Hello all! I'm tired of banging my head against a wall over this fishless cycle so I thought maybe I could ask for some advice here.
I have a 29 gallon tank with an Aquaclear 50 running on high, water temp 80 degrees. I've used sand as a substrate and have a large piece of driftwood and some rocks (slate) as the only decorations - I washed the driftwood and rocks properly. I dosed the tank up to 4ppm ammonia about 4 weeks ago using Ace Janitorial Strength ammonia (no surfactants) and it has yet to drop. At all. I have not added any additional ammonia since the initial dose.
Some further details...I've been testing every 12 hours with no change this entire time. After a couple weeks went by I added Tetra Safe Start with no changes to ammonia/nitrites/nitrates. Another week went by and I added an active filter sponge from Angelsplus (I cut a chunk of the sponge out to replace the one that came with my aquaclear, and I stuck the rest on a wall of the tank with a magnet but I don't have air running through it or anything). A day after I added this, my nitrites and nitrates were up (still no change in the ammonia) and continued to rise for a couple days before falling back to 0 for nitrites and 10-20 nitrates. Still no change in the ammonia.
So last night I did a 50% water change (using Seachem Prime) and verified that the ammonia was at 2ppm but I'm just not sure what further to do...was really hoping to have the tank cycled by Christmas so I could at least partially stock it (was supposed to be Santa's present for my kid) but it's looking like that might not happen. Any suggestions?
Oh, and a side note, I did do a control test on my test kit with my faucet water for the ammonia and nitrites...both read as 0. I'm using the API Master Kit and it is not expired.
Summary:
29 gallon tank
Aquaclear 50 w/ active filter sponge
Sand/driftwood/rocks for decoration (and the rest of the active filter sponge)
Currently between 1 and 2ppm ammonia, 0 nitrites, 10-20 nitrates
No drop in ammonia for FOUR WEEKS (except for possibly a small drop from last night to this afternoon).
Sorry for the long post, just wanted to make sure I got everything in up front that might help get some answers. Thanks!
I have a 29 gallon tank with an Aquaclear 50 running on high, water temp 80 degrees. I've used sand as a substrate and have a large piece of driftwood and some rocks (slate) as the only decorations - I washed the driftwood and rocks properly. I dosed the tank up to 4ppm ammonia about 4 weeks ago using Ace Janitorial Strength ammonia (no surfactants) and it has yet to drop. At all. I have not added any additional ammonia since the initial dose.
Some further details...I've been testing every 12 hours with no change this entire time. After a couple weeks went by I added Tetra Safe Start with no changes to ammonia/nitrites/nitrates. Another week went by and I added an active filter sponge from Angelsplus (I cut a chunk of the sponge out to replace the one that came with my aquaclear, and I stuck the rest on a wall of the tank with a magnet but I don't have air running through it or anything). A day after I added this, my nitrites and nitrates were up (still no change in the ammonia) and continued to rise for a couple days before falling back to 0 for nitrites and 10-20 nitrates. Still no change in the ammonia.
So last night I did a 50% water change (using Seachem Prime) and verified that the ammonia was at 2ppm but I'm just not sure what further to do...was really hoping to have the tank cycled by Christmas so I could at least partially stock it (was supposed to be Santa's present for my kid) but it's looking like that might not happen. Any suggestions?
Oh, and a side note, I did do a control test on my test kit with my faucet water for the ammonia and nitrites...both read as 0. I'm using the API Master Kit and it is not expired.
Summary:
29 gallon tank
Aquaclear 50 w/ active filter sponge
Sand/driftwood/rocks for decoration (and the rest of the active filter sponge)
Currently between 1 and 2ppm ammonia, 0 nitrites, 10-20 nitrates
No drop in ammonia for FOUR WEEKS (except for possibly a small drop from last night to this afternoon).
Sorry for the long post, just wanted to make sure I got everything in up front that might help get some answers. Thanks!