Fishless Cycle Please Help!

[SLIM]

Hi everyone

Im currently in the long painful process of cycling my first freshwater tropical 60litre fish tank.
I have made ALOT of mistakes on the way as i really didnt understand the whole process of cycling when i first started.
Its probably best if i start at the beginning.

I started with fish cycling, 5 Guppies and 2 Angel fish. This was about 6/7 weeks ago.
Everything seem to be goin fine until my Ammonia and Nitrite spike. Amonnia and Nitrites where both only at about 0.50 and Nitrates where at 5.0.
The readings remained at this and never got higher. (this is week 2)
The fish seemed to cope fine until the poor water conditions brought on a case of Columnaris, which to begin with i thought was Ich.
To treat the ich i bought cemicals and turned up the heat to around 87/90.
Within days all my fish where dead which upset me and made me determined to research and do it right, the fishless way.
After adding the cemicals to treat the Ich i then found out that treating cemicals kill off all benifical bacteria putting me right back to square one.
I turned the heat down and did a 50% water change and put in brand new activated carbon into my filter to clear out any cemicals remaining in the water.
Just after Christmas, after speaking with someone on here i bought a bottle of BOOTS household Ammonia and added 4-5ppm of ammonia.
Within 3 days it dropped to zero. I continued to add 4ppm of Ammonia, waited for it to drop then added a further 4ppm.
It wasnt long before my tank could cycle 4ppm of Ammonia in 12 hours.
At this point i reduced the ammount of ammonia to 2ppm per 24 hours.(this is about week 4)
I then made another huge mistake of turning the heat back up to around 90 as i read somewhere this speeds things up.
The heat was at 90 for around 7 days and things kinda just stood still.
At this point i was at... 0 Ammonia (dropping every 12 hours) Nitrite - Off the chart and Nitrate only at 5.0 Still! (PH 8.2)
After discovering that turning the heat up was a big mistake and stops the benifical bacteria from growing, i turned it back down to around 80.
That was just over a week ago now (6/7 weeks total cycle time) im still adding 2ppm of Ammonia daily but my readings are the same, things are still standing still.
0 Ammonia, Nitrite off the charts, and Nitrate 5.0, PH 8.2
No sign what so ever of Nitrates rising or Nitrites dropping, not even slightly.
What shall i do?? Do i continue adding Ammonia daily? Shouldnt i of seen even a slight raise in Nitrates by now?? Do i jus need to remain patient or does it sound like somethin is very wrong!?
Iv always really wanted to keep and care for tropical fish but im so close to giving up any advice would be appreciated.

Il look forward to any reply thank you very much for taking the time to read.

Paul

P.s. The test kits im using is API master test kit, Its a 60 Litre tank running a Fluval U2 filter and i have a air disc running along with a 12" air stone. Thanks again

 

[Skins]

Hello Paul,
Your temp wants to be at the 29c mark. Have you got ceramic rings(biological media) in your filter?
When testing for nitrate, with bottle 2 from the kit give it a few good taps on a hard surface followed by a really good shake.

Keith.

 

[SLIM]

Hello Paul,
Your temp wants to be at the 29c mark. Have you got ceramic rings(biological media) in your filter?
When testing for nitrate, with bottle 2 from the kit give it a few good taps on a hard surface followed by a really good shake.

Keith.

Water temp is around 30 at the mo and has been for over a week now. Yes my filter has Biomax which is basically the same as the rings and i always shake the bottle for about 30 seconds to a minute before testing.

 

[SLIM]

Hello Paul,
Your temp wants to be at the 29c mark. Have you got ceramic rings(biological media) in your filter?
When testing for nitrate, with bottle 2 from the kit give it a few good taps on a hard surface followed by a really good shake.

Keith.

Water temp is around 30 at the mo and has been for over a week now. Yes my filter has Biomax which is basically the same as the rings and i always shake the bottle for about 30 seconds to a minute before testing.

No sorry the temp is at 26 not 30 and has been for over a week now

 

[Skins]

Hello Paul,
Your temp wants to be at the 29c mark. Have you got ceramic rings(biological media) in your filter?
When testing for nitrate, with bottle 2 from the kit give it a few good taps on a hard surface followed by a really good shake.

Keith.

Water temp is around 30 at the mo and has been for over a week now. Yes my filter has Biomax which is basically the same as the rings and i always shake the bottle for about 30 seconds to a minute before testing.

give it several taps on a hard surface just to loosen any reactant that may be hard to dislodge at the bottom of the bottle.
As for your temp you don't want it any higher than 29c

Keith.

Have you removed the carbon from your filter which you used to get rid of the meds you treated with?

 

[SLIM]

Hello Paul,
Your temp wants to be at the 29c mark. Have you got ceramic rings(biological media) in your filter?
When testing for nitrate, with bottle 2 from the kit give it a few good taps on a hard surface followed by a really good shake.

Keith.

Water temp is around 30 at the mo and has been for over a week now. Yes my filter has Biomax which is basically the same as the rings and i always shake the bottle for about 30 seconds to a minute before testing.

give it several taps on a hard surface just to loosen any reactant that may be hard to dislodge at the bottom of the bottle.
As for your temp you don't want it any higher than 29c

Keith.

Have you removed the carbon from your filter which you used to get rid of the meds you treated with?

No i havnt removed the carbon i used to remove the meds. Should i? I can do that now i have new carbon standing by.
Is it ok to change both at once tho??

Just retested Nitrates and shook and banged the bottle like a mad man and the results where indeed different.
My nitrates are reading somewhere between 20-40ppm what a huge relief.
Thank you.
Should i change my carbon too then. Wont i lose even more bacteria if i change them both at once?

 

[Skins]

Hello Paul,
Your temp wants to be at the 29c mark. Have you got ceramic rings(biological media) in your filter?
When testing for nitrate, with bottle 2 from the kit give it a few good taps on a hard surface followed by a really good shake.

Keith.

Water temp is around 30 at the mo and has been for over a week now. Yes my filter has Biomax which is basically the same as the rings and i always shake the bottle for about 30 seconds to a minute before testing.

give it several taps on a hard surface just to loosen any reactant that may be hard to dislodge at the bottom of the bottle.
As for your temp you don't want it any higher than 29c

Keith.

Have you removed the carbon from your filter which you used to get rid of the meds you treated with?

No i havnt removed the carbon i used to remove the meds. Should i? I can do that now i have new carbon standing by.
Is it ok to change both at once tho??

Just retested Nitrates and shook and banged the bottle like a mad man and the results where indeed different.
My nitrates are reading somewhere between 20-40ppm what a huge relief.
Thank you.
Should i change my carbon too then. Wont i lose even more bacteria if i change them both at once?

If your tap water nitrates are 20-40ppm then i would take the carbon out and replace with a std sponge(mechcanical media).

 

[SLIM]

Hello Paul,
Your temp wants to be at the 29c mark. Have you got ceramic rings(biological media) in your filter?
When testing for nitrate, with bottle 2 from the kit give it a few good taps on a hard surface followed by a really good shake.

Keith.

Water temp is around 30 at the mo and has been for over a week now. Yes my filter has Biomax which is basically the same as the rings and i always shake the bottle for about 30 seconds to a minute before testing.

give it several taps on a hard surface just to loosen any reactant that may be hard to dislodge at the bottom of the bottle.
As for your temp you don't want it any higher than 29c

Keith.

Have you removed the carbon from your filter which you used to get rid of the meds you treated with?

No i havnt removed the carbon i used to remove the meds. Should i? I can do that now i have new carbon standing by.
Is it ok to change both at once tho??

Just retested Nitrates and shook and banged the bottle like a mad man and the results where indeed different.
My nitrates are reading somewhere between 20-40ppm what a huge relief.
Thank you.
Should i change my carbon too then. Wont i lose even more bacteria if i change them both at once?

If your tap water nitrates are 20-40ppm then i would take the carbon out and replace with a std sponge(mechcanical media).

Actually i would say the Nitrates in the tank are more like 40-80ppm. My tap water Nitrate level is 5.0
Should i just leave the carbon in then or replace?
What do u mean by a std sponge? The filter already has sponges in.
It has 3 layers, first bein sponge, then carbon then biomax.

 

[Skins]

Keep it in Paul, from what you have just said you are cycling.
Keep dosing h/h ammonia to 2ppm 24 hourly and when nitrites drop to zero start to raise the dose(4-5ppm MAX).
Set your heater to 29c.

Keep us all posted Paul, Keith.

 

[SLIM]

Keep it in Paul, from what you have just said you are cycling.
Keep dosing h/h ammonia to 2ppm 24 hourly and when nitrites drop to zero start to raise the dose.
Set your heater to 29c

Keep us all posted Paul, Keith.

Will do.
I cant thank you enough for your help.

 

[Skins]

Keep it in Paul, from what you have just said you are cycling.
Keep dosing h/h ammonia to 2ppm 24 hourly and when nitrites drop to zero start to raise the dose.
Set your heater to 29c

Keep us all posted Paul, Keith.

Will do.
I cant thank you enough for your help.

Your welcome Paul.

Like i said "keep us all posted", Keith.

 

[Skins]

Hi Paul,
Was just reading another thread and thought it would be a good idea to advise you to have your filter positioned so that the flow disturbs your waters surface or put an airstone in the tank. Water with high temperatures depleats the oxygen supply which the bacteria your trying to colonise requires.

Keith.

 

[SLIM]

Hi Paul,
Was just reading another thread and thought it would be a good idea to advise you to have your filter positioned so that the flow disturbs your waters surface or put an airstone in the tank. Water with high temperatures depleats the oxygen supply which the bacteria your trying to colonise requires.

Keith.

Thanks for the advice yet again Keith. I have actually already done this. The filter sits just slightly out the water which disturbs the water and sucks in air for oxygenation. It said to do this in the manual. Its probably one of the few things i actually got right lol. I also have 2 air stones. Well a air disc and a 12" air stone which are both connected to a adjustable air pump which i have running on maximum for maximum oxygenation during the cycling process.
Thanks again

 

[Aqua Tom]

Hi Paul,
Was just reading another thread and thought it would be a good idea to advise you to have your filter positioned so that the flow disturbs your waters surface or put an airstone in the tank. Water with high temperatures depleats the oxygen supply which the bacteria your trying to colonise requires.

Keith.

<>
Thanks for the advice yet again Keith. I have actually already done this. The filter sits just slightly out the water which disturbs the water and sucks in air for oxygenation.

That sounds like a venturi device. They are good at oxygenating the water but can be a bit noisey. if you want to quiet it down a bit just lower the filter into the tank a bit & angle the filter output upwards so it is rippling the surface, it doesnt have to produce bubbles to oxygenate the water, just agitate the surface.

 

[SLIM]

Hi Paul,
Was just reading another thread and thought it would be a good idea to advise you to have your filter positioned so that the flow disturbs your waters surface or put an airstone in the tank. Water with high temperatures depleats the oxygen supply which the bacteria your trying to colonise requires.

Keith.

<>
Thanks for the advice yet again Keith. I have actually already done this. The filter sits just slightly out the water which disturbs the water and sucks in air for oxygenation.

That sounds like a venturi device. They are good at oxygenating the water but can be a bit noisey. if you want to quiet it down a bit just lower the filter into the tank a bit & angle the filter output upwards so it is rippling the surface, it doesnt have to produce bubbles to oxygenate the water, just agitate the surface.

Really? I didnt know that! I always thought u needed bubbles.
The filter is a Fluval U2, it came highly recomended when i bought it and its actually amazingly quite which is great.
If anything creates noise its the air pump for the air stones. But thats tucked away in a cuboard so its not too bad, you just hear a slight hum.
I do have another question for you if you dont mind.

If things go successfully in my 60litre tank im currently cycling, the plan is in the near future to invest in a 260 litre tank.
My question is this... A 20% weekly water change on 260 Litres is 55 Litres.
How do u prepare and heat such a large quantity of water on a weekly basis?
My idea was to buy 2 bins, 1 to empty the water out in and one to prepare and heat the new fresh water and use a Ehiem pump to pump the new water back in. I can see this becoming abit of a pain over time and just wondered if theirs an easier way to go about doing this?