Cycling On Vacation

[Lhutch]

right now i have a fishless cycle going on, been going for a week, my ammonia levels are off the chart, should i leave it like that to go an vacation to be safe or should i lower the levels to like 7ppm?
i have mature media in the filter that i put in a week ago when i added the ammonia, and i think i may have put to much ammonia in, or i dunno, what should i do
any ideas

 

[merry78]

if you OD'ed on ammonia you might have killed the filter bacteria off. as there are no fish, i guess you could just leave it as is while you go on holiday, and just see what's happening when you come back. i don't think you will be able to set up the ammo levels in such a way that they will take care of themselves while you aren't there to measure and re-dose.

 

[Lhutch]

well i poured some in,but not overalot,it might be better to just leave it and then check when i get back to see if i have nitrites and high nitrates, that way if i need to i can take some ammonia out and have a cycled tank

 

[Gremily]

Too much ammonia is bad and can stop the cycle from happening, the initial drop from 5-6ppm to 0 will take at least a few days so you might be ok leaving the ammonia to be processed.
Why did you add so much ammonia in the first place?

 

[Lhutch]

mistake really, show should i lower it to 7ppm before going on vacation ?

 

[Gremily]

I think that would be alright, normally for cycling you'd start with about 5/6ppm and wait for it to go down, so there's no harm in leaving it while you're away and hopefully things will progress while you're gone. Can't you get some to monitor it while you're away?
It seems like you should have reduced the ammonia before now though, you say you've been cycling for a week so why have you had such a high concentration for so long?

 

[Lhutch]

well truthfully i think its going down its just i have put to much in for the bacteria to finish rather quikly,i say this because i could almost smell ammonia in the water and now i cant but im gonna reduse the levels and have my bro just put a swig of ammonia in while im at vaca just incase the bacteria dont die