Ammonia Has Stalled.

[Bluejay]

Hey, I've been cycling for about 2 weeks and in the last few days ammonia has been going down from 1.5-2 to nothing in about 12 hours. After adding some ammonia 2 evenings ago it hasn't gone down at all though. I've tripled checked all the tests and things and its definatly not them thats at fault, the only thing I can really think is that I took the filter apart (Very briefly in tank water) to check it was working properly. I'm guessing this probably means I'm starting my cycle from scratch again? Any advice would be great.

 

[rdd1952]

When you worked on the filter, it is quite possible that you disturbed the bacteria colony, especially if the filter media dried out or if you washed the filter. If that's the case, then you probably are back to scratch. Check your pH too. At low levels, nitrification slows and reproduction of bacteria stops. Even then though, the bacteria that are there should be processing ammonia just not muptiplying.

 

[Bluejay]

I gave it a slight squeeze in some tank water in case it was clogged (My filter was messing up) but I was careful not to let it dry out or wash it with tap water. I'll check ph, I wonder if maybe not that my filter is working properly (It wasn't flowing the water through the sponges properly before although the bacteria was still functioning) that has killed the bacteria somehow.

Edit: pH has dropped from around 7 to 6.5, could this have caused it?

Thanks for the help

 

[rdd1952]

The pH is ok. Not exactly the optimal pH for cycling but it certainly won't stop it. I imagine that th squeeze you gave the filter squeeed out a lot of the bacteria thus setting you back. Give it a couple days to see if it starts going again.

 

[doresy]

I had the same happen to me 3 times over 8 weeks I found that the nitrAtes, that's nitr-A-tes, were over 100pp and in my estimation were to blame. Whether or not this were true, I found that a 75% water change followed by an ammonia test and a dose upto 4ppm brought things back on track and ammonia was dropping to zero in 10 hours