Fishless Cycle Problems

[Mickfender]

Hi all, thought my cycle was going ok until today. Ammonia has been going in 12 hrs for 10 days now, Nitrite about 5ppm at 12 hrs test, then clear at 24 hr test. Today at 12 hr test Ammonia 2ppm and Nitrite about 5ppm. As i was testing the spray bar started spewing out a fine wafer looking gunk all over the tank there is loads of it, it looks like it was sticking to the inside of both pipes in filter, as the out pipe has clear patches on it where this gunk has come off, the in pipe to filter is coverd in this as well, i havent done anything to filter since setting up tank,no cleaning of it. Im on day 61 of cycle should i have cleaned filter out before this ? And wot about the inside of pipes coverd in this gunk ?. Also i planted tank 2 weeks ago as it all seemed to be going well, could this have caused this?.Gratefull for any advice on this , thanks Mick

 

[waterdrop]

You probably just have biofilms breaking loose from inside the filter and the insides of the tubes. Unless your filter flow rate has significantly diminished there shouldn't be any need to disturb it by cleaning. Its not unheard of to do a very light clean of a filter in the final stages of a fishless cycle but there's always a chance that might set things back a bit as its quite disturbing to the fledgling bacterial colonies sometimes (unlike mature ones beyond about 6 months old or older I'd say.)

In this last stage of fishless cycling you can sometimes get wacky stuff going on like you're describing. If the nitrate is way on up there then its always useful to consider a weekend 90% gravel-clean-water-change with recharge of ammonia afterward. But basically, the biofilter just needs some more fishless cycling time probably.

Now if you get really suspicious of the filter and feel there may really be some clogging going on, and you don't mind the risk that a filter disturbance might set you back some.. well, maybe we'd better wait and let the members hear what you feel about the flow.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Mickfender]

Thanks for reply WD. The flow seems just as strong from filter,so i think ill leave it alone and let the bacteria develop undisturbed. Thanks Mick