Hello,
My wife and I just moved into a new place and I could not wait to set up the fish tank. I really enjoyed having it in college and made quite a few mistakes- this time I was determined to start it right with fishless cycling! I did a lot of searching on the internet and found myself at this site, where I got most of my information and planned the process.
I bought regular janitorial ammonia, and set up the tank. I threw most of what I had leftover from my college days away as I'm sure it has expired (it's been 3-6 years...) but there was no date on the dechlorinator (tetra) so I kept that. After letting the aquarium run for a few days, I started off with what I thought was 6ppm. I think it was much more than that because 6ppm is the last color on the chart! After a week of looking at a very dark green vial, I did a pwc and brought the ammonia level to 4ppm. Today is 3 weeks since I did the pwc. The ammonia is still at 4ppm, 0 nitrites, 0 nitrates 7.4 ph. It's a 10g tank with a sponge and bio balls filter inserts. I've got the heater at about 82 and the air stone is pumping a ton of air. Do I have to be more patient? Or, do you think something else went wrong? I am starting to think I should have bought a new dechlorinator.
Thoughts?
My wife and I just moved into a new place and I could not wait to set up the fish tank. I really enjoyed having it in college and made quite a few mistakes- this time I was determined to start it right with fishless cycling! I did a lot of searching on the internet and found myself at this site, where I got most of my information and planned the process.
I bought regular janitorial ammonia, and set up the tank. I threw most of what I had leftover from my college days away as I'm sure it has expired (it's been 3-6 years...) but there was no date on the dechlorinator (tetra) so I kept that. After letting the aquarium run for a few days, I started off with what I thought was 6ppm. I think it was much more than that because 6ppm is the last color on the chart! After a week of looking at a very dark green vial, I did a pwc and brought the ammonia level to 4ppm. Today is 3 weeks since I did the pwc. The ammonia is still at 4ppm, 0 nitrites, 0 nitrates 7.4 ph. It's a 10g tank with a sponge and bio balls filter inserts. I've got the heater at about 82 and the air stone is pumping a ton of air. Do I have to be more patient? Or, do you think something else went wrong? I am starting to think I should have bought a new dechlorinator.
Thoughts?