Goin On 2 Weeks, No Ammonia Drop

[Bones1987]

Well, I added ammonia to my tank just about 2 weeks ago now, planning on doing the 'add and wait' method. I made sure it was 5 ppm and I've checked the ammonia levels everyday. Still, there hasn't been a drop in the ammonia level. After a week I assumed it would drop within the next couple days, three at most. Now that it's taken so long I'm starting to get a little worried. Has this happened to anyone else? Is there anything I could do to other than wait?

 

[thegnu]

hang on in there Bones, i'm sure it will drop in the next few days.
edit; although 2 weeks seems quite a while to have no change. has the water source you used to fill your tank with got any ammonia in

 

[Majjie]

Like thegnu says it's just patience I'm afraid. It does sometimes take a long time if there are very few bacteria in there to start with.

Do you know anyone with an established tank you could get some filter media (or squeezings) from? Or have you checked the pinned topic at the top of this section to see if there are any TFF members near you who could give you some?

 

[Hollymolly4]

I was just reading something about stalled cycles. Don't know if this is your issue but it said that lack of oxygen in the water can halt the cycle or even make it go backwards. Just my 2 cents.
Some cycles go real fast and others take the full 6-8 weeks. No clue why. Just gotta wait it out. Good luck!

 

[SexyFishKeeper]

My cycle didn't start for a while as the ammonia wasn't added from the start and so the minimal bacteria that was already there was gone without food.

To speed it up see if you can get mature filter media from a friend or the LFS. I did that through this site and managed to get it sorted in a week after.

You can also stall the cycle if the pH crashes to below 6 so I added bi-carb of soda to bump up the pH to about 7.5. Obviously, all without fish.

It helps if you also crank the temp to the max too.