Jad Dechlorinator/ Fishless Cycle

[Tank novice]

Hi,

We are trying to cycle our new tank, we added ammonia (from Homebase) over a month ago and nothing has happened - no drop, no nitrites, nothing

We are trying to figure out why, and I was wondering if anyone has used JAD dechlorinator? Does it work or is our tank potentially full of chlorine?

Please help

 

[waterdrop]

Hi there and welcome to TFF!

I've never heard of JAD (it might be just fine, most of them are) but if you want to be completely sure then pick up some Seachem Prime - its what lots of us use and its so concentrated that it works out to be the cheapest, while also having a great record for working correctly at other features also.

Now of course, it might have nothing to do with your conditioner. You say you've been fishless cycling for a month but you have not had a thread here with a daily log of your testing results so that the members can help. This is the best way to avoid problems in a fishless cycle. There are various problems that the members can spot and help with if there is a visible log. The real story is not about the results on a given day, either, often its important to see the trend over a number of days.

How is your pH? Fishless cycling creates nitrate(NO3) as an end product and NO3 that is in solution will dissociate and about 7% of its concentration will be in the form of nitric acid, causing the pH to fall as the water becomes more acidic over time. If the pH drops down past the 6.2 mark fairly rapidly, the bacteria will stall out and once the pH drops to 6 and below they will usually completely stop processing. Over a long period they would make a comeback even at that acid level but the time frame would be awful for a fishless cycle.

Another pitfall to avoid is the ammonia concentration going too high, up in the 8ppm range, and encouraging the wrong species of autotrophic bacteria. This can cause a setback that takes a long time to turn around.

Another problem for people sometimes is fishless cycling at the wrong temperature. We've honed in on 29C/84F as the temp of choice based on a number of bits of info and being way below or above that can be a problem.

Anyway, whatever the problem, its likely the members can help, or at least be there to discuss things with you!

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Tank novice]

i havent posted any reaults but every other day i check the ammonia and its always 4ppm ph is at 7.8 - 8 . no nitrite or nitrate, we have been trying to cycle for over 4 weeks. We have a juwel 180 vision tank, this week i added an airstone to try and oxygenate the water more. The temperature is at 26 degrees celcius, we have no plants just gravel filter and an ordament. we de-chlorinated the water i dont know what were doing wrong we keep reading websites and forums.

we want the fishless cycle to work as we dont want to harm any fish in are cycling process. Any suggestions?

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, you need to raise your temperature to 29C/84F and in your case I think I'd perform a full water change and recharge the ammonia. It may be that you've just been unlucky in hardly getting any starter bacteria in that first fill of water - there are some water supplies that are just super clean I think. On the other hand it could still be some other thing we've not uncovered yet, we we'll all have to keep trying.

I see you have another thread since this one, maybe there have been some ideas there.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[OldMan47]

All that I can suggest is that maybe the sample of water that you started with had no ammonia processing bacteria in it. It seldom happens because the bacteria seem to be everywhere but it is about all that I can see that might explain no progress at all. The optimum temperature is just that. Cycles proceed quite well with less than ideal temperatures so don't worry too much about that.