Cycle Stall?

[Ron Jeremy]

I'm a month in now, and ammonia was dropping, nitrite rising.

Now my ammonia is dropping slowly, and I keep dosing back to 4 but my nitrite is staying at 0 after 24 hour tests.

Is my nitrite likely to rise and fall faster than my ammonia?

I have a deep green and a light blue. Odd.

 

[rousell]

Have you checked your ph? My current fishless cycle stalled earlier on due to the ph crashing.

 

[Ron Jeremy]

7.6 stable.

I'm tempted to do a big water change. Might that help?

 

[rousell]

Not sure about the water change. From what I have read on this forum, it sounds as if you are dosing too much ammonia. Try dosing to 2-3ppm instead of the 4ppm. You might want to wait and see if anybody else has a say on this problem as Im a beginner also.

 

[Ron Jeremy]

I might leave it a day or two then. See if it drops.

 

[qkingston]

Exactly the same problem I have although my pH is lower at 6.5, this seems to be a not uncommon issue and I'm not getting any really helpful advice on solving it!

 

[rousell]

When my ph dropped from its usual 7.6 to about 6.4 the cycle really slowed down. The ammonia was still being processed but it was slower than normal. I did a 50% water change and this brought my ph back up to normal but after a few days it went back down again to around 6. That's when I went out and bought some bicarbonate of soda and added some to the tank. That brought the ph back to normal. Everytime now when my ph starts to drop I add some more bicarbonate and that seems to keep things going. I think it's because of the high levels of ammonia or maybe the nitrites that are causing this. Im not sure whether you can use the bicarbonate if your doing a fish in cycle though.