Fishless cycle and did a bad thing

[William470]

On march 13th I started my fishless cycle by using clear ammonia on my 29 gallon tank. Close t three weeks went by (and I know I did not wait to long) but I did not see signs of nitrites. I thought I might have put in too much ammonia and possibly stalled my cycle. So I performed close to 90% water change. I got my ammonia level back close to 3-4 ppm. Still not seeing any signs of nitrites. I know I am being impatient.

I had my water sampled at a local fish store. The owner recommended using Seachem Stability. Now I only added the initial doseage to my size tank on Saturday. I have not added any since.

Have I messed up my fishless cycle?

How long does Stability stay in the water?

Can I continue my fishless cycle without starting over?

Thanks

William

 

[supradupafast]

Hehe.. I remember being in your exact shoes about 1-1/2 year ago...
If you've brought your Ammonia back to 3-4PPM, you're on the right track. Patience
Keep your ammonia at about 3-4PPM, and test every few days for NitrItes. It can take a while, and in my case, I started seeing NitrItes after a couple weeks.
Most likely, you may have seen a Cycle crash if your Ammonia got really high (+- 8PPM)

 

[supradupafast]

You can also raise your water Temp to about 82-84F to help with the cycling.
Also, you would speed up things if you had a friend, or a trustworthy LFS that could give you some a piece of Old Yukky Filter Media (Only if you're 110% Sure it's coming from a Healthy Tank)
This would almost instantly cycle your tank within a few days.

 

[BigJim]

Good choice, going with the fishless cycle. Like, supradupafast said, crank the heater and get some seed material. I don't think seeding will cycle that fast, but it'll speed things up quite a bit.

 

[William470]

Thanks for the replies.

So you don't think by adding the initial doseage of Seachem Stability hurt my fishless cycle? I added it Saturday but have not added any since.

William

 

[BigJim]

I don't think adding any cycling product really hurts the cycle. It's just debatable that they help. The best thing you can do right now is get some filter material from an established tank and seed your tank with it. That will provide a good starter colony of bacteria.

 

[meegosh]

I don't think it would have done anything to alter your cycle's progress. If anything it should help if it does what it says it does.

 

[William470]

Cool! Thanks BigJim and Steve for the replies.

I will monitor my water parameters. I will see what I can do about getting some filter material. I don't know of any my friends of having a tank. And if I knew the lfs owner better I would have asked him for some material.

Thanks again. All replies were helpful.

William

 

[BigJim]

Explain what you're trying to do and most good LFS will help you out. At worst, I know one LFS by me will sell "cultured" bioballs for $1.25 a piece. That doesn't really help you, but you get the idea.