Fishless Cycle Taking Forever....

[B2k2]

Hi,

I have been doing a fishless cycle for 4 weeks now and things dont seem to be changing. I have been adding 4ppm of ammonia daily which is processed in 24 hrs. Nitrites have been high for 3 weeks now, I did 3 50% water changes last weekend to bring it back on the scale but it was up again by the next day. I have read else where that if you have a heavily planted tank it is pointless to do fishless as the plants will absorb the ammonia. What are your thought on this? would it be worth me doing a 100% water change and starting again but with fish?

 

[Ethos]

I have always been straight up for the fish cycle...Its cheaper and better for the begginer, I'd say.
But some people say its "tourtering fish" or w/e.
I'll give you info In PM if you' like - Its very simple. Its how I cycled all my tanks, and its what I've found to be as effective and....Nvm, i dont want to get attaced.

 

[dwarfgourami]

I would not start again with fish; you are on your way, why prolong the ordeal? It's not that anything has gone disastrously wrong, but you may be able to shorten it by changing a few things in your routine.

I think you may have stalled the cycle by that water change; there really should be no need to do water changes until right at the end of a fishless cycle. By changing the water you are taking away the food of the bacteria you have encouraged so far, so will be killing a fair few of them off.

You shouldn't have to add 4 ppm every day; just add the number of drops that first brought your ammonia up to 5 ppm. And once the nitrite has spiked it is a good idea to halve this amount. This way I got my tank cycled in 2 weeks.

Don't worry, you won't have ruined anything by adding rather too much ammonia; it is just making it take longer, that's all.

Good luck- and don't forget to do a massive water change right at the end (within 24 hours of adding fish).

 

[rdd1952]

I agree with dwarfgourami that you are on the right track and think he gave you good advice. The reason the nitrite takes so long is that all the ammonia you are adding (4 ppm every day) is being turned into more nitrite daily. It will take a while for the bacteria colony to grow to sufficient size to process that much. Cutting the amount of ammonia you are adding daily should help that.The nitrite spike usually takes about 2 to 3 times as long as the ammonia spike before it drops back to zero. So if the ammonia took 10 days to drop back to zero, the nitrite should take from 20 to 30 days.