Fishless Cycling Help

[scubaboy1126]

Hi there.

I just bought a new 60 gallon tank and although I am not new to the hobby, I am new to the world of fishless cycling. I started my fishless cycle back on October 4th and I was using the thread "fishless cycling for dummies" of this website (old thread found from a google search). My parameters were when I started was:

Ammonia: 5 - 6 ppm (hard to tell as the color is hard to distinguish and its also hard to tell because I am partially color blind, but my wife confirms the colors for me. I used the ACE hardware store brand (which is about 10% water). I used this because I found numerous websites that people used this brand.

I did put marineland water conditioner in prior to adding ammonia to dechlorinate the water. I bought marineland test strips to test for chlorine alkalinity and such and eceything looked good on the strips.

The thread said that nitrites should be visible around the end of the first week. I started checking for nitrites on Wednesday October 8th and have not seen any to this day.

To this day ammonia still remains at 5.0 -6.0 ppm and no nitrites.

I have no plants in my tank because I plan on using live plant bulbs and don't want to risk messing them up.

I started checking my ph level late last week and its been about 7.8. I raised the temperature in the tank from 82 to 86 because I found out that the nitries like warmer water and still nothing.

I don't know what else to do because nothing is changing in my cycle. I was thinking about doing a 30 - 50 percent water change just to get the ammonia level back down and start again, but first I thought I would put a post on here to see if maybe I could get some confidence not to do that and that there is something that may help correct it. Any advice would be a big help.

Thank You

 

[dalto]

It can take as much as 3-4 weeks before nitrites show up.

I would just leave it alone for now. 6ppm shouldn't be inhibiting the cycle but if it is really more than that, it could. Once you get ammonia down there is really no need to dose more than 2ppm. Higher dosing will just cause pH crashes over time.

The best way to get the cycle to go faster is to introduce some used media from another tank if you know anyone that has one.

 

[scubaboy1126]

Thank you. I will keep testing for the next week or 2 and hopefully something good will come out of it.

 

[sinibotia]

Definitely get some media from another tank if you can. My fiance just started our joint fish tank, technically her first, and after transfering media from one of my established tanks the cycle was showing nitrites day 1 and nitrates on day 2.

 

[scubaboy1126]

]I decided to post today's results...I think the ammonia is still about 5.0 - 6.0

 

[dalto]

That looks really high to me.

I would consider doing a 50% water change and test ammonia again.

 

[trennamw]

You probably don't need ammonia that high. 4 ppm is theax I've seen recommended.

And yes you are probably still waiting for the first set of bacteria to colonize.

Donated media and a little phosphate got mine going. A teeny pinch of cheap flake food with phosphate in it should work. I read a few grains of rice somewhere.

I also had to get temp up like you said, and pH up over 8, and get lots of air (lower the water level so the filter splashes, if nothing else).

But yes it's a waiting game.


Sent from my iPhone with three hands tied behind my back.

 

[scubaboy1126]

Just wanted to give an update. I did a 50% water change then waited about an hour after I finished filling the tank up to add dechlorinator and let the system run overnight. I just took an ammonia reading and it looks ALOT better. Results look closer to 4.0 ppm. Thank you for all your adbice.

 

[trennamw]

Great!

Next time don't wait to add dechlorinator ... You don't want the chlorine killing your bacteria!


Sent from my iPhone with three hands tied behind my back.

 

[scubaboy1126]

Hi there again. Just wanted to know, I am currently in the middle of my 3rd week of my second attempt of cycling my tank and I am noticing a slow drop in ammonia (it appears to around 2 - 3 ppm). My question is is it possible at all for ammonia to drop without the presence of nitrites?

Thank you

 

[trennamw]

You're seeing zero ammonia and nitrite with presence of nitrates?

I see that question at least once a week. My guess is the nitrites spiked between tests.


Sent from my iPhone with three hands tied behind my back.

 

[scubaboy1126]

My ammonia has not dropped to 0 at all yet. I have never had nitrites or nitrates show up on any tests. But in the 3 weeks of cycling the ammonia does seem to have dropped a little bit (possibly around 2.0 - 3.0 ppm). I was just wondering what could be the cause of that with no signs of the nitrites showing up.

 

[dalto]

If it was BB that was consuming your ammonia than you would have either nitrites or nitrates. It is possible for you never to see a nitrite spike but in that case you would still see nitrate increasing.