GraceCC
Aquarium Advice Newbie
Hi, I'm Grace and this is my first post. I'm new to the hobby and have recently purchased a 20 gal freshwater tank. I've done quite a bit of research on aquarium set-up and I decided to try fishless cycling using household ammonia (the good kind with no additives) to prevent harming fish. But, unfortunately, I seem to be stalled in the process. Here's what I did: I was able to add an artificial plant and a little bit of gravel from an established aquarium to help seed the tank (from a trusted aquarium shop.) Every day I added ammonia so that the level reached a measurement of 5ppm until I started getting a nitrite reading, and then I started adding a little bit less every day. Shortly after nitrites began appearing, I started getting readings for nitrates and the ammonia level started going down to zero within 12 to 24 hours or so. After this it seemed to take quite a while for the nitrites to spike but eventually they did, and then two days later the nitrites went down to zero with the nitrates showing a nice increase to 80ppm. This whole process took a full 8 weeks. Now here's the problem - ever since the nitrites have gone down to zero (about 4 days now) the ammonia levels are decreasing at a much slower pace and now appeared to have stopped decreasing. I stopped adding ammonia to wait for the current levels to go down. For more than two days now I have zero nitrites, a measurement of .5 ppm of ammonia, and a high level of nitrates (80ppm). I know that the tank is not finished cycling until the ammonia and the nitrites are both at zero. What could account for the current stall in the ammonia decrease when it was previously decreasing overnight? Is it possible that the bacteria-producing nitrates are consuming the bacteria-producing nitrites before the nitrites have time to consume the ammonia? I was told that I could add fish (after a large water change) since I do have some bacterial growth. But after investing so much time cycling the tank to avoid harming fish I'm concerned that the bio-filter won't be able to reduce the ammonia produced. Any advice on how I should proceed at this point would be very much appreciated!!!!!
-an added point: I did top the aquarium water off when the water level was getting too low for the heater. To avoid using ammonia-reducing dechlorinators, I let the water sit out overnight in a bucket and then added it to the tank. I am certain that my town does not use chloramines (called water dept.) Could there have been residual chlorine left in water that may have killed the nitrite bacteria? If so, what do I do now???? Please help!!
-an added point: I did top the aquarium water off when the water level was getting too low for the heater. To avoid using ammonia-reducing dechlorinators, I let the water sit out overnight in a bucket and then added it to the tank. I am certain that my town does not use chloramines (called water dept.) Could there have been residual chlorine left in water that may have killed the nitrite bacteria? If so, what do I do now???? Please help!!