Mature Media Added - Ammonia Ok But Nitrites High ....confused

[Deleted member 107737]

Hi All.
 
A kind chap helped me with some mature media to start my fishless cycle. it was posted to me over night and was put in my tank straight away as soon as it arrived.
 
ive added it to the canister filter and dosed with 1ppm ammonia as I have always done in the past.
 
ammonia gets processed in 24hrs, nitrites is spiked/ highest reading on my chart, nitrates are inbetween light and dark red on my api tester chart.
 
i was under the impression it would be an immediate cycle, but after doing some searching on google, someone suggested that there could be a die off of bacteria so i may have to wait another week??
 
if anyone can help??
 
Its 40 gallon tank and im going to be keeping 2 fancy goldfish
 
ive put a heater in at 25 C just to speed up the cycle.
 
Than ks,
 
Dave

 

[techen]

Heya Brownd, I think you are suffering from a mini cycle. Large waterchange to remove the nirtires would be in order.
 
You'll also want to proccess 4-5 PPM of ammonia in 12 hours instead of 1PPM of ammonia over 24 hours.

 

[the_lock_man]

Techy's a wee bit off. Mature media may instantly cycle but it's more likely to drop you in part way through. Don't do a water change, keep dosing to 1ppm until the bacteria can process the ammonia and nitrite in 24hrs.

Then up the dose to 2ppm until the bacs can process it all in 12 hrs.

Techy's a wee bit off. Mature media may instantly cycle but it's more likely to drop you in part way through. Don't do a water change, keep dosing to 1ppm until the bacteria can process the ammonia and nitrite in 24hrs.

Then up the dose to 2ppm until the bacs can process it all in 12 hrs.

Up the temp to about 28C and use bicarb of soda to increase your pH to about 8.2.

 

[Deleted member 107737]

ok thanks.
 
I will sit patiently and update you when i see a change.

 
happy days