Fishless Cycle

[fish-face]

My first ever tank and doing a fishless cycle need some advice as to if i`m on the right track
tap water stats
ph-8.0
am-0
nitrite-0
nitrate10mg/l might recheck these tomorrow

started doseing with ammonia about the 15th feb went down to zero on the 21st from then been bringing the level up to about 3-4mg/l every day as it drops to near zero so for the past week my stats have been,

am-dosed up every day to approx 3-4mg/l
nitrite-approx 1.6-3.5 mg/l
nitrate-approx 110mg/l mg/l? same as ppm - does this mean the same thing?

tank 70gal and got some plants in but they dont look too good

any help/advice/support would be most welcome.

One other question,around the outlet pipe for the filter a section of algee(suppose its algee) which looks like brown wispy hair is growing(about 6inches) should i take this out or leave it for now,haven`t touched the water since i started cycling

 

[fish-face]

anyone?

 

[jaarus]

Hiya - Fishless cycling is a pain isnt it!
Its all about patience.

I would suggest you reduce the amount of ammonia you are adding slightly. You want to be adding about half what it took to cause the spike in the first place - maintain this reduced dose until Nitrite is at 0 just before the following days ammonia dose.

Do a large water change. To remove/reduce the nitrate levels.
Cycle complete.


Best of luck - btw loads of fishless cycling help out there across the net.

I know mine was never ending when I first did it - turned out I was adding way too much ammonia daily - everything spiked off the chart! and my next days dose of ammonia was so high it was actually killing off the bacteria!

So double check all amounts again!

 

[Squid]

Yes, ppm = mg/l.. same thing.. so dont worry there.

after a while i changed to adding ammonia every 12 hours... as the ammonia and nitrites will need to be able to cycle within 12 hours before the cycle is complete.

it taken mine a good while longer than the ammonia for the nitrites to drop off.. Mine took a while longer still due to PH crashes which halted the cycle. Some people say it takes a about twice as long as it took the ammonia to drop off. so, my advice is sit tight and be patient im affraid

I had brown algae too that looked like fur on my bogwood.. it seemed to be just a phase within the cycle (approximately where you are now). i never had it as long as yours sounds, but it may just be the way your setup differs.. keep an eye on it, but i think this will stop growing soon..

Some of my plants have not taken to the cycle too well. the java fern and anubias has been fine, but the valis spiralis (something like that) is knackered, so i have removed it.

I must say though, 75ppm for tap water is a pretty high.. are you sure.. perhaps you should contact your water supplier. (im no expert here though)

Hope that helps..
Squid

 

[fish-face]

thanks will recheck tap water stats
rechecked nitrate its 10ppm