Lost in the nitrogen cycle

[Chill]

So I’m trying to do a fishless cycle and am completely lost.
I started cycling on 6/24/2019
I used pure ammonia to start the process raising the tank levels to 4 ppm. I have seen a rise in nitrates as high as 40 but have never seen any nitrites. also the ammonia levels aren’t going down on their own and only going down doing partial water changes. I’m confused because I thought I’d see nitrites and ammonia level drop to 0 before I would see any nitrates and that the ammonia would eventually drop on its own.

Also the tank keeps getting cloudy and never clears up and has white stuff on the decorations. We rinsed everything in the tank really good and used a brush on the decorations to make sure no paint chips were breaking off when we put everything in the tank. We also dont have any gravel in the tank that could be causing the cloudiness.

The current ammonia levels are around 1 ppm, nitrates 20 ppm and nitrites 0.

I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong and how to progress in the nitrogen cycle and why the water is so cloudy and what is growing on my decorations.

 

[Laser]

Well, ammonia can't drop to 0 on it's own unless you chnage the water, have a lot of plants, or some media designed to filter it out. I only noticed one moss ball, so I think we can rule out a super ammonia absorbing moss ball.

Did you use any media from an established tank to jump start your cycle? Have you tested the nitrate level of your water from the tap? It's only logical to assume from the information you have given that you do have bacteria consuming the nitrites in your tank.

 

[Chill]

Dang a super ammonia absorbing moss ball would be great lol

From what I read online I thought cycling the tank was complete when ammonia levels dropped to zero. And no we didn’t use any media from an established tank i just used pure ammonia. I just tested the nitrates in the tap water and it is about 10. Is that a bad thing?

I just don’t know what I’m doing wrong every time we’ve added a fish even when levels on everything seem fine our fish die. We’ve even had the pet store test the water and can’t figure out what’s going on.

 

[Chill]

The fish die quick too almost always in less then 24hours and we do float them in the bag and slowly add tank water into the bag before putting them into the tank

 

[King Fisher]

You are in the middle of a cycle. You are only a month in so you could very well have another month left.

I notice you are doing a bare bottom so you won't have a good accumulation of beneficial bacteria build up that you would normally have in substrate. I'd suggest adding a couple sponge filters rather than those air stones. They'll give you more BB accumulation.

Don't worry about the cloudy water. It's expected as your water chemistry isn't stable right now. Just keep your ammonia between 2-4ppm and have some patience. Don't add any fish.

 

[Chill]

Thanks! I will look into getting the sponge filter. We didn’t add the rocks this time because of the water cloudiness week kept getting and wanted to make sure it wasn’t the rocks causing the cloudy water. Would it be a bad idea to add rocks now in the middle of the cycle?

 

[King Fisher]

You can add rocks. BB will colonize in the gravel. Be careful with your cleanings. Never deep clean everything at once. Split the tank off into 1/3's when you decide to deep clean in the future. 1/3 a week and so on until it's clean. That way you won't remove to much BB and throw your tank into a mini cycle/bacterial bloom.

 

[Laser]

Dang a super ammonia absorbing moss ball would be great lol

From what I read online I thought cycling the tank was complete when ammonia levels dropped to zero. And no we didn’t use any media from an established tank i just used pure ammonia. I just tested the nitrates in the tap water and it is about 10. Is that a bad thing?

I just don’t know what I’m doing wrong every time we’ve added a fish even when levels on everything seem fine our fish die. We’ve even had the pet store test the water and can’t figure out what’s going on.

10 ppm of nitrates from your tap water is not a terrible thing. From what I can recall, your cycle can be considered complete when your bacteria colonies can convert 4 ppm of ammonia completely into nitrates within one day.

I do find it interesting that you have never had a positive test for nitrites. Are you using the API kit? How often have you tested the water? There is usually a point in the cycle when the nitrite consuming bacteria needs to catch up, since the ammonia consuming bacteria had a headstart.

 

[King Fisher]

10 ppm of nitrates from your tap water is not a terrible thing. From what I can recall, your cycle can be considered complete when your bacteria colonies can convert 4 ppm of ammonia completely into nitrates within one day.

I do find it interesting that you have never had a positive test for nitrites. Are you using the API kit? How often have you tested the water? There is usually a point in the cycle when the nitrite consuming bacteria needs to catch up, since the ammonia consuming bacteria had a headstart.

I agree. Although, more and more I hear of people that rarely see nitrites on thier tests during a cycle. Might be one of those cases??

 

[Chill]

I’m gonna go ahead and add the rocks tomorrow then. And Yes I am using the API test kit. For the first 2 1/2 to 3 weeks I was testing daily. Now I test about twice a week.
Maybe I missed it but from reading online It says with adding pure ammonia I would have seen the nitrites before 3 weeks
I did stop adding ammonia after the first week or 2 but the levels have stayed around 3 ppm with out adding anymore

 

[Chill]

I added the substrate and the ammonia level is .5 since we did a partial water change yesterday so I also added some ammonia.

 

[Laser]

I agree. Although, more and more I hear of people that rarely see nitrites on thier tests during a cycle. Might be one of those cases??

Yeah, must be. Maybe their water is more suited to that type of bacteria somehow.

I remember cycling my first tank as a fishless cycle. It seemed to take forever to see any progress. I think you're on a good course and good observation on the substrate, I hadn't even noticed that, but they should give more surface area for the bacteria to grow.

 

[Chill]

We added rocks and some ammonia we did a partial water change yesterday and the levels dropped. Hopefully we have everything on the right track