bennyblee
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Hi all, this is my first post, I'm trying to get my very first tank started and am worried my fishless cycle is stalled. I was dosing with 10% ammonia and got nitrite and nitrates in the tank, but now ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels are all just stuck and not changing.
The tank is 20g with gravel and plastic landscaping/plants. The filter is a hang-on-back with good flow and lots of bubbles at the waterfall. Temperature was started at 80F, which I increased to 84 mid-way through. pH has consistently been in 7.4-7.8 range.
I started using small sprinkles of fish food but become impatient (I know, I know) and then decided to shift to 10% Ace brand household ammonia after five days. There was no ammonia in the tank when I started adding the household ammonia. I also added Fluval Biological Booster for the first 3 days that I was adding ammonia.
I gradually dosed the ammonia up to ~4-5 ppm over the course of several days, and it appeared to fall slightly each day before re-dosing. It fell to about 3 ppm and I was waiting for it to fall more to target 2 ppm, but then it got stuck. For the last 4 days the ammonia doesn't seem to be changing. If I squint hard, MAYBE it has fallen ever so slightly (so hard to tell slight color change using the API master kit), so I added just a touch more ammonia last night (added ~0.5 ppm). I hadn't initially tested for nitrites or nitrates, but once the ammonia got stuck I went ahead and tested both, and found ~2 ppm nitrite and ~5 ppm nitrate, and that's were everything remains. I recently found out a neighbor had a tank so 4 days ago I dropped in a scoop of gravel from his tank but it hasn't made any difference (so far).
So I am now 3 weeks in and I have ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate in the tank but the levels do not appear to be changing. Do I just need to be patient, or do I need to start over? Why would there be nitrite and nitrate initially but then stagnate? Did the bottle bacteria metabolize for a few days but fail to establish, and now I just need to wait for BB populations to seed naturally? Any thoughts would be much appreciated!
Thanks everyone!
The tank is 20g with gravel and plastic landscaping/plants. The filter is a hang-on-back with good flow and lots of bubbles at the waterfall. Temperature was started at 80F, which I increased to 84 mid-way through. pH has consistently been in 7.4-7.8 range.
I started using small sprinkles of fish food but become impatient (I know, I know) and then decided to shift to 10% Ace brand household ammonia after five days. There was no ammonia in the tank when I started adding the household ammonia. I also added Fluval Biological Booster for the first 3 days that I was adding ammonia.
I gradually dosed the ammonia up to ~4-5 ppm over the course of several days, and it appeared to fall slightly each day before re-dosing. It fell to about 3 ppm and I was waiting for it to fall more to target 2 ppm, but then it got stuck. For the last 4 days the ammonia doesn't seem to be changing. If I squint hard, MAYBE it has fallen ever so slightly (so hard to tell slight color change using the API master kit), so I added just a touch more ammonia last night (added ~0.5 ppm). I hadn't initially tested for nitrites or nitrates, but once the ammonia got stuck I went ahead and tested both, and found ~2 ppm nitrite and ~5 ppm nitrate, and that's were everything remains. I recently found out a neighbor had a tank so 4 days ago I dropped in a scoop of gravel from his tank but it hasn't made any difference (so far).
So I am now 3 weeks in and I have ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate in the tank but the levels do not appear to be changing. Do I just need to be patient, or do I need to start over? Why would there be nitrite and nitrate initially but then stagnate? Did the bottle bacteria metabolize for a few days but fail to establish, and now I just need to wait for BB populations to seed naturally? Any thoughts would be much appreciated!
Thanks everyone!