I need help cycling my tank!!!Please Help!!

[angel84]

Hi everyone I have a 15 gallon tank and its been cycling for 4 days.I have tested the water and I have no ammonia but 0.7 nitrite and some nitrate. I tested the tap water (before i added treatment) and everything was around 0.


I have done some research on how to cycle the tank and Its seems like alot people buy ammonia and add it in. I cant find anywhere that stocks pure ammonia (I live in the uk) so I was looking for some help to produce it some the beneficial bacteria can start to multiply to combat it.

I am also confuse that I have no ammonia but I have nitrite and nitrate and if i'm right they are the products of when ammonia is broken down?

I bought some cycle products that have the benefical bacteria and I have added them but i was told if there is no ammonia they cant do anything and told me to add fish and flakes (i dont want to add fish as I believe it harms them)

So i've added a few fish flakes only but I need help on cycle the tank so I can get rid of the nitrite because I just dont understand how to get rid of them!!!

I'm not looking for a quick cycle i'm just looking for a health tank and any help on how to properly cycle a tank would be great, also sorry for the long post!!!

Thanks

 

[john5748]

I may be wrong as I am no expert but I have a Hagen Master Test Kit which I use for my tank and after reading the instructions for nitrate and nitrite it says that as long as it is below 1.0 for each that is ok.

Reading other posts in this forum asking similar questions I think the best way to remove nitrate and nitrite is to do partial water changes.

But like I said I am not an expert in this matter, just wanted to offer some advice and hopefully push this post to the top so that you can get some more advice from other members.

Best of luck.

 

[dwarfgourami]

As you probably know, the cycling process goes in 2 stages:

1) ammonia turns into nitrites

2) nitrites turn into nitrates

(and then stage 3= you lower the nitrate rate by water changes)

I would expect stage 2 to take longer than 4 days- it took me a good 2 weeks in a similar sized tank. So you may just need patience for this one. I was able to find ammonia in my local hardware store; other people have found it in Boots.

I am new to this game, too, only just finished cycling my tanks, but I would have thought that you would want ammonia and then nitrites to go quite high- higher than 0.7 for the nitrites- in order to get an established colony of bacteria. I could be wrong, but mine went right up before they came down. Still, to early to judge of my success- only just put fish in and things could still go pearshaped. It's all different from when I last kept fish 30 years ago!

Best of luck with your cycling!

 

[angel84]

hi there i was wondering which product you can get from boots? or if anyone else knows any products and places that you can buy them, could you tell me please?

thanks

angel84

 

[dwarfgourami]

I think the product available in Boots is called Jeyes Kleenoff Household Ammonia. I went to my local hardware store (brilliant place, they have everything and know everything) and bought something called AmoKleen. The main thing is, it must be pure ammonia (and water): no perfume or other additions. Apparently you should try shaking it, if it foams that's a sign it contains surfactants=bad.

 

[daza]

It sounds as though you have been cycling for 4 days using decaying fish food then. Others have reported successful cycling using that method so you could search for more info on what they did and carry on without the ammonia if you can't find any, or until you do find some.

If you can get pure ammonia then it will probably speed the cycle up and give you larger readings of ammonia, nitrite and nitrate and therefore a larger bacteria colony.

dwarfgourami explained the stages of a cycle well.

You may not have seen any ammonia before seeing the nitrite because it might have been a very small spike which didn't last very long (due to a low ammount being given off by the fish food decaying).

Have a look at the cycling link in my sig and see if that helps.

 

[rdd1952]

As for the cycling process, you are correct that you need a form of ammonia to cycle. You can do that with pure ammonia, with fish food as you have read or with fish. It is good that you want to go the fishless route but it does take a little time. From my experience, it seems that the smaller the tank, the longer it takes. I don't know if that is true or not but it seems that way on the ones I have done. I would expect it should take about 3 to 4 weeks to cycle. It seems to me that a good rule of thumb is that the nitrite takes about twice as long as the ammonia so if you add ammonia to raise the level to 4 to 6 ppm and it is back down to zero in 7 days, the nitrites should take about 14 days, give or take.

Unfortunately, some ammonia, at least here in the states doesn't list ingredients on the label. If it does have ingredients, chleating agents are ok. That is simply a bonding agent that keeps the mixture "mixed". Onther thank that, the only other ingredients you want to see are ammonia and water, no fragrances. Surfactants, as already mentioned are not good. If there are no ingredients listed, then as suggested, shake the bottle. If it foams, it's no good. Some bubbles will appear even if it is the right kind but will almost immediately disappear. Those are simply air bubbles just like when you pour water into your tank.

You should add enough ammonia or flakes to raise the ammonia to around 4 to 6 ppm. If you use ammonia, you can test it a minute or two after you add it to see what the level is (just allow enough time to let the filter circulate it a little). With flakes, it will take a little longer before you actually get an ammonia reading as the flakes will first have to start to decay and break down. Test the ammonia daily and once it drops down to around 1 ppm, check your nitrites. You should have a reading at that time. Continue to add ammonia to keep the level around 1 ppm. When it falls to zero, add again. The nitrite level will probably be go high that it will be off the scale. That's fine, just keep adding ammonia and testing. The reason you have to keep adding ammonia is to feed that bacteria you have already developed. When the nitrite finally drops, it will be sudden, almost overnight. At that point, do a 75 to 90 percent water change and add a large portion of your fish load - 75 to 90 percent. If you don't add all the fish at once, there won't be enought waste to keep the whole bacteria colony alive so part will die off.