Fishless Cycle Isn't Working!

[phoebechicken]

As the title suggests my fishless cycle doesn't appear to be working.

I have a Juwel Rio 125 tank. I set it up with gravel and dechlorinated water a fortnight ago, and started my fishless cycle 12 days ago. I added enough ammonia to get the levels to 6ppm, whacked the heater up as high as it will go (31C), assembled the filter etc and let it do it's job. I have added 3 rocks to the tank but that's it so far - no plants, fish, bogwood etc.

Over the next five or so days the ammonia levels dropped to somewhere between 2 and 4 PPM and then just stopped going down. I waited five days and the reading was always the same (I'm using a liquid drop test kit that I saw recommended on here). I did some research online and apparently some people have found that ammonia levels of over 5PPM can actually kill off the useful bacteria and stall the cycle, so I wondered if I'd added too much ammonia in the first place. I did a 20% water change to try and get rid of some ammonia - the levels are now just below 2PPM. The trouble is that this was 3 days ago now and the levels are STILL just below 2PPM. Nothing seems to be happening!

Where am I going wrong?

I did test the nitrite a few days ago, even though I knew there wasn't much point at this stage, and there was a little there but not much.

Any help gratefully received as I would like to get some fish in there some time this century!

Celeste

 

[**sarahp**]

Hi - I could be completely wrong but my understanding is that when the ammonia has dropped from 5/6ppm to about 1/2ppm you then add more ammonia to bring it up to 4/5ppm again - I *think* its so that you keep feeding the bacteria - but I could be talking out my b*m as I haven't even started my cycle yet just beed doing lots of reading.

 

[phoebechicken]

Hi - I could be completely wrong but my understanding is that when the ammonia has dropped from 5/6ppm to about 1/2ppm you then add more ammonia to bring it up to 4/5ppm again - I *think* its so that you keep feeding the bacteria - but I could be talking out my b*m as I haven't even started my cycle yet just beed doing lots of reading.

Oh, right! I thought I was supposed to get it down to 0? That's what the Fishless Cycling post on here seems to suggest..
It's all so confusing.

 

[**sarahp**]

Eventually you are trying to get it down to zero in 12 hours but you have to let the bacteria build up first, so you start off at 6ppm, when it drops to 1-2ppm you raise it back to 5ppm and so on until it drops down to zero over night (12 hours ish) at that point you then have to worry about NitrItes - they also need to drop down to zero very quickly and if everything has gone to plan you should get ammonia and nitrite doen to 0 very quickly and very high readings of nitrAtes at which point your tank is cycled - I THINK!!!! As I say I havent actually doen it yet - still waiting for my filter media to arrive in the post so I could be talking cr@p LOL!!!

 

[Tiger Barb]

**sarahp** isn't talking cr@p!! She's got it about right. I believe there are 2 techniques for fishless cycling: one involves adding the same amount of ammonia each day, the opther involves waiting until the ammonia level drops before adding some more. I recommend the second method - I started the first method and overdosed my tank so much that I had to do massive water changes to get the levels down again. I would say that when the ammonia drops to 1-2ppm, it's time to add a bit more to get it up to 4-5ppm. Eventually you will find that you are having to add ammonia all the time to keep the levels up. At the peak, I was adding 5ml of 9% ammonia twice a day to my 300 litre tank.

Keep your eye on the nitrites - they will appear sooner or later. They will eventually peak and drop again (as long as you are still adding ammonia to feed the bacteria). When you can add ammonia and, about 6-8 hours later, have zero ammonia and zero nitrite readings.... your filter is cycled! Crack open the champagne, do a big water change and get your fish.

Just remember to keep adding ammonia until your fish are in the tank or else the bacteria will start to die.

Good luck!

 

[rdd1952]

Actually, it should have gone all the way down but adding more when it gets to 1 or 2 is fine. Since you didn't add any more, it should have eventually gone all the way to zero. Have you tested your pH? Bacteria reproduction slows as th pH gets into the low 6s and stops below 6.0 so if your pH has taken a big drop, that could be the problem.

 

[phoebechicken]

I tested the pH and it's gone from 7.5 (straight from the tap) to 8. Could this have anything to do with the ammonia not dropping?
I have raised it to 4PPM now so will wait and see what happens. Thanks for all your advice.

 

[rdd1952]

I've been away and had not seen your reply. The higher pH shouldn't have any effect on the cycling. The optimal pH range (at least from what I have ready) for nitrifying bacteria reproduction is between 7.2 and 8.0 so you are fine there. I'm not sure why nothing happened but it does stall at times. I once tried an experiment and after 18 days, my ammonia had not changed at all. I emptied the tank and gave up on the experiment. I would suggest doing a complete water change and starting over.

One other thing you need to look into is what is making your pH go up. It is extremely rare for the pH to rise once in the tank. For most people the pH will drop slightly from the tap pH, even if thebuffering capacity is high. Check your rocks. Take them out and do the fizz test on them. Place a few drops of vinegar on them. If they fizz, then you probably don't want them in your tank unless you what a high pH. They will definitely make it go up.

 

[CruX]

It might be worth getting some donated filter media to kickstart it?