Fishless Cycling Question.. Is It Supposed To Take This Long?

[Doll]

It has been 5 days since I put the initial ammonia in my tank, to a level of 6.0. It has only gone down to 4.0 in that time, which it did the day after I added the ammonia?? It has been at 4.0 for 4 days now.

I didn't have my heater until today (I was given the entire tank setup, but the heater was broken so I bought a new one on Ebay that arrived today). I did have a handful or two of gravel from an established tank, but I'm thinking it wasn't enough

I added a live plant today but it's not potted or anything, just the plant/roots (it's a Java Fern). I'm expecting some Java moss in a day or two.

Do you think this will be enough to get things going?? I'm a dorm parent and I have 36 teenagers going "When are you going to get fish" like 23000 times a day I'm generally pretty patient but when I don't even see movement in the right direction I get antsy

I guess my question is, is this normal or do I need to take more steps at adding some more bacterial source, like a potted plant or try to find someone who can give me some filter media?? Or is this totally normal and I just need to suck it up and wait

 

[Doll]

I should say I am doing the add and wait method, not the add daily.

 

[Jonno]

afaik heat is needed to speed up the process, so now you have a heater (set it in the mid 80's as per the sticky) you should see it drop in the next few days.

have you tried checking for nitrite? if you have nitrite then it shows some of the ammonia is being processed

i'm stuck on the next stage, waiting for the nitrite to drop

 

[littlest]

It sounds pretty normal to me. I've only cycled two tanks fishlessly, but from my limited experience it souds pretty normal. The heat should help speed the process up. I don't think adding a bit of gravel from an established tank will make much difference, but if you have an established tank to hand you can take a bit of the filter media from that one and put it in your cycling filter, that will definitely speed things up.
If the teenagers are being inpatient about getting the fish, maybe you could take the opportunity to teach them about the nitrogen cycling, doing the test etc and the importance of doing a fishless cycle.

 

[Doll]

Thanks. Yeah I have been taking the opportunity to teach the kids about it, but I have one guy who comes in every day and says, "NEMO YET? WHERE'S NEMO??" (despite the fact that I explained to him that we won't be getting any clownfish as they are saltwater )

Anyway, thanks. I just wanted to know if this was normal or whether I need to take some extra steps. I think I'll try to get my hands on some filter media anyway but it's good to know what I'm experiencing is normal

 

[Aphotic Phoenix]

Getting some filter media will definately help. Nitrifying bacteria is actually very slow reproducing compared to other types of bacteria...it only doubles in population about once every 24 hours! So by getting filter media from another source you are adding a much larger group of bacteria that can aid in the building of the colony.