ryorgason
Aquarium Advice Regular
I have a 30 gallon I am trying to do a fishless cycle with. I started on 8/30 and added ammonia until I got a high reading, but I think I may have added too much. Then I kept adding ammonia daily, and nitrites showed up on 9/3 and were up to 5 ppm on 9/6. On 9/6 nitrates showed up on the tests. On the 12th nitrites were down to .25 ppm, and on the 13th nitrates were at 10 ppm.
I added ammonia every day until the 12th when I skipped a day because it wasn't going down, then I added some on the 13th, and then skipped the next 3 days. This whole time ammonia was high, around 6 ppm, and finally went down to 4-5 ppm on the 16th, so on the 17th I added a little ammonia and it went back up again. I have not added any since then, but it is still at around 6 ppm, and nothing else seems to be changing much either. I did a 5 gallon water change yesterday, but ammonia was still the same afterwards.
What can I do? Do I have to start all over, or do a larger water change, or am I just being impatient? At the beginning of the cycle I added the rocks from my 2.5 gallon, and about halfway through I took the hiding rock out of the 2.5 and put it in the 30 gallon.
I added ammonia every day until the 12th when I skipped a day because it wasn't going down, then I added some on the 13th, and then skipped the next 3 days. This whole time ammonia was high, around 6 ppm, and finally went down to 4-5 ppm on the 16th, so on the 17th I added a little ammonia and it went back up again. I have not added any since then, but it is still at around 6 ppm, and nothing else seems to be changing much either. I did a 5 gallon water change yesterday, but ammonia was still the same afterwards.
What can I do? Do I have to start all over, or do a larger water change, or am I just being impatient? At the beginning of the cycle I added the rocks from my 2.5 gallon, and about halfway through I took the hiding rock out of the 2.5 and put it in the 30 gallon.