Hello all! I recently set up a planted 18 gallon freshwater tank and I have been following the fishless cycling guide for three weeks now and I'm looking for a bit of insight as to what could be going on here. So I set up the tank initially with eco-complete substrate, a Marineland Penguin 200 filter, a Aqueon Pro heater (set to 80F), a Aquatic Life LED light, and a Tetra air pump and air stone.
I did not add plants right away, nor did I dose any bacteria starter. I dosed 4ppm of Ammonia to get everything started and noticed Ammonia levels dropping fairly quickly after the fact. Shortly thereafter I began to notice an increase in Nitrite levels as expected. After one week I added my plants and began dosing Seachem Flourish a couple times a week. At about the week and a half to two week mark I found I was having to dose my tank twice a day to prevent my Ammonia from hitting zero and starving my bacteria. Also at this point in time my Nitrite reached 5ppm+ and I became unable to track whether it is increasing or decreasing since it is off the scale. Additionally, my Nitrates have been somewhere between 0 and 5ppm since this point in time and remain at this level to this very day.
About a week ago I decided to begin dosing Seachem Stability after learning that the biowheel filter can be very slow to cycle in an attempt to speed things up. I also learned that the carbon inserts that come with the Penguin filters strip the nutrients I am adding to the water for the plants so I swapped out the carbon inserts for the refillable media cartridges, one with Seachem Purigen and one with Seachem Matrix.
Now I am dosing Ammonia in my tank quite often and the bio filter is outputting enough Nitrite to reduce my pH pretty fast. A few days ago my pH reached 6.0 and I did a 75% water change to bring the Nitrites down and raise my pH. After the water change my pH went up to about 7.2 but my Nitrites remained off the charts. My Nitrates have remained at approximately 5ppm and don't seem to be increasing and my pH is 6.8 and dropping. My biggest question is should I continue to do water changes when my pH gets low or do I just let it do it's thing? Any input would be appreciated, thanks a bunch!
I did not add plants right away, nor did I dose any bacteria starter. I dosed 4ppm of Ammonia to get everything started and noticed Ammonia levels dropping fairly quickly after the fact. Shortly thereafter I began to notice an increase in Nitrite levels as expected. After one week I added my plants and began dosing Seachem Flourish a couple times a week. At about the week and a half to two week mark I found I was having to dose my tank twice a day to prevent my Ammonia from hitting zero and starving my bacteria. Also at this point in time my Nitrite reached 5ppm+ and I became unable to track whether it is increasing or decreasing since it is off the scale. Additionally, my Nitrates have been somewhere between 0 and 5ppm since this point in time and remain at this level to this very day.
About a week ago I decided to begin dosing Seachem Stability after learning that the biowheel filter can be very slow to cycle in an attempt to speed things up. I also learned that the carbon inserts that come with the Penguin filters strip the nutrients I am adding to the water for the plants so I swapped out the carbon inserts for the refillable media cartridges, one with Seachem Purigen and one with Seachem Matrix.
Now I am dosing Ammonia in my tank quite often and the bio filter is outputting enough Nitrite to reduce my pH pretty fast. A few days ago my pH reached 6.0 and I did a 75% water change to bring the Nitrites down and raise my pH. After the water change my pH went up to about 7.2 but my Nitrites remained off the charts. My Nitrates have remained at approximately 5ppm and don't seem to be increasing and my pH is 6.8 and dropping. My biggest question is should I continue to do water changes when my pH gets low or do I just let it do it's thing? Any input would be appreciated, thanks a bunch!
Last edited by a moderator:
