Is My Fishless Cycle Stuck?

[ianfarn]

Hello All,

I'm now just over five weeks into the fishless cycle and the tank is processing ammonia from 5ppm to 0ppm in about 2 days. The Nitrite is off the scale and has been for a couple of weeks. I changed 30% of the water and retested for nitrite and it is still off the scale. The nitrate is steady at around 7ppm.

Is the process stuck? Or should expect to wait longer for it to be complete. Is 5-6 weeks normal to get to this stage?

Thanks in advance

Ian.

 

[JenCliBee]

Hello All,

I'm now just over five weeks into the fishless cycle and the tank is processing ammonia from 5ppm to 0ppm in about 2 days. The Nitrite is off the scale and has been for a couple of weeks. I changed 30% of the water and retested for nitrite and it is still off the scale. The nitrate is steady at around 7ppm.

Is the process stuck? Or should expect to wait longer for it to be complete. Is 5-6 weeks normal to get to this stage?

Thanks in advance

Ian.

Sounds like the cycle is progressing well, nitrite usually goes way off scale then slowly gets broken down.

Having nitrate is a good sign just shows that your nitrite is been processed.

Whats your nitrate from the tap?

 

[ianfarn]

I tested from the tap and is is 0ppm.

Thanks

Ian.

 

[JenCliBee]

I tested from the tap and is is 0ppm.

Thanks

Ian.

Then all seems well , you have nitrate so cycle is slowly doing what ist supposed to

 

[rdd1952]

The fact that the nitrate is only 7 ppm (if that was aftr the WC, then it may have been around 10 - 12 ppm before) after 5 weeks leads me to believe that, for the most part, nitrite is not being processed. Also, taking 2 days to proess 5 ppm of ammonia is terribly long too after 5 weeks. Usually, there is enough bacteria to process 5 ppm of ammonia back to 0 in 12 hours or less within the first 2 weeks. Have you tested your pH? It could be that it has dropped and has stalled the process.

I would suggest a large WC, 75 to 90 percent. That would get the nitrite back down near 0 and get the pH back up to tap level.

 

[ianfarn]

Hello again,

Just an update. The nitrate has not shifted this week at all but the ammonia has dropped and I added more to top it up. The Nitrite is still off the scale. The PH is above 7.8 which is the max on the colour chart. To be honest I'm getting a little bored of the fishless cycle there does not seem to be any light at the end of the tunnel. Is there anything I can add or do to start the nitrite processing?

Thanks

Ian.

 

[JenCliBee]

Maybe a big water change to drop the nitrites down, maybe its to much/high for the bacteria to process properly?.

Worth a try it may give the bacteria a little more of a kick start, but if im wrong im sure some one will correct me

jen

 

[Amunet]

I would def do a WC as was suggested. I've seen a few people here get stuck, and it was suggested that they do a WC and their cycles picked back up.
I know it's frustrating but trust us, it'll be worth it! Better to get this headache out of the way instead of creating a bigger one by getting fish too soon and having them die on you.

 

[ianfarn]

99% water change done so that is everything apart from what I could not get from the gravel or what was in the filter. New readings were 0ppm ammonia 0.5 ppm nitrite 5ppm nitrate. The tap water is 0ppm for both nitrite and nitrate so the nitrite must have been very high. One other thing I noticed is in the filter the non bio side (the side you replace) was brown and not white is it was when it started. Does that mean whatever bacteria I've built up is in the replacable filter and not in the bio filter? Or is this normal?

Thanks

Ian.