Help Wit My Fishless Cycle

[chriswhewell]

hi everyone

im currentley on week 2 of my fihless cycle, and was hoping for a few pointers. my tank has stopped processing ammonia. i dosed it up too 4ppm a few days ago amd since then it hasnt moved. ive been getting a reading of nitrites and a little bit of nitrates. but im not sure how best to proceed. do i just wait now untill my ammo levels drop and dose back up again .
any help would be great

chris

 

[snazy]

hi everyone

im currentley on week 2 of my fihless cycle, and was hoping for a few pointers. my tank has stopped processing ammonia. i dosed it up too 4ppm a few days ago amd since then it hasnt moved. ive been getting a reading of nitrites and a little bit of nitrates. but im not sure how best to proceed. do i just wait now untill my ammo levels drop and dose back up again .
any help would be great

chris

Was the ammonia being processed faster beforehand? What is the Ph of the tank water at the moment if you happen to have a test. A cycle may stall or be slower if the Ph crashes or is too acidic. Normally you need to wait until the ammonia is down to 0 before dosing again and wait patiently until it does so in 12-24 hours. Eventually when it starts getting processed very fast, the nitrItes will get sky high. Keep in mind that 1ppm of ammonia will eventually convert to 2.7ppm nitrites, so 4ppm ammonia will convert to 10.8 ppm nitrItes which is beyond the scale of any home tests sold on the market. In my personal experience, huge water changes to keep the nitrItes below 0.25 and redosing ammonia to the desired ammount after that speeds up the cycle. The good bacteria you are trying to grow prefers lower levels of these to thrive.

For now, just wait until the ammonia starts getting processed faster unless the Ph has crashed, then do a large water change to 90% with dechlorinated/temperature matched water and redose ammonia.

 

[mossonthemoon]

Can you test your pH? I just cycled my tank and had a pH crash, at which time the cycle stalled. It was easy to get going again, so if that is the case then you won't need to worry too much.

 

[chriswhewell]

Can you test your pH? I just cycled my tank and had a pH crash, at which time the cycle stalled. It was easy to get going again, so if that is the case then you won't need to worry too much.

ive just tested ph and im at 7.5 ph. is this ok?

 

[chriswhewell]

sorry but need help with this so bump !!!

 

[SandraNewbie]

7.5 is fine for a fishless cycle. I'd say you're probably best to wait for it to start to drop down. Can't offer any better advice than that I'm afraid.