Captain Stress
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Hi,
I'm new to the hobby. I'm attempting a fishless cycle of a 36 gallon bow front with clear ammonia. All was going as expected for three weeks. My ammonia stayed at 4 for awhile. Then it started going down and then went to 0 as nitrites skyrocketed off my API color chart. I then started daily dosing ammonia back to 4 ppm while nitrite stayed high for over a week.
A few days ago, I wanted to get nitrite to a level where I could at least match it to my API test kit chart, so I did a 50% water change. During the change, I accidentally overdosed Seachem Prime by about 4 times the expected amount. I have read that this is okay, though. I then dosed ammonia again to 4 ppm.
For three days now, ammonia refuses to go back down. Also nitrite stayed extreme purple (off chart). Yet this morning, I test and ammonia is still high, but nitrite is finally 0!!! But what happened to my ammonia eating bacteria?? What should I do?
Thanks!
I'm new to the hobby. I'm attempting a fishless cycle of a 36 gallon bow front with clear ammonia. All was going as expected for three weeks. My ammonia stayed at 4 for awhile. Then it started going down and then went to 0 as nitrites skyrocketed off my API color chart. I then started daily dosing ammonia back to 4 ppm while nitrite stayed high for over a week.
A few days ago, I wanted to get nitrite to a level where I could at least match it to my API test kit chart, so I did a 50% water change. During the change, I accidentally overdosed Seachem Prime by about 4 times the expected amount. I have read that this is okay, though. I then dosed ammonia again to 4 ppm.
For three days now, ammonia refuses to go back down. Also nitrite stayed extreme purple (off chart). Yet this morning, I test and ammonia is still high, but nitrite is finally 0!!! But what happened to my ammonia eating bacteria?? What should I do?
Thanks!