Cycling Problems And Questions

[scrapps]

It has been three weeks today since I started cycling my 29 gal tank. I have a Penguin 200 power filter, heater and am using the only ammonia I could find that wasn't lemon or foamy when shaken. Unfortunately it didn't have any ingredients on the label. My ammonia levels haven't gone down at all, I have also tested recently for nitrites and nitrates just in case I had added more ammonia then 5ppm (which is the highest my api kit goes to) with nothing resulting.

So I'm worried that I've done something wrong. The only things I could think of were:
a) I used the wrong ammonia (I have since realized that I do have an Ace Hardware nearby and I've heard their ammonia works)
b) My power filter's suction tube is too far from the bottom of the tank. (Ammonia is denser then water and would theoretically be more at the bottom, and my tube sits about 2-3 inches off my gravel)

The filter I have is designed for a larger tank so I feel that the second option shouldn't be possible, but I don't know.

Anything else I could have possibly done wrong?

Reading other things online about fishless cycling, a lot of other articles say you need to have either donor material or something like Cycle (which doesn't seem too good to me if it's sitting in a bottle at room temp, but who knows.) I was curious as to how you got bacteria out of nothing but the fishless cycling post didn't say anything about it so I just hoped it would happen.

Also is it possible that too much ammonia would actually hinder the process?

Thank you.

 

[Tag2008]

It has been three weeks today since I started cycling my 29 gal tank. I have a Penguin 200 power filter, heater and am using the only ammonia I could find that wasn't lemon or foamy when shaken. Unfortunately it didn't have any ingredients on the label. My ammonia levels haven't gone down at all, I have also tested recently for nitrites and nitrates just in case I had added more ammonia then 5ppm (which is the highest my api kit goes to) with nothing resulting.

So I'm worried that I've done something wrong. The only things I could think of were:
a) I used the wrong ammonia (I have since realized that I do have an Ace Hardware nearby and I've heard their ammonia works)
b) My power filter's suction tube is too far from the bottom of the tank. (Ammonia is denser then water and would theoretically be more at the bottom, and my tube sits about 2-3 inches off my gravel)

The filter I have is designed for a larger tank so I feel that the second option shouldn't be possible, but I don't know.

Anything else I could have possibly done wrong?

Reading other things online about fishless cycling, a lot of other articles say you need to have either donor material or something like Cycle (which doesn't seem too good to me if it's sitting in a bottle at room temp, but who knows.) I was curious as to how you got bacteria out of nothing but the fishless cycling post didn't say anything about it so I just hoped it would happen.

Also is it possible that too much ammonia would actually hinder the process?

Thank you.

Hi,
I had a similar problem with ammonia not being eaten for a start when I had a Low PH, if you could post your tanks water test results for PH and other readings along with your tank temperature im sure someone will be able to assist you...

 

[jglover]

b) My power filter's suction tube is too far from the bottom of the tank. (Ammonia is denser then water and would theoretically be more at the bottom, and my tube sits about 2-3 inches off my gravel)

The filter I have is designed for a larger tank so I feel that the second option shouldn't be possible, but I don't know.

Anything else I could have possibly done wrong?

Reading other things online about fishless cycling, a lot of other articles say you need to have either donor material or something like Cycle (which doesn't seem too good to me if it's sitting in a bottle at room temp, but who knows.) I was curious as to how you got bacteria out of nothing but the fishless cycling post didn't say anything about it so I just hoped it would happen.

Also is it possible that too much ammonia would actually hinder the process?

Thank you.

The density of the ammonia will have not bearing. Once you disperse the ammonia solution within the volume of water within your tank, there will be difference at all in the denisty. In fact, I cannot imagine a household amount solution will have a density any different than plain water, as the solution is basically over 90% water to begin with.

The bacteria you need are already present in the air and water, and on surfaces in small amounts. By seeding the tank with larger amounts of ammonia, you are feeding this miniscule amount of bacteria to grow into a large, beneficial colony. You can use one of the bottled products, however I have heard of no one having any luck with Cycle. Bio-Spira, if you can find it, seems to choice. However, Bio-Spira is no longer being manufactured, if you find any, it is old stock that has been in storage for some time.

Tetra SafeStart is the "new" version of Bio-Spira. I believe Marineland licensed their non-refrigerated version of the product to Tetra. There is also a product call Dr. Tim's One and Only, which is being manfuctured by the original designer of Bio-Spira. I've used SafeStart and it does jump start a cycle, not instantly overnight, but within a couple of days it had things settled in nicely. Using any of these products will require an ammonia source in the tank, whether that be drops of ammonia solution of fish waste.

John

 

[scrapps]

Hi,
I had a similar problem with ammonia not being eaten for a start when I had a Low PH, if you could post your tanks water test results for PH and other readings along with your tank temperature im sure someone will be able to assist you...

Nitrites and Nitrates: both at 0
pH: 8
temp: 86F (30C)

 

[JenCliBee]

2 be honest m8 it could take 3 weeks for the ammonia 2 start processing carry on as ur doing and give it another week or so and see wot the results are!!! just make sure u are dosing with the rite amount of ammonia because if the levels hit 8ppm then ur cycle will probably stall, if u havent already theres a very good ammonia caculator on the top of this site


jen

 

[scrapps]

2 be honest m8 it could take 3 weeks for the ammonia 2 start processing carry on as ur doing and give it another week or so and see wot the results are!!! just make sure u are dosing with the rite amount of ammonia because if the levels hit 8ppm then ur cycle will probably stall, if u havent already theres a very good ammonia caculator on the top of this site


jen

Darn. I'm terrified that I got the wrong ammonia and have been wasting time while my poor little fishies in my uncycled, poorly set up 10 gal survive. Hopefully this starts happening soon so I can rectify my prior mistakes and get my fish into a better tank.

 

[Dave Spencer]

Darn. I'm terrified that I got the wrong ammonia and have been wasting time while my poor little fishies in my uncycled, poorly set up 10 gal survive. Hopefully this starts happening soon so I can rectify my prior mistakes and get my fish into a better tank.

Fishless cycling isn`t my forte as I have never done it, but wouldn`t these fish be better off in an uncycled 29USG rather than an uncycled 10USG?

Dave.

 

[emdgz4]

Hey I'm in the exact same boat as you are. My tank has been "cycling" for nearly 3 weeks but the ammonia isn't goin anywhere and the nitrites/nitrates are nil. I even have seeded gravel in there but so far it hasn't helped

I hope yours gets going soon, as well as mine! I hate waiting!

 

[scrapps]

Fishless cycling isn`t my forte as I have never done it, but wouldn`t these fish be better off in an uncycled 29USG rather than an uncycled 10USG?

Dave.

Would this be better? Essentially, I had a small tank and wanted some fish that would theoretically be able to live with the betta I received at a wedding. I got three fish at a chain pet store, and when one got popeye I found out about cycling. Also I got three fish that are schooling fish but they are all different fish and thus don't school. This tank has been running for about two weeks longer then my cycling tank.

My hopes were to fix the mistakes I made prior and eventually be able to put them in the 29 gal and get a few more of each species so that they are all happy and healthy and move the betta to the smaller tank as he's been exiled to a small betta bowl. So right now I've just been doing frequent 10% water changes to keep the ammonia down.

 

[scrapps]

Today I did further tests and everything is still the same.

Nitrites and Nitrates both at 0 and ammonia at 4ppm.(at least I'm pretty sure, 4ppm and 8ppm on the api kit is horribly close in color)


Should I just tear it down, clean everything and go with an ammonia that is known to work? Do other ammonia test kit brands use the similar yellow to green color indication that the API brand does?

 

[minxfishy]

It wont do any harm to do 100% water change at this stage and effectively start again. Use the ammonia that you know works, dose up to 4ppm and see what happens - if there is any doubt to the ammonia you are using then I would start again.

There is a nutrafin mini master test kit but not sure if its available in the states.