Fishless Cycle Going Wrong

[sjolliff]

Up to press iv been able to process 2ppm of ammonia in about 8-10 hours, still waiting for my nitrites to drop after the spike.

my nitrates have been funny up and down, read through a few threads saying that plants can take nitrates,
so i took out the the plants,rock,stones,mopani, and cleaned the sand,

so in my tank now is just sand and water,

during the change i had to top back up with 20L of water, i used tetra aquasafe which is 5ml per 10L (10ml for 20L)

anyway i tested this morning and the ammonia should of read 0ppm but it still read the same as last night, 0.25/0.50ppm
i know plants take ammonia but could of they been processing 2ppm in like 10 hours for me?

iv had Problems before adding tap conditioner, i hope the aquasafe has not stop my cycle like the stress coat did

seems like im never goin to get fish in

 

[Tropical_Fish]

I use the aquasafe and it hasn't stopped my cycle at all - just makes the water look a little blue!

Have you checked your pH level. I believe that if you have too much Nitrate that it lowers you kH which in turn affects your pH (or something along those lines)

If the pH is too low it will stall

 

[sjolliff]

yeah my ph is around 7.4,
my nitrates are only 15ppm

i had a ph crash before and added baking soda to get it back up, since then is been ok
cheers

 

[sjolliff]

Just tested now 11.30am and the ammonia has dropped less than 0.25 but over 0ppm,

i think the plants may have been helping me abit before

 

[OldMan47]

The plants may have been helping you quite a bit but it will be easier to tell what is happening without them changing the readings around. In the meanwhile, you will want the plants to decorate your tank once you get cycled so take good care of them.

 

[sjolliff]

Cheers, iv got the plants in another tank and iv added somr TPN+ and im goin to change the water in a few days,

but i can always buy some more,

just done a test now ammonia more or less 0ppm, nitrite still 5ppm or over, nitrate is down to 5ppm??

iv also put the PH up to 8 as this is the best range

iv topped back up to 2ppm of ammonia

 

[sjolliff]

N bacs seem to be building back up ammonia down to 0 in 14 hours not 18 like yest,
nitrites are still high but the drops took abit longer to turn purple in the bottom so hopefully there comin down.

my nitrates are still low down to 5ppm, i dont understand why there are soo low?

the only thing in my tank now is sand and water