I Don't Understand My Cycle - Help?

[GrubbyGirl]

I need some advice - or maybe reassurance! I have been doing a fishless cycle for 3 1/2 weeks now, adding ammonia to get it up to around 3ppm. It is dropping to around 1ppm over 1-2 days but never zero and there has not been a sign of nitrites.

I know there are 2 schools of thought that you should add ammonia each day regardless of levels and othres that say you should only add enough to get it up to 3-4pmm when it falls. I presume if you keep adding every day regardless you can end up with a lot of ammonia in your tank. Am I just not adding enough? I also have the water at 28 degrees, is that loo high or maybe too low?

I am testing nitrites and ammonia with api liquid test. The other tests I am using sticks (though I have ordered the api master kit). They are:

pH 7.2
KH 6
GH 8
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 25

These are the same as my tap water, though I cannot be 100% certain they are accurate as they are so hard to read.

I would appreciate some advice as to where I go from here?

Thanks

Angela
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[fatheadminnow]

What is your ammonia level at? No, that temp is just fine, it would actually be better if it were raised to 29C.

Try to add ammonia up to 4-5 ppm, as 3 ppm is a little low.

-FHM

 

[GrubbyGirl]

What is your ammonia level at? No, that temp is just fine, it would actually be better if it were raised to 29C.

Try to add ammonia up to 4-5 ppm, as 3 ppm is a little low.

-FHM

I do up it to just 3ppm, I'll try a little more

 

[discus_lover]

"Try to add ammonia up to 4-5 ppm, as 3 ppm is a little low."
what?for a proper cycling the ammonia level must be zero....

 

[waterdrop]

Actually at this stage 3ppm is going to be no different than 5ppm as the A-Bac colony is just too small to process much of it anyway. I agree to raise it a tiny bit more to 29C/84F. Its very typical to not be seeing very strong drops in the ammonia yet at only 3.5 weeks, some people don't even see their first drop at all for the first 3 weeks, so you are actually doing better than average. Your's will not be among the fastest because your pH is a little low. Its not low enough to warrant changing it at this point, because the KH=6 should hold it pretty steady around the low 7's but if it drops through the 6's you'll need to think about a water change to bring it back up.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[OldMan47]

Discus lover, please read the title. There are no fish in the tank and anything less than 2 ppm is a waste of time. Ammonia at zero is for fish-in cycling when you don't mind harming some "hardy" fish by trying to keep up with the water changes to minimize the harm.
3 ppm is a bit lower than we usually recommend but is enough to work with until you start getting near the end of the process. As you near the end, you will want to have the bacteria processing about 5 ppm daily to approximate a fully stocked tank and get the bacteria working at a high level of production.

 

[GrubbyGirl]

Well I bumped it up to 4ppm and upped the temperature to 30 degress a few days ago and I have finally got some nitrite (0.25ppm). The ammonia is dropping down to 1ppm after 12 hours. Should I redose after 12 hours to get it back up or should I wait and re-dose when it is at zero?

 

[alchemist]

You want to keep the ammonia levels going while you wait for the nitrite to spike and drop back down - so keep adding to 5ppm.

 

[GrubbyGirl]

Someone recommended I start adding fish food as well now so there is a steady supply of ammonia, do you think that's a good idea. I did read one article that said doing it with ammonia and fishfood together was by far the best way.

 

[OldMan47]

If you were unable to find a source of ammonia, a way to get some is to let fish food rot in the tank. If you can control the ammonia and get it up to 4 or 5 ppm, there is no reason to contaminate the substrate with rotting fish food. You only want to go to no more than 5 ppm so letting more into the tank b6y way of decaying organic matter is counterproductive. I am sometimes amazed, but not really surprised, by the terrible advice that I find in some web sites. I generally avoid asking about something I don't know when the place has bad advice on subjects that I do know. It sounds like you have found such a place so avoid believing anything you read there.

 

[fatheadminnow]

"Try to add ammonia up to 4-5 ppm, as 3 ppm is a little low."
-FHM

what?for a proper cycling the ammonia level must be zero....

discus_lover, please read the pinned articles in the beginners section to understand a fishless cycle.

-FHM

 

[drobbyb]

"Try to add ammonia up to 4-5 ppm, as 3 ppm is a little low."
what?for a proper cycling the ammonia level must be zero....

You must read the topic before posting. As the others have said, it's a fishless cycle and 5ppm ammonia is ideal to simulate a full fish load. You only need to add ammonia once in 24 hours. I agree with OldMan47 about the rotting fish food.