Fishless Cycling

[AdAndrews]

Hi all, I have been fishless cycling with a bottle of boots ammonia for 20 days now and my ammonia hasnt even started to being processed, so then obviously my nitrites are 0.

ammonia is 4ppm at the mo

any help would be gratefully appreciated.

 

[Bugsvile]

Hi,

I had a similar problem when i did my first problem and it did not seem to budge for ages, i think patience is going to be your friend as well as knowing oyur Ph level.

I think this will be the first question asked by most people here.

Good luck though.

 

[AdAndrews]

thanks, anybody have any other ideas?

 

[iffles]

have you got any mature media that your new tank can "borrow" for a few days. that would really kick start the process, and there is enough ammonia to feed the bacteria. you can probably just swap the "new" media with the old if you have the same/similar filters.

 

[Curiosity101]

Agreed with iffles.

You have other tanks don't you AdAndrews? Steal a bit of media from one of those, and either slot it into the new tank's filter permenantly. Or at the very least for a couple of weeks to get the new tank's filter properly seeded.

You should see that your cycle speeds up dramatically once seeded.

 

[drobbyb]

We really need to know your pH so that we can look at your cycle from all sides. Too low pH can stop your cycle from progressing.

 

[iffles]

agree with the above ^

And even easier than swapping media is just when you clean a mature filter (if you have one), remove any large organic matter (old plant leaves, etc.) and rinse it in the tank/rinse it in old tank water from your other mature tank and put the water in the new tank. This wont be as effective, but will help.

 

[waterdrop]

Oh yes, definately agree! Even if you don't want to move any media, you should treat the newly fishless cycling tank as if it were the "cleaning bucket" for your other filter. Squeeze the sponges directly in the new tank and dunk the loose media trays and swish them around right in the new tank.

How fast did your first ammonia drop go on the last tank? I don't remember you having too bad a time on your first fishless cycle I don't think.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[AdAndrews]

thanks for the help guys, yes i do have other tanks so will be squeezing out the media soon.

waterdrop- this is the first tank i have done a fishless cycle on, i have had 3 before this, 2 were fish in cycle and the last was ran by running the filter in another tank

ph is 8.0, this is due to the coral sand as my chosen inhabitant(green spotted puffer) requires this.

thankyou.

 

[waterdrop]

Always enjoy your lovely pictures AA!