Hi everyone,
I am completely new to this hobby and am really excited about getting up and running. I am a little lost with fishless cycling though. I am not sure if I have messed up or I am being too impatient.
I have an 85 litre tank (18 gallons I believe) and I have set it up ready to cycle on 16.11.2020. It has an artificial plant in it with some moss balls and two ornamental decorative items in it (ship and barrel - unimaginative I know!).
I added de-chlorinator as required initially and saw an early bacterial bloom. I didn't have a test kit at that point but bought a liquid API master kit and began testing after the bloom cleared. Ammonia, nitrite and nitrate were all at zero.
To date I have not seen any nitrates appear - only nitrite up to 0.25ppm then disappear very quickly after around half a day.
I thought that my tank had perhaps not cycled properly due to no nitrates ever appearing so I started again without a water change. I added ammonia and API quick start 3 days ago. I added a bit more API quick start than recommended however.
My ammonia has risen to 4ppm and is holding - yesterday I saw nitrite go up to 0.25 but now that has gone back to 0. No Nitrates either at any point to date and ammonia isn't dropping at all yet.
PH is constantly around 7.4-7.6 and water temperature is 26 degrees celsius.
I am worried I added too much API quick start when I initially used it. Is this possible? Is there any harm from using too much of it?
I am also worried I will need to completely start again/I have totally messed up - or am I being too impatient and do I need to hold my nerve?
I have attached a copy of my testing log since 16.11.2020 in the hope this may help make some sense of it all.
Thanks for your help!
I am completely new to this hobby and am really excited about getting up and running. I am a little lost with fishless cycling though. I am not sure if I have messed up or I am being too impatient.
I have an 85 litre tank (18 gallons I believe) and I have set it up ready to cycle on 16.11.2020. It has an artificial plant in it with some moss balls and two ornamental decorative items in it (ship and barrel - unimaginative I know!).
I added de-chlorinator as required initially and saw an early bacterial bloom. I didn't have a test kit at that point but bought a liquid API master kit and began testing after the bloom cleared. Ammonia, nitrite and nitrate were all at zero.
To date I have not seen any nitrates appear - only nitrite up to 0.25ppm then disappear very quickly after around half a day.
I thought that my tank had perhaps not cycled properly due to no nitrates ever appearing so I started again without a water change. I added ammonia and API quick start 3 days ago. I added a bit more API quick start than recommended however.
My ammonia has risen to 4ppm and is holding - yesterday I saw nitrite go up to 0.25 but now that has gone back to 0. No Nitrates either at any point to date and ammonia isn't dropping at all yet.
PH is constantly around 7.4-7.6 and water temperature is 26 degrees celsius.
I am worried I added too much API quick start when I initially used it. Is this possible? Is there any harm from using too much of it?
I am also worried I will need to completely start again/I have totally messed up - or am I being too impatient and do I need to hold my nerve?
I have attached a copy of my testing log since 16.11.2020 in the hope this may help make some sense of it all.
Thanks for your help!