Am I Doing Something Wrong?

[oldoak66]

Hi all. My tank has been up and running for a week now and I am doing fishless cycling. There are plants and ornaments in the tank and the heat is a steady 24 degrees C. I only managed to get some ammonia this week (Tuesday) and so before that I just added some fish food (flakes) to give it a bit of a start. Before adding the ammonia, the levels were naturally low and I just started seeing nitrites (the test was just registering). Now that I have added ammonia and done tests the nitrites are no longer registering though I thought that maybe they would be building up to a spike? Am I doing something wrong or shall I just continue to be patient?

Thanks in advance

 

[scooterchick]

Hi,

The fish flakes wouldn't be enough to properly cycle, hence the small amounts of nitrite have since disappeared. Keep going with the amonia and you'll soon see a REAL nitrite spike.

Good luck!

 

[Amunet]

Pretty much what scooterchick said.
Keep going with the ammonia and you'll see nitrite soon enough. Just have to be patient b/c it could take a while or it could happen quickly.
Every tank is different

 

[rdd1952]

Ditto what has been said. I just wanted to add that you need to raise your temperature to 30C to 32C (85F to 90F). It will greatly speed the process. Also, make sure you have plenty of aeration to keep lots of oxygen in the water. Last but not least, what is the pH of your water? Nitrification is faster at pH levels about 7.2 and slows as pH goes below 7.0 toward 6.0 Below 6.0, it basically stops altogether. Have you read the pinned topic on fishless cycling? It's in my signature.

 

[oldoak66]

Thanks for all the replies. I have read the article on fishless cycling and am following that, just thought that with the nitrites disappearing completely I had done something I shouldn't have. My PH is steady at 7.5 and I will turn up the temperature if that will help, but the higher temp won't harm my plants will it?

I guess once again it boils down to patience! Not a strong point but working on it. Thanks.

 

[rdd1952]

The temperature won't hurt the plants. Actually, the plants may use some of the ammonia before it is transformed. I haven't ever had any problems cycling with plants but some seem to think it slows the cycle down because the plants use the ammonia rather than is cycling.