Help with freshwater fishless tank cycle

[nine9d]

Hey all,
I'm new here and just want some advice. I am no stranger to reef tanks and have had successful setups for many years. Freshwater now, that is new territory.

Anyhow, I had purchased my daughter a 5.5g freshwater tank and she wanted to cycle it using ammonia. I got the ACE brand that was recommended, used Seachem Prime to condition the water before adding the ammonia, etc... Got a bubbler to speed up the process, running the tank temp around 84, & started the cycle on January 12th.

We purchased the API complete test kit. Now I have always had a problem with reading the colors on the chart even though I am not colorblind. I think I may have added too much ammonia at the start doing something like 13 drops of ammonia, my brain kept telling me I got her a 10g tank, but that was not so. The reading has been around 4.0ppm with little variance, could it possibly have been 8.0, maybe. Anyhow, with continued testing it seemed to not come down so much, which made me think the tank had a stall in the cycle. But then I notice the cycle will sometimes look, 4.0 or 2.0. Weird. It never tested for nitrates until today. I think only .25, but the ammonia is still sky high. 4.0 I'd say. Personally, after reading tons of info online, I never thought the cycle would take this long being we are in the 5th week already. But my daughter is the best and has been a patient girl.

So here's my questions:
1. Do we clean everything out and attempt to start over?
2. Is the new sign of nitrite even remotely promising?
3. Lastly, when adding water from evaporation, do you guys also treat that water with prime? I was.

If I missed anything please don't hesitate to ask questions. There is also no detection of Nitrates, figured to test everything. Sorry for the wall of txt, possibly me doing a tank this size is just a challenge for me. Thank you.

 

[J1Time]

You are on the right track. There may have been a stall earlier on but the cycle is beginning for you now. When you use the glass tubes with the test kit try holding them over a light bulb (from a lamp) and it is a bit easier to tell the color difference. Wait until them ammonia drops to around 1ppm before adding any more. And take it back up to around 3ppm when you do. Fishless cycles are awful time wise but amazing ways to start a new tank! Good luck.

 

[threnjen]

You should really have readings of some kind. 5 weeks is outside of the normal range for a nitrite reading which should start by day 10.

OK bear with me because you never know:
a) Does the tank have a running filter?
b) have you tried taking out all of the water, refilling, and re-dosing to 4ppm?
c) Can you test the pH of the tank
d) You mentioned it never tested for nitrates until today, did you mean nitrates or nitrites?
e) If you did mean nitrates, what is the nitrite reading?
f) In general do you have hard water or soft water (you can check your city's water quality report if not sure)

 

[nine9d]

Wow, somehow I missed the reply here.

Believe it or not, the cycle is still going with the same results I posted above. And I did mean I was testing nitrites, not nitrates. To answer your question threnjen:

a) Does the tank have a running filter?
Yes
b) have you tried taking out all of the water, refilling, and re-dosing to 4ppm?
I did this once before when I used the wrong ammonia. We cleaned all the rocks, filters, tank, etc... This was prior to this new cycle on Jan. 12th. And yes, that is when I think I dosed too much of the ACE ammonia.
c) Can you test the pH of the tank
I can do this tonight. We have done it bi-weekly just trying to check for anything out of the ordinary.
d) You mentioned it never tested for nitrates until today, did you mean nitrates or nitrites?
Yes, sorry nitrites.
e) If you did mean nitrates, what is the nitrite reading?
See above question
f) In general do you have hard water or soft water (you can check your city's water quality report if not sure)
We do not have hard water.

Thanks for your help, again I am sorry I as I didn't notice responses here. But I do think that we should probably restart as we are still in the same boat and now we are about 10 weeks out with no progress. Readings are staying the same.

 

[nine9d]

O.k. So I tested again this evening.
ph 7.2
Ammon 1.0-2.0 (always looks the same)
TRITE .25
TRATE 0

So the ammonia has since never really dropped, still only that slight bump in TRITE. Thanks.

 

[threnjen]

Yes at this point there is something wrong.

Could it be any of the following:
Items washed with soap
tank bleached/other chemical and not rinsed fully
not using dechlor in water
tank too cold (is it over 70?)

? But you've had reef tanks so I am sure you know these things.

Personally - and this is just me - you've been trying for a long time. I would go fish-in. Maybe fishless is just not meant to be. I really am at a loss to be honest

What kind of tank and filter is it?

 

[nine9d]

Yeah, I hear ya. I've had over 1,000 gallons salt at one point over various systems and I think I know more then enough. This little 5.5g is putting a beating on me, LOL!

Anyhow, when we cleaned down the tank, rock, etc... we didn’t use anything besides tap. I was going to use my RO/DI but didn’t think it was necessary.

We are using Seachem Prime to treat the water. We also use prime in the makeup water for when we have evaporation.

1. Is this necessary being it is such a small tank and we are just cycling it?
2. Does Prime smell horrible? I mean it stuff smells like a dang skunk.

Tank heater is set for 84 and we monitor it.

The tank is a Top Fin from Petsmart. It was the complete setup deal with filter and such. We upgraded the lighting to led, but besides that it is stock.

Thanks for the help thus far.