (more than you would like). However, if you can keep the drop checker the color a nice green, then you keeping sufficient CO2 levels in there.
TBH - none of the plants in there look like they require high light and the CO2 that goes with it.
 
Nothing wrong with using a sponge filter. It's just that the surface agitation created by the bubbles may off gas the injected CO2 (more than you would like). However, if you can keep the drop checker the color a nice green, then you keeping sufficient CO2 levels in there.
TBH - none of the plants in there look like they require high light and the CO2 that goes with it.
Ah yes I know the amount of plants are a bit low, planning on going to the local fish store to get more plants tomorrow [emoji39] [emoji39]
 
Btw I have the readings from the water the high range ph I think is 7.8 and for kh it took me atound 12-13 drops before I got it to turn yellow. 1482860773189.jpg
 

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I fear my plants are not fairing to well... alot of the roots seem to be dying...
I mean stems* my bad guys.

I wouldn't move the pleco into the tank with those readings. Your tank is well on it's way to being cycled! Your nitrates aren't too high, they will continue to increase. Mine were off the chart for a while before my cycle finished.
 
I fear my plants are not fairing to well... alot of the roots seem to be dying...


Have u been dosing any carbon at all? Like seachem excel? Should be more than enough nitrate for them due to the cycle but the carbon should help them absorb it abit
 
Yes I have, i have been told to use some of them daily during the cycling process but forgot which ones to rely on since i have Prime for the tap water, Excel, Trace, Florish, as well as Stability.
 
Should i add my established canister fliter to my soon to be done 55 gal cycling tank (which is currently being filtered by an under powered filter -184gph) once i get my fish tansffered over? Or should i just buy another identical filter to the 55 gal tank asap??
 
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