Were is my cycle ??

[fishbaby]

Hi hope someone can help!
I’m on day 24 of fishless cycling my 29 litre tank that I intend to keep one betta in.using flake for first few days then switched to ammonia.
Roughly day 14 I added dr Tim’s one and only (half a bottle) but no ammonia as it was already at 4.0
From day 16 my ammonia was sat at 4.0 and nitrite at between 2-5, and stayed there for 5 days or so and then did a small water change about 20%.
I used prime in the water.
On testing water after it was amo 2 and nitrite 0 and hasn’t changed since and has been like that for last 3 days or so. Yesterday I added the rest of the dr Tim’s bottle and 7 drops of ammonia (dr Tim’s) as per instructions one drop per gallon and there is till no change.
The only nitrates detected/tested were :
Day 17 -0
Day 21 -40 (before water change)
Day 24- 20 (after water change & tap water is 20)
I’m confused as to why I still have ammonia reading but no nitrites? If the prime has bounded the ammonia for 24 hours is this a true reading? Have I started cycle again??
Using api test kit. Any ideas much appreciated!!

 

[Colin_T]

Try doing a 90% water change and them add ammonia so the level is 2-3ppm. Your cycle might have stalled at 4ppm and a big water change will often get it going again.

Make sure the pH is around 7.0 or a bit higher.

Don't bother testing for nitrates until you get nitrites that go up and start to come down. Nitrate test kits will read nitrite as nitrate and give you a false reading.

 

[fishbaby]

Thank you for your reply and suggestion. Ph has stayed a steady 7.6 throughout and will do the 90 % change tonight and see if that nudges things along.
Im thinking maybe I shouldn’t use prime ( I have others)
Also whilst I’m changing that amount I have some tetra safe start and thinking maybe I should use that after I do the water change??

 

[Ash Paws]

Thank you for your reply and suggestion. Ph has stayed a steady 7.6 throughout and will do the 90 % change tonight and see if that nudges things along.
Im thinking maybe I shouldn’t use prime ( I have others)
Also whilst I’m changing that amount I have some tetra safe start and thinking maybe I should use that after I do the water change??

Tetra safe start is a beneficial bacteria supplement so, yes, you can and should use it after water changes. I always add bacteria supplements after water changes so it doesn't wipe out the beneficial bacteria colonies.

 

[NickAu]

I always add bacteria supplements after water changes so it doesn't wipe out the beneficial bacteria colonies.

That makes no sense, You are worried that a bacteria supplement will wipe out bacteria colonies, If that's actually the case and this stuff can wipe out bacteria colonies then why use it?

 

[Ash Paws]

Sorry, I meant so the water change doesn't wipe out the bacteria colonies. My wording got kind of messed up there,

 

[NickAu]

Ahh, why would it if you are using treated water?

 

[FishGuest5123]

Sorry, I meant so the water change doesn't wipe out the bacteria colonies. My wording got kind of messed up there,

STOP! Yes, the water changes will mess up your cycle. You don’t want to do water changes! 4ppm is not too high, in fact many people go up to 4ppm if they are going to stock heavily. Your water changes are what is messing you up. Dr. Tim will tell you not to do water changes in a fishless cycle. Have you watched his video on fishless cycling? It is very helpful. Let me know if you need more help.

 

[Cichlid4life]

Did you add any BB to your tank, seachem's stability is very good at starting a colony of BB. The cycle will last about a month, so don't start to think that your tank should be cycled by now.

 

[Colin_T]

The beneficial filter bacteria stop growing if the pH gets too low or the ammonia levels get too high. If a cycle appears to stall then doing a big water change will often restart it because it drops the ammonia and gets the pH back to a more suitable level for the bacteria. You don't have to do the big water change all the time but if the cycle stalls, they doing a big water change can help.

 

[Cichlid4life]

The BB won't stop growing if the ammonia gets too high, it only takes time for it to grow to eat a bigger bioload. Instead it is that the BB stops growing when the ammonia drops lower than enough to support the whole colony, then it will start to shrink instead of grow.

 

[FishGuest5123]

I agree that high ammonia or low PH can stall a cycle. However, 4ppm will not stall a cycle. You don’t need to be concerned until 5ppm. It’s much more likely that the water changes are doing it. You should not do w/c’s in a fishless cycle unless above 5ppm or PH change. If you go to site below, it explains it perfectly how to do a fishless cycle. https://www.drtimsaquatics.com/resources/fishless-cycling.

 

[fishbaby]

So last night I did do a waterchange, dosed tank with a bottle of tetra safe start and dosed with ammonia (using online calculator) up to 2 doing a test before and after adding.i used tetras water conditioner in the new water I added. I used my own ammonia rather the The dr tims I bought due to the confusion over the correct dosage. 1 drop or 4 drops!!!
test tonight is amo 0.50 down from 2 last night and still 0 nitrite and just out of curiosity nitrate was 40!
No water changes were done until the levels were stuck for days almost a week on 4 ammonia and nitrite was around 5 after reading and researching many different opinions/methods decided that 4 was probably too high as I’m only stocking with one fish anyway and that’s when a small 20 % water change was done.maybe it was just taking a little longer to catch up being a 4.
The Nitrite went to 0 the day after using dr Tim’s and has stayed there but the ammonia wasn’t budging.
Have read lots on dr Tim’s hence why I thought I’d give it a shot, so will wait and see what test show tomorrow.
Thanks for input guys, fingers crossed it won’t be too long !

 

[Cichlid4life]

are you using test strips? test strips are very well known to be inaccurate, but liquid test are always accurate if you follow the instructions.

 

[fishbaby]

No using api liquid test kit, those strips are useless aren’t they !!!