Day 52 cycling, why so long?

[Soozie Koo]

Can anyone help please?
I'm on day 52 of the fishless cycle. I gave #11 (yes 11!!!) the day before yesterday, it's taking 2 days each time for the nitrites to drop below 1ppm.

Last reading were
pH 7.6
Ammonia 0
Nitrites 2 (yesterday)
Temperature is 25.6
I don't know kH (don't have the kit)

I know when I test nitrites today that they'll be about 0.25, so there is a pattern emerging, it was taking 3 days for nitrites to get below 1ppm but the temp was only 24C, it's now 25.5 ish, so now it's taking 2 days!
Do I just keep going hoping soon it will take 1 day to convert and be ready?
Today will be #12 HELP
It's frustrating me so much!
I'm a newby so please keep it simple
Thank you

 

[Soozie Koo]

Can anyone help please?
I'm on day 52 of the fishless cycle. I gave #11 (yes 11!!!) the day before yesterday, it's taking 2 days each time for the nitrites to drop below 1ppm.

Last reading were
pH 7.6
Ammonia 0
Nitrites 2 (yesterday)
Temperature is 25.6
I don't know kH (don't have the kit)

I know when I test nitrites today that they'll be about 0.25, so there is a pattern emerging, it was taking 3 days for nitrites to get below 1ppm but the temp was only 24C, it's now 25.5 ish, so now it's taking 2 days!
Do I just keep going hoping soon it will take 1 day to convert and be ready?
Today will be #12 HELP
It's frustrating me so much!
I'm a newby so please keep it simple
Thank you

I lied, it's actually day 57 & my readings today are
Temp 26.5
Ammonia 0
Nitrites 1 ppm
Nitates >160
pH 7.6

So not even dose #12 today
Fed up, please help

 

[Woody781]

Can anyone help please?
I'm on day 52 of the fishless cycle. I gave #11 (yes 11!!!) the day before yesterday, it's taking 2 days each time for the nitrites to drop below 1ppm.

Last reading were
pH 7.6
Ammonia 0
Nitrites 2 (yesterday)
Temperature is 25.6
I don't know kH (don't have the kit)

I know when I test nitrites today that they'll be about 0.25, so there is a pattern emerging, it was taking 3 days for nitrites to get below 1ppm but the temp was only 24C, it's now 25.5 ish, so now it's taking 2 days!
Do I just keep going hoping soon it will take 1 day to convert and be ready?
Today will be #12 HELP
It's frustrating me so much!
I'm a newby so please keep it simple
Thank you

I dont know too much about the fishless cycling process because I'm a newbie too. Putting in plants helped my tank and I got some advice to feed the tank a little fish food. My tank was only 34L so quite small so it didnt take too long.

 

[Soozie Koo]

I dont know too much about the fishless cycling process because I'm a newbie too. Putting in plants helped my tank and I got some advice to feed the tank a little fish food. My tank was only 34L so quite small so it didnt take too long.

I dont know too much about the fishless cycling process because I'm a newbie too. Putting in plants helped my tank and I got some advice to feed the tank a little fish food. My tank was only 34L so quite small so it didnt take too long.

 

[Soozie Koo]

I'm using ammonia for this fishless cycle, the cycle on the forum.
I have plants in my tank already, didn't know they were beneficial.
It's nearly there, just needed advice on what else to do.
Nitrates are >160ppm, wondering wether to do a water change or not?
The tank is a fluval flex 57.
I've cycled 2 other smaller tanks this way, one took 11 days and the other 39!
57 days, its driving me NUTS
HELP!

 

[Ch4rlie]

Have you added anything to the tank during the cyce process?

And am assuming you are following the fishless cycle article method - Cycling Your New Fresh Water Tank: Read This First!

Will ask a couple of things, the test kit you are using, what kind is it?
Strip dip kit or liquid based?
Is the test kit still viable / in date?

Having the kH and gH numbers may be helpful even just for elimination purposes. Your local LFS may be able to carry out this test for a small fee. Worth asking.

A water change would reset everything back to zero basically but as long as you do not clean the filter or anything in the tank, the bacteria numbers should be largely unaffected.

So this may be worth doing, but do answer the above questions first BEFORE proceeding to do a large water change and add a full dose of ammonia and test in 24 hours, then see what the readings are exactly.

BTW plants are very beneifcial for any aquarium really, especially for cycling tanks, well worth adding plants. There are few exceptions but largely good for most aquaria.

 

[Soozie Koo]

Have you added anything to the tank during the cyce process?

And am assuming you are following the fishless cycle article method - Cycling Your New Fresh Water Tank: Read This First!

Will ask a couple of things, the test kit you are using, what kind is it?
Strip dip kit or liquid based?
Is the test kit still viable / in date?

Having the kH and gH numbers may be helpful even just for elimination purposes. Your local LFS may be able to carry out this test for a small fee. Worth asking.

A water change would reset everything back to zero basically but as long as you do not clean the filter or anything in the tank, the bacteria numbers should be largely unaffected.

So this may be worth doing, but do answer the above questions first BEFORE proceeding to do a large water change and add a full dose of ammonia and test in 24 hours, then see what the readings are exactly.

BTW plants are very beneifcial for any aquarium really, especially for cycling tanks, well worth adding plants. There are few exceptions but largely good for most aquaria.

Have you added anything to the tank during the cyce process?

And am assuming you are following the fishless cycle article method - Cycling Your New Fresh Water Tank: Read This First!

Will ask a couple of things, the test kit you are using, what kind is it?
Strip dip kit or liquid based?
Is the test kit still viable / in date?

Having the kH and gH numbers may be helpful even just for elimination purposes. Your local LFS may be able to carry out this test for a small fee. Worth asking.

A water change would reset everything back to zero basically but as long as you do not clean the filter or anything in the tank, the bacteria numbers should be largely unaffected.

So this may be worth doing, but do answer the above questions first BEFORE proceeding to do a large water change and add a full dose of ammonia and test in 24 hours, then see what the readings are exactly.

BTW plants are very beneifcial for any aquarium really, especially for cycling tanks, well worth adding plants. There are few exceptions but largely good for most aquaria.

Have you added anything to the tank during the cyce process?

And am assuming you are following the fishless cycle article method - Cycling Your New Fresh Water Tank: Read This First!

Will ask a couple of things, the test kit you are using, what kind is it?
Strip dip kit or liquid based?
Is the test kit still viable / in date?

Having the kH and gH numbers may be helpful even just for elimination purposes. Your local LFS may be able to carry out this test for a small fee. Worth asking.

A water change would reset everything back to zero basically but as long as you do not clean the filter or anything in the tank, the bacteria numbers should be largely unaffected.

So this may be worth doing, but do answer the above questions first BEFORE proceeding to do a large water change and add a full dose of ammonia and test in 24 hours, then see what the readings are exactly.

BTW plants are very beneifcial for any aquarium really, especially for cycling tanks, well worth adding plants. There are few exceptions but largely good for most aquaria.

 

[Soozie Koo]

Have you added anything to the tank during the cyce process?

And am assuming you are following the fishless cycle article method - Cycling Your New Fresh Water Tank: Read This First!

Will ask a couple of things, the test kit you are using, what kind is it?
Strip dip kit or liquid based?
Is the test kit still viable / in date?

Having the kH and gH numbers may be helpful even just for elimination purposes. Your local LFS may be able to carry out this test for a small fee. Worth asking.

A water change would reset everything back to zero basically but as long as you do not clean the filter or anything in the tank, the bacteria numbers should be largely unaffected.

So this may be worth doing, but do answer the above questions first BEFORE proceeding to do a large water change and add a full dose of ammonia and test in 24 hours, then see what the readings are exactly.

BTW plants are very beneifcial for any aquarium really, especially for cycling tanks, well worth adding plants. There are few exceptions but largely good for most aquaria.

Hi

 

[Soozie Koo]

Hi
I am doing that cycle you posted yes.
I have added a few live plants nothing else.
The kit I'm using is the liquid api one and it's in date.
Thanks for helping

 

[Ch4rlie]

Hmm, then perhaps a large water change to 'reset' parameters and then add full 3ppm dosage and then wait 24 hours for testing.

See where that takes you.

As mentioned, this should not affect the bacterial colonies that's already in the filter and tank to date.

Just as long you do not do any cleaning to the filter media or tank.

 

[Soozie Koo]

Hmm, then perhaps a large water change to 'reset' parameters and then add full 3ppm dosage and then wait 24 hours for testing.

See where that takes you.

As mentioned, this should not affect the bacterial colonies that's already in the filter and tank to date.

Just as long you do not do any cleaning to the filter media or tank.

Hi
Just back from lfs and they tested kH and gH for me (sadly with strips!)

kH - 80

gH between 60-120

I've no idea what these should be

Thanks again for your help, I really do appreciate it

 

[Essjay]

GH and KH come with your tap water. There is no 'should be' like there is for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate.

A GH of 60 to 120 ppm converts to 3.4 to 6.7 German deg, and the KH of 80 converts to 4.4 German deg. Depending at which end of the range your GH falls you have somewhere between soft and moderately soft water. It is much easier to buy fish that suit your water than to change the GH to suit a particular species of fish, so you will need to look at getting soft water fish once the cycle finishes.
You could get a more accurate GH from your water company's website, search there for hardness. Make a note of the unit as well as the number because they may use a different unit from ppm or German degrees.


I agree with Charlie, a water change to remove some nitrate may help. It will also replenish the minerals since to have softish water.

 

[Ch4rlie]

That's perfectly fine for cycling the tank.

The only real worry when it comes to cycling is when the water is very soft and that can cause cycling to stall or go very slowly. But in your case it should not be an issue.

60 - 120 is usually given as soft to moderately hard water which is fine for many species of tropical fish.

Even though this was done using strip dip test, not usually very accurate but as a guide for cycling it should be fine.

When it comes to stocking your tank, I'd recommend to research further to find out more accurately what your water parameters are. Your local water authority website should give you the average water hardness levels, given in a variety of units so do list them with their units of measurements which will help us give you some recommendations of what species will do well in your water parameters.

Edit - I see essay replied while I was writing this

 

[Soozie Koo]

GH and KH come with your tap water. There is no 'should be' like there is for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate.

A GH of 60 to 120 ppm converts to 3.4 to 6.7 German deg, and the KH of 80 converts to 4.4 German deg. Depending at which end of the range your GH falls you have somewhere between soft and moderately soft water. It is much easier to buy fish that suit your water than to change the GH to suit a particular species of fish, so you will need to look at getting soft water fish once the cycle finishes.
You could get a more accurate GH from your water company's website, search there for hardness. Make a note of the unit as well as the number because they may use a different unit from ppm or German degrees.


I agree with Charlie, a water change to remove some nitrate may help. It will also replenish the minerals since to have softish water.

Thanks very much for your help, much appreciated

 

[Woody781]

How's the cycling process going??