Fishless cycle stalled? - insane amounts of nitrites...

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That's actually a black lyretail molly. :] Got him last weekend.

fort384 said:
If his nitrites are reading at 2-5ppm, they should be fine. What makes you think they need to be lower than that?
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Personally, I felt that if his nitrites are what are stalling, then they're not getting converted to nitrates as fast as ammonia is to nitrite. Redosing is going to cause nitrites to spike again, which is why I recommended bringing it down further. Just a preparational thing for the new nitrites that would be produced from the ammonia he'd be adding.
 
CoyoteWildfire said:
That's actually a black lyretail molly. :] Got him last weekend.

Personally, I felt that if his nitrites are what are stalling, then they're not getting converted to nitrates as fast as ammonia is to nitrite. Redosing is going to cause nitrites to spike again, which is why I recommended bringing it down further. Just a preparational thing for the new nitrites that would be produced from the ammonia he'd be adding.
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From my understanding, the reason that a cycle stalls at this point is not actually because there are such high levels...it is because the bacteria has used up the nutrients / buffers in the water while creating those high numbers. That is why I believe a 50% pwc is sufficient to restore those nutrients and get the cycle moving again.

Numerous pwc's wont necessarily harm your cycle as long as they are performed correctly (using dechlor, temp matching, etc...) but after restoring what the bacteria needs with the 50% pwc they are unnecessary IMO.
 
Kat1103 said:
I have found this website to be very helpful maybe it can help u too. They have links to fishless cycling and cycling with fish.
Aquarium Information - Alternative Fishkeeping
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I'm always open to new ideas and opinions... but the first instruction I saw in the cycling info guide, was to buy "cheap and hardy" fish because you are likely to lose many of them. That goes against everything I believe in about cycling. There does seem to be some great info about fish species and other topics though. I would just be hesitant about linking people there with questions about cycling.
 
Yeah, I personally couldn't do a fish-in cycle knowing that... I made that mistake with my own tank and I'm incredibly lucky that everything has gone as smooth as it has...
 
Yeah, sorry to say that after reading the cycling instructions...that site is evil. They recommend not doing water changes and letting some of the fish die in order to keep the ammonia level high. It's basically instructions for torturing fish.

I hope if people have questions for cycling, you refer them to-

Cycling with fish- http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forum...-but-i-already-have-fish-what-now-116287.html
Fishless cycling- http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forum...guide-and-faq-to-fishless-cycling-148283.html
 
Ok, update.....

so before i went to bed last night, i checked the levels, and they were as is:

ammonia - 0
nitrite - 2 or 5 (maybe higher, it was a bit dark)
nitrate - didn't check after pwc...assuming between 20-40ppm


when i woke up about 8 hrs later, readings are:

ammonia - 0
nitrite - 0.25 - 0.50ppm
niitrate - didn't check


so i dosed ammonia to about 1.0, and left. this is good news right? if i come home to 0 levels of ammonia and nitrite, is it safe to say my tank is cycled?

***so excited for my betta****
 
shynepo3 said:
Ok, update.....

so before i went to bed last night, i checked the levels, and they were as is:

ammonia - 0
nitrite - 2 or 5 (maybe higher, it was a bit dark)
nitrate - didn't check after pwc...assuming between 20-40ppm

when i woke up about 8 hrs later, readings are:

ammonia - 0
nitrite - 0.25 - 0.50ppm
niitrate - didn't check

so i dosed ammonia to about 1.0, and left. this is good news right? if i come home to 0 levels of ammonia and nitrite, is it safe to say my tank is cycled?

***so excited for my betta****
Click to expand...

If you come home to 0 ammo and 0 nitrItes, you're cycled! I'd test one or two more times to be sure you can constantly drop the levels down to 0 in 24 hours... But you seem good to go. Make sure you do a huge pwc the night before adding fish to get the nitrAte levels below 20. Congratulations!
 
thanks...but i'm not entirely sure yet...i have yet to see nitrite hit 0...but let's hope!
 
shynepo3 said:
thanks...but i'm not entirely sure yet...i have yet to see nitrite hit 0...but let's hope!
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If you went from 5ppm to .25 overnight, I'd expect it to be at 0ppm when you get home. You're absolutely right that you need to see ammo and nitrItes at zero before considering it cycled. Again, I always recommend dosing it back up a couple more times to make sure it can drop these levels to 0 in 24 hours before stocking.
 
i definitely don't want to take any chances, so i'll check later tonight, and if i'm fortunate enough to have it at 0 for both nitrites and ammonia, i'll redose to 1ppm again, and see how long it takes to get to 0. No work tomorrow so I can check throughout the day.


once this is completed, i was thinking of getting a african dwarf frog as a tank mate. I find my betta to be somewhat agressive, but not that bad. do you think 5 gallons is too small? i could upgrade to 10 if necessary....and if they don't get a long, i guess the afd could have the 5 gal and the betta have the 10..
 
hey all Figured id post in here... I too am doing a fishless cycle on my 55gal. of course i NEED this tank asap..cause i have catfish growing WAY too fast and i dont want to set up the 200 cause i still have many things i need to buy for it... So in my hurry i added SAFESTART .. they say it is *safe to add fish compaired to everyone elses blah blah blah :). Just to be on the safe side i did NOT add my fish. But i did add fish food to try and start the cycle... after 2 weeks i am still testing the water and i am glad i did not add my catfish because of the ammonia..

(just tested 10 mins ago with api fw kit)
Ammonia 0.25
NitrIte 0
NitrAte 20

The nitrItes have not Moved at all for the last 2 weeks... and apparently this safe start is nitrifying bacteria spores is supposed to speed this up. SO i guess what my question is..

Is it smart to do a PWC during a fishless cycle? to help eliminate the ammonia so i can add fish.. or should i just let it alone for a another 2 week and see what happens.
 
could you tank already be cycled? since you have 20ppm of nitrates? has your ammonia dropped to 0? if it does, then your readings would be ammonia and nitrite at 0, and nitrates at 20, which would be a cycled tank right?

i'm not one to say anything, but since u posted in here, i figure id give you my opinion,lol
 
shankss69 said:
hey all Figured id post in here... I too am doing a fishless cycle on my 55gal. of course i NEED this tank asap..cause i have catfish growing WAY too fast and i dont want to set up the 200 cause i still have many things i need to buy for it... So in my hurry i added SAFESTART .. they say it is *safe to add fish compaired to everyone elses blah blah blah :). Just to be on the safe side i did NOT add my fish. But i did add fish food to try and start the cycle... after 2 weeks i am still testing the water and i am glad i did not add my catfish because of the ammonia..

(just tested 10 mins ago with api fw kit)
Ammonia 0.25
NitrIte 0
NitrAte 20

The nitrItes have not Moved at all for the last 2 weeks... and apparently this safe start is nitrifying bacteria spores is supposed to speed this up. SO i guess what my question is..

Is it smart to do a PWC during a fishless cycle? to help eliminate the ammonia so i can add fish.. or should i just let it alone for a another 2 week and see what happens.
Click to expand...

How far up have you been dosing up the ammonia? Have you been doing pwc's? It's odd that the nitrItes are at zero, but ammo is not going down. I highly recommend you read the article I just got published on this site with answers to fishless cycling. It's in my signature.
 
eco23 said:
I'm always open to new ideas and opinions... but the first instruction I saw in the cycling info guide, was to buy "cheap and hardy" fish because you are likely to lose many of them. That goes against everything I believe in about cycling. There does seem to be some great info about fish species and other topics though. I would just be hesitant about linking people there with questions about cycling.
Click to expand...


They have links to cycling with fish and "fishless" cycling. I just figured that it could help those who made the mistake of buying fish before they cycled, like I did with my 5 gallon
 
i did not "dose" with pure ammonia at all..i used fish food to start it.... and i did not do any pwcs.... so it seems to stalled on me.... should i do a pwc eco?
 
well, i'm a bit disappointed....after 12 hrs since dosing ammoni to 1.0 ( i really hope it was higher and i just tested it quickly, about 5 min after dosing), my current readings are:

ammonia - 1.0
nitrite - could be 1,2 or 5...hard to tell

so where does this leave me? does it take 24 hrs to go down?
 
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