My First Aquarium And Fishless Cycle - Please Help

[Shaedy]

Firstly, thanks to anyone who is reading this..

I've been reading forums for days trying to figure out what I am doing wrong.. I read over the sticky on this forum on how to od a fishless cycle and I thought I knew what I was doing... Anyway...


I'm hoping you can give me some suggestions. I started a new aquarium 27 days ago. 46 Gallon tank. Eheim Classic 250 Canister Filter. All new equipment. I am attempting a fishless cycle..
- Day 1 I filled the tank and added the recommended dosage of Prime to prepare water.
- Let the tank run over night..
- Water temp at ~83F..
- Added Goldex Ammonia (Contains no phosphates or fragrances)
- Ammonia ~3 - 4 ppm
- Wait and test every 3 days..
- 21 days later.. Ammonia levels have not changed and there is 0 ppm Nitrite..
- On day 22 I asked the local fish shop for some help, and they told me to add a bottle of Colony Bacteria to the tank... So I did.....(Shook the crap out of the bottle..

)
- It has now been 5 days and there is no change.....
 
On Day 27.....

Ammonia - 3-4ppm
Nitrite - 0ppm
Nitrate - 0ppm
PH - 8
Hardness- 250-300
Alk - ~180
Temp = ~83F

I have not done any water changes yet. Not sure if that is an issue?

What about my filter, it does have a carbon fliter pad, would that cause any issue?

Any other suggestions? I very much would appreciate any help you can give me...

Is my ammonia level too high? If I do a partial water change to bring the level back down, should I add more of the colony nitrifying bacteria?
 
I've attached a picture of my test kit.. am I reading it correctly?

Thanks,
Zane

 

[Ninjouzata]

What is your pH? If it drops too low it can stall the cycle.

 

[Shaedy]

Numbers from today..

Ammonia - 3-4ppm
Nitrite - 0ppm
Nitrate - 0ppm
PH - 8
Hardness- 250-300
Alk - ~180
Temp = ~83F

 

[Gruntle]

You might want a partial (25%) water change to drop your ammonia to 3ppm, shouldn't affect anything other than making sure when you eventually get nitrites, they don't go too high. Make sure you treat the water with Prime before adding it so you don't kill off any bacteria you already have growing. You've found out that the bottles of stuff they sell you do pretty much nothing, they can go off quite quickly depending on transit and storage conditions before you buy them. Don't bother trying it again unless it's one of the trusted ones (I think Dr Tim's one and only is the best, but again it depends on how it was stored at the LFS). TBH I read your ammonia as around 3ppm but I'm no expert at reading what's on a photo without knowing the light conditions etc, so don't take my word for it!
 
Carbon shouldn't affect the cycle so I wouldn't worry about that at all.
 
Now all you need to do is wait. Unless you have a friend with an aquarium that you can borrow some filter media from (swap for what you currently have, no more than 25% of theirs if they're willing to trade). Or see if your LFS has media you can buy, some of them can be quite generous, others not so much. If you do get some, put it in without trying to clean it or anything, and make sure it stays wet during the transfer.
 
Keep waiting, keep checking...

 

[Shaedy]

Thanks for the suggestion. I will try a partial water change. Would you suggest I add the water and prime to a separate container before adding it to the aquarium?

 

[W1ngz]

You should mix the water and prime for sure beforehand. It wouldn't take long for the chlorine to kill whatever might already be growing in the filter before you can get it treated.

I see you're in Canada! Where abouts? Maybe someone on here can nip off a piece of filter for you to kick start things.

 

[Shaedy]

I'm in Edmonton, Alberta... So if I found someone with an filter.. I would expect that it would have to be one that they were recently using in their tank right? Lol.. not something dried up in a box in their basement? .. Also, would I just need to drop it in the aquarium?

 

[Ninjouzata]

They'd take a chunk from their filter, no more than 1/3 of it as any more could cause their tank to go through a mini cycle.
Yes it needs to be from a tank that is still running or has only very recently stopped running. You'd put it into your filter

 

[W1ngz]

Ahh, I'm out in Montreal, else I'd have offered you a little snip. All you need is a few little microbes to get the process started which for some reason isn't happening for you. I started my tank around the same time, and started seeing nitrites within a week. In my case though, It took me a while to find some ammonia so I started using fish food flakes which produce ammonia as they decompose. Maybe my initial bacteria wandered in that way. Might be worth a try, give it a small pinch of flakes for 2-3 days. Go easy though, too much can get messy and you'll have a lot of white slime and cloudy water as the bacteria break down the food.

 

[daizeUK]

It can take 21 days or more for the ammonia to start processing so I'd just give it a few more days and you should see some action. I don't recommend adding fish flakes, it won't help you at this point and may just foul up the tank.

 

[Shaedy]

Thanks for all the responses... I am going to give it a few more days and see what happens.... I just checked my levels again today.. Not sure if it is wishful thinking but it looks to me like my ammonia may have dropped ever so slightly...  Is it possible for ammonia levels to drop without any noticeable difference to Nitrite?

 

[TwoTankAmin]

It is possible you overdosed ammonia, Would need to see a day 1 test though to know.
 
Did you use your tap water to start?
 
Dr Tim's One and Only and Tetra Safe Start are the two bacteria starters I suggest. The rest are not worth it and wont work, imo.
 
If your water company uses a lot of chlorine in their system only minimal bacteria may be coming in with your tap. If you can find some live plants at the lfs they should have some bacteria on them.
 
Do that 25% wc and see what happens.

 

[ag-au]

Totally worth the wait, money wise and more importantly emotionally. Hang in there, your friends will appreciate it!!

 

[Shaedy]

Hello all... An update.... It is Day 37...I did not do a water change as of yet, but I did choose to wait and see what would happen given a little more time...
 
The last 2 days the water in my tank has clouded up to the point where I cannot see through to the other end... (at least something is happening) Also, my ammonia level have taken a dive...
 
Today..
Ammonia .025 - .50 PPM (yay)
Nitrite - 0 ppm
Nitrate - 0 ppm
 
I still see 0 Nitrites though...
 
According to the FIshless Cycling guide I am supposed to wait for the ammonia to be <.25 and Nitrite > 2 ppm ... What should I do at this point? Should I get some more ammonia into the tank so the process doesn't stall? (Maybe get it up to around 1 - 2ppm?)
 
Please advise...
 
Thanks Again...

 

[W1ngz]

Does your local shop offer water testing? If the ammonia is dropping, it's possible it's being processed through, and the test results are wrong. See if you can get it tested and compare your results.