Fishless Cycling Troubles

[nijohnnyuk]

By reading these posts I guess I stil have a long way to go .... I added ammonia on 21st June and it is still around 3ppm - it has been now for a week.....dying to get fish but I guess I must be patient!!!

 

[Daveptkd]

By reading these posts I guess I stil have a long way to go .... I added ammonia on 21st June and it is still around 3ppm - it has been now for a week.....dying to get fish but I guess I must be patient!!!

I have cycled 3 tanks fishless now. first 2 took 7 days for Ammonia to Zero & 14 for Nitrite to Zero.

The 3rd I used a piece of mature media + & it was complete in 14 days.

It always seems to take forever. I stocked 100% straight away without probs.

Patience is key!

Good luck


Dave.

 

[MegTheFish]

Uggg! I used a whole bunch of mature filter media from my other cycled tanks, and I get this. Your lucky, LoL.

 

[dwarfgourami]

Uggg! I used a whole bunch of mature filter media from my other cycled tanks, and I get this. Your lucky, LoL.

My first 2 tanks, with no mature media, cycled in 10 and 14 days respectively; my third, which did have an old sponge, took 3 weeks. Luck of the draw or sod's law, whtever you like to call it.

 

[zodiac]

Uggg! I used a whole bunch of mature filter media from my other cycled tanks, and I get this. Your lucky, LoL.

My first 2 tanks, with no mature media, cycled in 10 and 14 days respectively; my third, which did have an old sponge, took 3 weeks. Luck of the draw or sod's law, whtever you like to call it.

Im now in my sixth week feeding amonia daily high nitrite but no nitrate, how you guys manage to comp-lete a cycle in 7-14 days i dont know do you think i should wash out the tank and gravel and start again

 

[Cheffi]

Noooooooooooooooooooooo don't do it!!!!!!!!!!!!! Keep going.

 

[dwarfgourami]

Uggg! I used a whole bunch of mature filter media from my other cycled tanks, and I get this. Your lucky, LoL.

My first 2 tanks, with no mature media, cycled in 10 and 14 days respectively; my third, which did have an old sponge, took 3 weeks. Luck of the draw or sod's law, whtever you like to call it.

Im now in my sixth week feeding amonia daily high nitrite but no nitrate, how you guys manage to comp-lete a cycle in 7-14 days i dont know do you think i should wash out the tank and gravel and start again

No, keep going, you could be nearly there. My nitrites went down from rock high to zero in two days. Did you remember to halve the daily ammonia dose when the nitrites spiked?

 

[zodiac]

Uggg! I used a whole bunch of mature filter media from my other cycled tanks, and I get this. Your lucky, LoL.

My first 2 tanks, with no mature media, cycled in 10 and 14 days respectively; my third, which did have an old sponge, took 3 weeks. Luck of the draw or sod's law, whtever you like to call it.

Im now in my sixth week feeding amonia daily high nitrite but no nitrate, how you guys manage to comp-lete a cycle in 7-14 days i dont know do you think i should wash out the tank and gravel and start again

No, keep going, you could be nearly there. My nitrites went down from rock high to zero in two days. Did you remember to halve the daily ammonia dose when the nitrites spiked?

Hi DG yes i have been adding less amonia, just between 2 and 4ppm its odd though most days i add it in the morning by the next its all gone but on the odd day it is still there maybe some days they just arnt hungry, i will stick with it and see how it goes!! dont want to start over and wait another six plus weeks just want some fish in the tank patience huh.......

 

[MegTheFish]

Hmmm...I might have an idea. By the end of this week I will have a new filter, a Millenium 3000 (trading it in because whisper is too noisy), which is the same filter I have on my 50 gallon goldfish tank. What if I were to do a switch? Take the Millenium off the goldfish tank, put it on the 55 gallon. Put the new Millenium on the goldfish tank. Start off with a handful of fish in the 55 gallon, then every week or two slowly add fish. The only problem I see with this...would I loose the cycle in the goldfish tank? If this would be a problem, then I could take the filter media from the whisper and stuff it into the new millenium filter. But would there even be any bacteria on the filter media from the whisper? Ok, if I've got anybody confused, this is what each tank would have:
55 gallon- cycled millenium from 50 gallon
50 gallon- new millenium with filter media from whisper

The reason I would do this is because I am going away in 2 1/2 weeks, and do not want to ask my dad to do yet another thing for me (he would have to be adding ammonia), as he is already taking care of all my fish, my 8 birds, my dog AND my cats. I also have 5 yo-yo loaches stuffed in a 5.5 gallon, and I don't know how they would do without a water change for 10 days, as I am doing water changes every 3 days to keep the ammonia down. So that would be an extra bonus if I could move them before I leave.

 

[Cheffi]

Hmmm...I might have an idea. By the end of this week I will have a new filter, a Millenium 3000 (trading it in because whisper is too noisy), which is the same filter I have on my 50 gallon goldfish tank. What if I were to do a switch? Take the Millenium off the goldfish tank, put it on the 55 gallon. Put the new Millenium on the goldfish tank. Start off with a handful of fish in the 55 gallon, then every week or two slowly add fish. The only problem I see with this...would I loose the cycle in the goldfish tank? If this would be a problem, then I could take the filter media from the whisper and stuff it into the new millenium filter. But would there even be any bacteria on the filter media from the whisper? Ok, if I've got anybody confused, this is what each tank would have:
55 gallon- cycled millenium from 50 gallon
50 gallon- new millenium with filter media from whisper

The reason I would do this is because I am going away in 2 1/2 weeks, and do not want to ask my dad to do yet another thing for me (he would have to be adding ammonia), as he is already taking care of all my fish, my 8 birds, my dog AND my cats. I also have 5 yo-yo loaches stuffed in a 5.5 gallon, and I don't know how they would do without a water change for 10 days, as I am doing water changes every 3 days to keep the ammonia down. So that would be an extra bonus if I could move them before I leave.

Simple solution...don't go on holiday

 

[MegTheFish]

Ummmm...NO! LoL. I get a whole ten days off work, ALL my pets are staying home and I don't have to take care of them (my dad is), and its going to be fun...well, atleast shopping at West Edmonton Mall will be, don't know about the camping part.

 

[MegTheFish]

I think I may be almost done...the nitrite has been high for that last little while and I tested it today and its down to .50 ppm. Nitrate is around 20 ppm and not too sure about ammonia but I have been adding it as much as 3 times a day just to keep a reading! SO if I'm correct the nitrite will drop from being very high to zero, so if I were to test tonight I should be cycled. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

 

[zodiac]

Hi Meg keep going your almost there i had nitrite at 5pp friday night when i tested it saturday morning it was zero couldnt believe my eyes straight to the lfs now sitting here watching fish in my tank after six long weeks of watching water!!!!!

 

[MegTheFish]

I'm confused, as I was said my nitrite had dropped from very high to .50
This morning I tested for nitrite, and the color of the water turned light purple quickly (still .50), then after maybe 10-15 minutes it turns light blue (0)! This has never happened before...is my tank cycled?

 

[Cheffi]

Be very very careful that you read the result exactly after 5 mins. Don't take any notice of what happens after the 5 mins. If the result at 5 mins is exactly the pale blue colour on the card you have zero nitrites. However I've been having strange greyish/blue to grey/green colours at 5 mins and have been assured by API that that reading is off the scale. I did a test on my tap water which has no nitrites in it to see exactly what the colour should be and it went straight to pale blue and stayed there until the 5 mins. Hope this helps.