Fishless Cycling Troubles

[MegTheFish]

Started on June 22, added 4 ppm of ammonia (thought it was 8 ppm, but looked at the test wrong), turned temperature up to the high 80's and added cycled media from an established tank. Today is the 28th, 6 days later, and I STILL don't have a nitrite reading. What am I doing wrong?

Edit: Whoops, wrong section, meant to put it in tropical chit chat...

 

[MegTheFish]

Could a mod move this to the tropical chit chat section please...as I'm not getting any replies here And I'm slowly sinking to the bottom! LoL.

 

[zodiac]

Started on June 22, added 4 ppm of ammonia (thought it was 8 ppm, but looked at the test wrong), turned temperature up to the high 80's and added cycled media from an established tank. Today is the 28th, 6 days later, and I STILL don't have a nitrite reading. What am I doing wrong?

Edit: Whoops, wrong section, meant to put it in tropical chit chat...

I dont think 6 days is long enough it has taken me more than two weeks feeding amonia to get nitrIte to show, now im stuck with it and cant get any nitrAte arghhhhh if only there was a way of speeding this up One day i WILL have fish

 

[Cheffi]

I think we need a support group for all us fishless cyclers I've got nitrite and nitrate off the scale and just waiting for the nitrite to come down now and it's taking forever

 

[mark.w.jones]

Started on June 22, added 4 ppm of ammonia (thought it was 8 ppm, but looked at the test wrong), turned temperature up to the high 80's and added cycled media from an established tank. Today is the 28th, 6 days later, and I STILL don't have a nitrite reading. What am I doing wrong?

Edit: Whoops, wrong section, meant to put it in tropical chit chat...

Sounds fine to me. I agree though that your ammonia should be getting converted to nitrite by now.
Did you add dechlorinated water at the start?
What ammonia are you using?
You may just have to be patient. My tank took about 4 weeks to cycle without adding any existing media. Don't know how long it takes with mature media though. Just keep going.

 

[MegTheFish]

I think we need a support group for all us fishless cyclers

Yes, we really do! Thats what we get for trying to do something right (meaning we aren't poisoning fish with ammonia, which you would be doing in a fish cycle)!

Did you add dechlorinated water at the start?
What ammonia are you using?

Yes, I added dechlorinater.
I'm using SafeWay brand regular all purpose ammonia cleaner, the ingredients are water and ammonium hydroxide

ANNNNDD we have nitrites!!! (.25 ppm), and the ammonia is starting to go down, so something is finally happening here! *is happy*

 

[dwarfgourami]

For all ye who stumble through the Fishless Desert yearning in vain for the Promised Land- it can happen! It has happened! My nitrites have gone down today! I thought it was slightly less purple yesterday and now it is almost light blue! The sun has got his hat on, hip hip hip hooray!

The only thing that slightly puzzles me is that my nitrates also appear to have gone walkies As there are no plants in the tank, surely this shouldn't be happening? Did wonder if the test kit was old, but it was working beautifully yesterday.

Still, I take it this tank is now cycled. It would have to happen at the end of the week, when I can't put any orders through to either Greenline or Trimar. Oh welll, the tank will still be there on Monday, I will keep feeding ammonia.

 

[MegTheFish]

For all ye who stumble through the Fishless Desert yearning in vain for the Promised Land- it can happen! It has happened! My nitrites have gone down today! I thought it was slightly less purple yesterday and now it is almost light blue! The sun has got his hat on, hip hip hip hooray!

The only thing that slightly puzzles me is that my nitrates also appear to have gone walkies As there are no plants in the tank, surely this shouldn't be happening? Did wonder if the test kit was old, but it was working beautifully yesterday.

Still, I take it this tank is now cycled. It would have to happen at the end of the week, when I can't put any orders through to either Greenline or Trimar. Oh welll, the tank will still be there on Monday, I will keep feeding ammonia.

The same thing happened to me with my 50 gallon! I was at the very end of the cycle, I had nitrates, and then one day BAM they were gone! I had 0 nitrites, 0 ammonia, and 0 nitrates. I also assumed that my nitrate test was not working, and added fish and everything was fine. I have a question, once the tank is cycled, do you have to add fish straignt away? We are going away for 10 days on the 21st, so might have to wait till after to add fish.

 

[Cheffi]

[/quote]

The same thing happened to me with my 50 gallon! I was at the very end of the cycle, I had nitrates, and then one day BAM they were gone! I had 0 nitrites, 0 ammonia, and 0 nitrates. I also assumed that my nitrate test was not working, and added fish and everything was fine. I have a question, once the tank is cycled, do you have to add fish straignt away? We are going away for 10 days on the 21st, so might have to wait till after to add fish.
[/quote]


If your tank is cycled you will have to keep feeding the ammonia to it if you don't put fish in and if you go away you will need to get someone to add ammonia daily otherwise your bacteria will have nothing to feed on and die

 

[mark.w.jones]

Once your cycle is finished you have 2 choices:

1. Keep adding ammonia daily to keep your bacteria alive until you can stock your tank.
2. Fully stock your tank. I fully stocked straight away but others feel it's better to add all fish over a 2 - 3 day period. Its personal perference really + how near you live to your lfs. Id say make sure you are fully stocked by day 3 post cycling otherwise you may suffer from bacteria dying off leaving not enough to cope with your fully stocked tank.

 

[MegTheFish]

I never planned to fully stock the tank right after the cycle, I don't even know what I'm putting in the tank, I'm just putting fish I already have in there then I'll just add fish when I see a fish I like (we are always getting new fish in at work so if I fully stocked the tank right away I'll regret it later!) I plan to buy fish, then quaretine them for a few weeks, then add them, so there will be atleast 1 week between adding each group of fish (or individual fish). So I think as long as I don't add too many fish at once I should be ok?

 

[dwarfgourami]

I didn't fully stock after my fishless in the past, but I did stock 50-75%. This time it will be less as I'm going on holiday and some of the species I'm getting I don't want to leave with the fishsitter just yet. SO I'll just have to accept that some bacteria do die down. But you need to put some fish (or ammonia) in within 24 hours, otherwise you will lose your bacteria colony.

 

[MegTheFish]

I didn't fully stock after my fishless in the past, but I did stock 50-75%. This time it will be less as I'm going on holiday and some of the species I'm getting I don't want to leave with the fishsitter just yet. SO I'll just have to accept that some bacteria do die down. But you need to put some fish (or ammonia) in within 24 hours, otherwise you will lose your bacteria colony.

OK, thanks. I plan on adding 5 yo-yo loaches, 4 khuli loaches, 1 molly (she's dying ATM though), 4 glowlight tetras and 1 male guppy for sure, will try to get some more fish in quaritine (sp?) so they'll be ready once the tank is cycled.
I have a question: I tested the water today and there is 0 ammonia, .50 nitrites, and 5 nitrates. Should I be adding ammonia? Do you think I'm about halfway through the cycle? Thanks.

 

[mark.w.jones]

"I have a question: I tested the water today and there is 0 ammonia, .50 nitrites, and 5 nitrates. Should I be adding ammonia? Do you think I'm about halfway through the cycle? Thanks."

You always add more ammonia as soon as the level drops down near to 0ppm. This may end up being once or even twice a day once your a good way along. If you are not fully stocking from the beginning that's fine but once you add the fish mentioned remember that bacteria will die back until there is enough that can live off the waste being produced by those fish. If you add more don't do more than 4 - 5 at a time and leave them for a week or so (until water stats stabalise again). You may experience an ammonia / nitrite spike when adding your new fish, especially if you add too many at once, as the bacteria in your filter will initially not be able to cope with the extra waste load being produced.

It takes about double the amount of time for your nitrites to go as it took your ammonia to go. So if youre just getting nitrite readings youve probably got 2 - 3 weeks to go I'm afraid.

Good luck

 

[MegTheFish]

OK, I just got back home so will add more ammonia. About 4-5 ppm, right?
Well, in 3 weeks I'm going on vacation for 10 days, so hopefully its cycled by then, or else I will have to start over when I get back. Which won't be fun...