Cycle Stall?

[Budda619]

Im on day 70 of my fishless cycle on my 125g but my ammonia will not go below .25 nitrites at 0 nitrates at 20ppm. My nitrates rise but my ammonia will not drop. I tested the tap its at zero ammonia. I have not found one person who can help so i bring this question to the experts.


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[Budda619]

I am running canister with filter and seachem matrix. My tank has black diamond sand, decor and Vermont slate rock


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[threnjen]

Wow, 70 days! You have been so patient!

Since you have nitrates and no nitrites, I assume that means you have seen your tank converting ammonia in general? What was your cycling method? Do you have fish, or empty tank?

 

[Budda619]

I am doing a fishless cycle with ammonium chloride. I kept it dosed at 4ppm in the beginning. As soon as i saw nitrites i stopped dosing to 4ppm and moved it down to 1ppm. My nitrites spiked than went to zero. After that i stopped dosin ammonia to see how long it take to hit 0. So far its been a constant .25 ammonia. Nitrates are still rising but i think its to slow


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[Budda619]

I was told if my cycle is complete it should convert 1ppm of ammonia in 24 hrs. Its more like one week but stalls at .25


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[threnjen]

So if you add 1ppm ammonia, it take 1 week to go down to .25?

 

[Mebbid]

I would honestly say this is just the test kit giving a reading of 0.25. The colors can be very hard to tell apart.

Whats your ph at?

 

[Budda619]

My ph is at 7.8. I thought the test was wrong and my cycle completed. I bought ten neon tetras last week to test the tank. The started dying within the next few days. I got them at petco because petco uses the municipal water, so the ph was the same


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[Budda619]

And yes it takes a week Jen


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[Mebbid]

My ph is at 7.8. I thought the test was wrong and my cycle completed. I bought ten neon tetras last week to test the tank. The started dying within the next few days. I got them at petco because petco uses the municipal water, so the ph was the same


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Neon tetras arent a particularly good test for that. A lot of the time they can tend to die off for no reason, especially when bought from chain stores.

 

[MarshlDillon]

This sounds strikingly similar to what i have been expiriencing. See thread (slow cycle..no nitrates)-the title is No longer accurate but i couldnt get under .25 ppm ammonia until just recently. Its also taking me about a week do process ammonia Im at Day 54.I kept dosing up to 3ppm ignoring the no zero factor. I am now in what seems to be an endless wait for nitrite stage to take hold. One thing that really struck me about your post was that we have a common substrate. I am also using black diamond blasting sand....wonder if there is something to that even though i have read and heard of many using it without issue

 

[threnjen]

I'm going to hit you both with a series of questions. Answer as much as you are able, please

1) What is your pH?
2) Have you ever done any water changes during the cycling process? If so, when? If so, when was the last one?
3) Did you use a water conditioner (Prime etc)
4) Is your tap water hard or soft? If you don't know, you can tell me your city and I will look up your water quality report.
5) Did you add anything else to the water besides ammonia? (fish food etc)
6) What are the specific instructions/protocol you were following to cycle?
7) What's temp of the water?