AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

[jiffy]

Well...I haven't been here in a while but here is a little background.

I have been running a fishless cycle since Feb 28th on a 10 GALLON TANK!!!! For whatever god-unknown reason, it has NOT gone as planned. So, yesterday I did a 90% water change and after that my ammonia was about .5ppm. I rechecked it this afternoon, still .5ppm. So I just did another 90% water change.

However, when I was doing the change my mom came in and made some stupid comment like her or my dad have constantly done ever since I started this. I got pissed and forgot to add dechlorinator before I dumped in my water.

There was about 2 inches of water in the tank, and then I poured in an additional 4 inches that was not dechlorinated. I realized my mistake about a minute later and went and poured some dechlorinator in the tank.

Did I screw myself by accidentally adding the dechlorinator after the water was in the tank (killing the bacteria?)

***My most important question though is this. I am just going to add some dainos and hopefully the ccle works its self out that way. CAN I ADD SOME DAINOS TODAY

 

[MAM]

wow, long cycle. just out of curiosity, are you using any other chemicals? like amquel or anything? have you tried using a different test kit?

 

[jiffy]

Just regular dechlorinator (that also removes chloramines) nothing that blocks ammonia. I have only used one test kit, Aquarium Pharmaceuticals, and have tested it against tap water and aquarium water.

My water has been cloudy 90% of the time too. It is usually the grey cloudy, which I am told is a bacteria bloom. I don't know, I am really at a loss as to what happened.

I posted a poll here a little while back, and the choice that won was to do water changes until everything is 0, then add fish and try and let it finish that way. I really want to get this over with and I am hoping I can add some fish today...

 

[lilmolly]

I had with problem with a 10gal in my room. It took like 6 months to cycle, and that wasn't a fishless cycle. I finally added stress zyme, stress coat, and ammo-lock2 in that tank and two weeks later it cycled.

 

[jiffy]

I did it...finally. I just got home from the LFS with 4 longfin zebra dainos. They are still in the bag from the LFS because I am aclimating them right now.

Fingers Crossed...

 

[Fishstix]

A 90% water change is too much. Cut it back to 25%,once a week.

 

[jiffy]

I only did a 90% change because there were no fish in the tank and I was trying to get all my levels to 0 so I could add fish.

From here on out its 25% changes weekly.

 

[NinjaSmurf]

I feel your pain, my thirty gallon was a nightmare. The water refused to be clear for the longest time, even after I had the fish. It took a bout of ich and a 75% water change to clear up (not to mention endless comments like "You water looks cloudy" "Have you changed the water?" and the famous, "Dude, your fish are going to die!" Well, HAHA, they didn't!)

 

[kitties1]

i was having a problem reestablishing my tanks after a power outage killed my cycles. even though i tested my tap water against my tank water i was still having ridiculous readings for ammonia and nitrite, and i couldn't get my ph to stabilize. so i finally went and got an RO unit. this has pretty much solved my problems. my ph is stable, my ammonia is at 0ppm in all tanks, and my nitirite is at 0ppm in two tanks and .25 in two tanks. i am still doing 25% - 30% water changes every other day. i think the tap water had something to do with my problems even though it was testing "okay". the RO unit is expensive but worth it to me, and since i got it running i have stopped using chemicals except to replace lost nutrients in the water from the RO process and Ph regulators for acid, alkaline, and neutral levels.

 

[lilmolly]

I was wondering, how much is RO unit anyway?

 

[Navarre]

WHen a tank is cycling i wouldnt change water in the tank at all. This will only prolong the cycle process. IF you have ammonia in the water then do a 90% change, then you are removing 90% of the ammoinia, this ammonia is not being converted to nitrite and in turn nitrate. Thus the tank is only able to act upon 10% of the ammonia each time.
If you then get all the water levels down to zero for each part of the nitrogen cycle by doing water changes then add fish, there is likely to be hardly any bacteria to cope with their waste products. Only when a tank is fully cycled should a water change of no more than 25% be done IMO.

 

[Navarre]

If you live in the UK then you can get a 50gpd for about £80 maybe even less. PM me if you want the web address. I would post it but not sure of the advertising rules on this forum.

 

[jiffy]

I kept a detailed log of my cycle. You can read it here

I only did the water changes at the end, when I was tryin to keep things under control and then just get it to 0 so I could add some dainos to finish cycling.

While I was trying the fishless cycle, I didn't do any water changes because like you said, it would just remove the ammonia before the bacteria had a chance to convert it. Look at my log and you will see what I did better.

 

[kitties1]

sorry for the delayed response, the RO unit was $180 us dollars over the internet.

 

[a1wonder]

Wow I did a cycle with fish awhile back it took two weeks. Resently I came across a wonderfull little product that is called No Stress (basicly a bateria tank starter). I found this helped alot! I'll list out what I did

first day
added gravel, fliter, water, stress coat, no stress, aqu. salt,
second day - sixth
added a couple of fish
I changed 10 percent of the water EVERY DAY to reduce the toxic levels of ammonia and nitrite.
seventh day
added another proption of no stress, followed with the daily water changes
by the 10 day I had my spike
by the 14th day the tanks was normal and good for added more fish
I still added another proption of no stress
until about the 20th day I did daily water changes of 10%

So far no loss of fish And everyone seems happy.