Fishless Cycling Frustration

[ac106]

i have been doing a fishless cycle on a 10gl tank for about 10 days now

yesterday i thought it finished. readings:

ammonia was at near zero ( i can't seem to get it to 0 even in my established tanks and my tap water shows ammonia levels)
Nitrate 0
Nitrate: off the chart

So i do the big water change. Then since i wont be able to pick up the fish that are going into the tank i add some ammonia to keep the bacteria alive.

so today i do water tests and i get hte following:

Ammonia 4ppm
Nitrite .5
Nitrate 20-40


so this makes no sense right? Shouldn't the bacteria have broken down the ammonia? it as been like 12+ hours since i added it. Did all the bacteria die off? do i have to start over?did i wait too long adding more ammonia?

frustrating to say the least!

 

[rdd1952]

Hi ac106, I doubt you waited too long and lost your bacteria. The fact that your tap water has ammonia in it will always be a problem. (I would suggest you contact your local water company about that as it really shouldn't have ammonia in it.) Usually, a fishless cycle is completed when your bacteria can completely process 2 to 4 ppm of ammonia in 12 hours or less. So when your nitrite drops to 0 (and before you do the water change) you should add more ammonia and see how long it is before both ammonia and nitrite are at 0. Once that is happening in 12 hours, then do the water change and you are ready for fish.

It's not a big deal that you have already done the water change. You may have to do another one though. Keep testing and adding ammonia until you get it under the 12 hour time frame. Because your tap water has ammonia, you may have to use a product like Ammo-lock that transforms ammonia into a non-toxic form (ammonium). It will still show as a positive reading on your test kit but it won't harm you fish. I'm not really a fan of those products but in your case, it may be the only option to handle what is in the tap water.

The fact that you have nitrite again after adding ammonia shows that it is handling some of the ammonia but not very quickly. Did you possibly forget to add dechlorinator when you did your water change? That could be a problem as the chlorine would start to kill off the bacteria. If you haven't seen it already, click the link on Fishless Cycling in my signature and read that thread. It may help answer some questions.

 

[ac106]

Hi ac106, I doubt you waited too long and lost your bacteria. The fact that your tap water has ammonia in it will always be a problem. (I would suggest you contact your local water company about that as it really shouldn't have ammonia in it.) Usually, a fishless cycle is completed when your bacteria can completely process 2 to 4 ppm of ammonia in 12 hours or less. So when your nitrite drops to 0 (and before you do the water change) you should add more ammonia and see how long it is before both ammonia and nitrite are at 0. Once that is happening in 12 hours, then do the water change and you are ready for fish.

well see, thats what happened. my ammonia did drop from 4pp - 0 and the nitrites were at 0. Nitrates were off the chart. So i assumed i was all set. Changed the water and added ammonia to keep the bacteria alive. But now 24 hrs later ammonia is still at 4pmm

I am pretty sure i added stress coat when changing the water. I did leave the filter off for several hours accidently. Could this have contributed to the situation?

i have read the link in your sig several times i wouldnt have gotten this far without doing so.

ac

 

[IovaykInD]

If the biological filtration didn't have water for a couple of hours, then it definately killed off your bacteria colony. You should only have the bio media out of the water for the most at a couple of minutes. I try my best not to even take it out of the water so I know I always have a good bacteria colony. I'm afraid you might have to start your cycling process over.

 

[rdd1952]

If the filter was wet the whole time, it probably didn't kill the bacteria colony off completely but definiely would have had a negative effect. If it was out of water or dried out then as mentioned, you probably didn lose most all your bacteria. Since you have seen some nitrite already you probably at least have some bacteria so it shouldn't take as long as the last time.