Protein Flim During Fishless Cycle?

[Dlee13]

Hey I'm 17 days into my very first fishless cycle and I have somehow got a protein film (well from that I can tell it is) and I was wondering how to get rid of it! I have already increased the power of my filter but it doesn't seem to be helping. The surface still moves quite a lot but the protein film hasn't been going away.

My water readings are:
Ammonia 4PPM
Nitrite 0
PH 7.6

My ammonia was dropping 1ppm over 24 hours at day 9 and I had nitrite at 0.25ppm but after I topped the ammonia back up to 4ppm it hasn't moved and I developed the film.

Would it hurt to do a PWC to get rid of the film? And since the tank is in a fishless cycle, would the ammonia be the cause of the protein film? Sorry if some of these questions seem stupid, I'm very new to the hobby so still in the learning process.

 

[Ch4rlie]

Sounds like a bacterial film.
Perfectly normal during a fishless cycle.
Leave alone and it will go away naturally within a week or so, this is what happened during my fishless cycle. Now no film anywhere in my tank at all.
 
BTW you are best to top ammonia to 3ppm rather than 4ppm as too much ammonia can slow your cycle down, even stalling it.
Would recommend do 25% water change to bring ammonia level down a bit.
 
If you have not already done so, recommend you read the fishless cycle page at top of forum page titled - Cycling a Tank.
Full of excellent information and how to do fishless cycle.
 
By the way welcome to TFF 

 

[Dlee13]

Sounds like a bacterial film.
Perfectly normal during a fishless cycle.
Leave alone and it will go away naturally within a week or so, this is what happened during my fishless cycle. Now no film anywhere in my tank at all.
 
BTW you are best to top ammonia to 3ppm rather than 4ppm as too much ammonia can slow your cycle down, even stalling it.
Would recommend do 25% water change to bring ammonia level down a bit.
 
If you have not already done so, recommend you read the fishless cycle page at top of forum page titled - Cycling a Tank.
Full of excellent information and how to do fishless cycle.
 
By the way welcome to TFF 

Thanks for the welcome ^^

Yeah it might have been that, but for some reason after I opened my filter and all the excess water came out it has been working better and the film has completely gone away. The water didn't look to good either and Ammonia was still at 4ppm so I took your advice and did a 25% water change and the water is now clearer and the ammonia has gonna down around 2ppm so I'll just leave it at that and wait for it to drop.

 

[Ch4rlie]

Sounds good. Takes a while to complete a fish less cycle. So be patient!

 

[Dlee13]

Sounds good. Takes a while to complete a fish less cycle. So be patient!

Do you think me changing the filter media would have restated my cycle? It wasn't dropping and seemed stalled before I removed the carbon so should I assume that I am starting all over again?