Cycling Super Frustrations

[TheConstantGrower]

Hello folks, heres the details everyone will want up front.

10 gallons
Single floro tube lamp
No fish
minor ornaments
20 gallon HOB filter (new media used at start of cycle)
light - 7:30am to 8:30pm then switches to LED moonlight
Air - yes
Temperature - 76F - 80F


So heres how it went down, about 2 weeks ago i decided to turn my hospital tank into an actual display tank. in doing so i took the tank, and all the decorations, cleaned them in excuciatingly hot water, and even washed down the tank and larger decoration with ammonia, then rinsed again. I proceeded to clean the HOB filter assembly, the inlet the outlet, used a new filter bag, new charcoal (rinsed well of course). Cleaned the airstone used fresh tubing, wiped down the heater assembly, and rinsed my substrate 1lb at a time through a very fine cloth, (that took many hours to do).

Now that we know what were dealing with. heres how it went...

On the first day i put in enough ammonia to get the tank to 5 - 6ppm, and then using the add and wait method, checked daily, waiting for the bacteria to be consumed, slowly watching the nitrite rise and nitrate even slower.

this went all well and good for the first week and a half ide say, the ammonia was taking about a day and a half to be consumed the nitrite was off the scale and i had about 15ppm of nitrate, not enough.

the following day before adding any ammonia, i run the tests, the ammonia is gone, the nitrite is super high and the nitrate is still holding as i did not give it any more ammonia yet. i do a 10% water change just to take out some of the nastyness that was starting to accumulate in the water. (yes i used the chlorine / chloramine remover in the tank after the water change) i test immediately after...

Ammonia - none
Nitrite - better, about 2.0ppm
Nitrate - 10 - 15 ppm

Heres the kicker folks, after that, i add the ammonia, to bring it back up to around 5ppm, test to make sure it went through, it did, i walk away.

I come back the NEXT day, to do all 3 tests again.. NO ammonia NO nitrite NO nitrate. and im like ####. add the ammonia, walk away in a huff having no clue #### happened.

Today, i arrive at the tank, and test, No ammonia No nitrite and a mere barely readable 5ppm of nitrate.

My plan was to get fish YESTERDAY, what the hell happened here folks??!?

 

[shelaghfishface]

are you sure the test kit is ok??

 

[TheConstantGrower]

Yes ma'am less then 2 months old.

 

[shelaghfishface]

well thats a bummer then!. i dont know what you have to do next, as i was an unintelligent(( no nothing changes lol)) fish keeper when i started out and put all my fish in without any knowledge of what a cycle was, so i have just cloned form my first one

all the best with it, must be pretty bloody frustrating judging by all the #####

shelagh xxxx

 

[TheConstantGrower]

Cloning for me isn't really an option, because of the work that would be involved, all my other tanks have large under tank filters, with the bio / mecha filtering, so cant switch any of the media out. granted i can clone if i do another larger tank with a matching filter situation but this is blowing my mind, its going through my ammonia like its no ones business but it just dosnt seem to house enough nitrate, maybe im just wrong and my tank IS cycled now, and about 5 - 10ppm is all that is generated from 5ppm of ammonia.

 

[OldMan47]

If you have plants in the tank, why else have lights on for 13 hours, the plants are eating your nitrates and the cycle is looking almost hopeful. I am very puzzled why it went so fast and would keep an eye on it for a few days of ammonia additions just to make sure but you may not have cleaned as well as you thought so you may have your bacteria working for you.

 

[TheConstantGrower]

I realized now after testing that my tests were all falling into a time period where the cycle was nearing completion just after nitrite consumption and before nitrate production, i have algae forming on things, and cycled for about 16 days, and it did kick start, i was just over reacting due to not testing twice a day during cycling, my nitrates are fine, ammonia is processing 6ppm in 12 hours ish, the nitrite is fluctuating as it should be in the cycle. all is well, and ive actually already stocked it this evening.

And your right, i think the reason it went so fast was because theres no way to truely get all the bacteria out of my substrate, and also after the fact, i realized i used black sand for the bottom, then used live substrate to give it a little thickness so i could sculpt my banks and such, the tank is doing well the chemicals are all in check and the remaining ammonia from todays add should be long gone and now working out the fish ammonia.

2x Peppermint Platys
1x Algae Eater
1x Apple snail
3x Ghost shrimp

and some ultra tiny and i do mean ultra tiny, danio lookin thing, but its impossible for him to have survived in any way from the previous tank, so he has to be a micro-organism, none of the other fish are eating him, and if they get close he jets off, and FAST. ive been giving him powdered flake here and there just for ####s before the other fish came in, now hes on his own. hes too small to even get a picture of.

But all is well in the tank, it just cycled faster then i expected so i was worried something stalled