Fishless Cycling

[stuartr]

hey peeps,

I started cycling my 125l tank 2 weeks ago by adding1 dose of 5mls of 9.5% pure household ammonia (ammonia hydroxide) to gain a 5ppm. I regularly test my tank every day and the ammonia is constant. I test for nitrite and nitrate with nothing initially but I accidently left the test tubes over night for 12 hours and they gained a slightly tinted colour indicating a presence, this could be absorbed from the air possibly.

primarily I put one java fern rooted on bog wood from the LFS display tank hoping the bacteria could be obtained from that quicker, ive also added nutrafin dechlorinator to treat my water and doses of nutrafin cycle every 7 days.

I have snails in my tank which is possibly a good sign and a couple of strange brown clumps on the sand

I have put the temp up to around 29 - 30 with lights and oxygen run full blast 24 - 7 to promote bacteria

why is amonia at 5ppm after 2 weeks with only one dose?

Should I give in and strip down, and restart my tank

 

[backtotropical]

Hi Stuart,

It's unusual for ammonia not to have dropped by 2 weeks in but not unheard of. I wouldn't worry.

I suggest you test the pH of the tank water. If pH falls below 6, the cycle will stall, meaning nothing will happen. This may be what has happened in your case. Before i launch into how to fix it, let us have your pH test result and we can take it from there.

Assuming your pH is ok, you could try a large water change (around 90%). This can sometimes kickstart the cycle.

Unfortunately your plant will do nothing to help the bacteria, but it wont hurt to have it in there either.

Using dechlorinator is good. This is a must especially when you get your fish, but Nutrafin Cycle is a waste of money in my opinion. Its not as all singing, all dancing as it makes out. I wouldn't waste any more money on it if i were you, and its not required anyway.

The lights will do nothing to encourage the bacteria. You can leave these switched off to save electricity, although leaving them on will have no detrimental effect on your cycle that i am aware of.

You say you are running oxygen full blast 24-7. Can you explain what you mean by that? Is it a powerhead? an airstone?

The brown clumps on the sand will be brown algae. Nothing to worry about and quite common when cycling.

Hope this helps you. The most important thing is to test your pH and come back to me.

Hear from you soon!

BTT

 

[stuartr]

You say you are running oxygen full blast 24-7. Can you explain what you mean by that? Is it a powerhead? an airstone?


Hope this helps you. The most important thing is to test your pH and come back to me.

hey Thanks for the reply and advice!!

My PH is between 7.0 - 7.5

and my oxygen (AIR) is coming from my fluval 3 through the head of the filter.

 

[backtotropical]

pH seems fine, and oxygen saturation should be too.

Hope you don't mind if i assume you don't know things, sometimes its the easiest way, but here goes.

Do you have the outflow of the filter disturbing the surface of the water? This is how 99% of oxygenation is achieved, and is especially important at high temperatures, like when fishless cycling.

Other than that, try a 90% water change and then top ammonia back up to 5ppm and see how you go. I can't see any other reason why you can't grow those bacteria.

Cheers

BTT

 

[stuartr]

hey

yes it is disturbing the surface of the water! cheers for your help.

what am I going to do to the tank by doing a 90% water change, has my tank "stalled" ??

 

[backtotropical]

I don't think your cycle has necessarily 'stalled', but a water change will remove any pollutants which may be in there one way or other. eg. deoderant, air freshener, cigarette smoke etc etc. These (and a million others) are all things which can influence the water chemistry in our tanks, and we are unable to test for them if we have anything short of a fully equiped lab.

There are thousands of chemical reactions going on in an aquarium, especially a newly set up aquarium, and we only test for the main ones we know can be problematic. ie. ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH, kH, temp. Oxygen saturation is also an important factor as i mentioned above, but is usually not tested.

It is for this reason that i recommend a water change. Although your tank may not have 'stalled' as such, there are infinite outside influences which could have an effect and a large water change can "freshen up the water" if you like, and sometimes kickstart the cycle.

There is by no means any need to change the water at the moment, you could sit it out and wait. However, if you do and there is no movement in the next week, i would definitely consider a water change at that stage.

Cheers mate

BTT