I need some help figuring out where I’m at in my fishless cycle

[vanillaspice]

It’s been 2 months since I’ve started a fishless cycle in my 10g tank. The tank will be housing one betta fish.

I have constantly sky high nitrites (+5.0ppm). It takes 3 days for a 3ppm dosage of ammonia to drop to 0. My nitrites don’t budge. Should I continue dosing ammonia or leave the tank alone in order to let the nitrites drop? Am I nearing the end of my cycle? I feel like it’s taking longer than it should because of a possible error on my part.

There’s a lot of mixed information on the topic of cycling and I’m thoroughly confused at this point ��

What should I do?

 

[King Fisher]

Sounds like your still in the middle of a cycle. You should still dose ammonia as BB needs to feed off it. You can also do water changes to lower your nitrites but I don't think 5 ppm is to much in a fishless cycle. Id hang in there for a couple more weeks and see where it's at.

 

[vanillaspice]

Sounds like your still in the middle of a cycle. You should still dose ammonia as BB needs to feed off it. You can also do water changes to lower your nitrites but I don't think 5 ppm is to much in a fishless cycle. Id hang in there for a couple more weeks and see where it's at.

Hello, thanks for your reply! Both nitrites and ammonia have suddenly started dropping to 0 in 24 hours (I dose my tank with 2.0ppm ammonia). I did a 60% water change the other night to bring down Nitrates, but I've noticed ammonia has risen. Here are my readings 13 hours after the water change.

Ammonia: 0.50ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm (Light Blue)
Nitrate: 5ppm (Light Orange)

What could of caused the Ammonia spike in my tank? Would doing more water changes help?

Thanks again ~

 

[King Fisher]

Don't do any water changes. Your nitrates are really low. You really don't need to lower nitrates until you are about to put your fish in. You could let them hit 100 ppm and it wouldn't matter as far as cycling is concerned.

Maybe you removed to much water and threw the chemistry off? Not sure. When you go to change your water do 1/3 of the tank at a time. If you need to lower something more then wait... say.... 6 hours then change out another 1/3. This allows the water to stabilize a bit in between changes. Some people like to to do 25% water changes intermittently so they don't throw water chemistry out of whack.

The 60% water change you did was pretty big in a cycling tank. Based on your last tests I'd say you could go awhile without doing a water change. Don't be afraid to let those nitrates rise.....you can remove them later. Keep dosing 2 ppm ammonia.

 

[Autumnsky]

Not much to worry about them being high when going fishless cycle. Congrats, on being close.

Add a couple pinches of flakes food, or some smashed up pellets if you have any.

How high is the heat, I would make sure it gets cranked up a bit - this article mentions up to 86F if no livestock, and turn it back down before fish adding.

Good article link - Check out #18
The (almost) Complete Guide and FAQ to Fishless Cycling - Aquarium Advice