Need Help With Cycle

[Dave220]

Hi

I've been running my tank for a month now, it has lots of plants in it at the moment. I'm struggling to get readings of nitrite i have had a small reading of it about 0.25 but it disappeared. I rencently added Bactinettes to my external filter and this doesn't seem to be helping either what am i doing wrong? what can i do?

I get Ammonia readings of 2.0 then i add some more and the next day its back to 2.0 then i do it over again, but not getting any Nitrites or Nitrates?

 

[OldMan47]

If I am understanding correctly, you are raising the ammonia to 5 and it drops back to 2 in a day without producing any measurable nitrites. Unless you are heavily planted, that would be quite unusual. If you are heavily planted, the bactinettes should have seeded the filter anyway as it is one of the only 2 additives that sometimes help. If you had reached an end point, the ammonia would be going to zero, not 2, so you have not had a silent cycle because of plants.
The only clue I can give you is to look at how you are testing. If you are using the paper strips, throw them out and get a good liquid reagent type test kit. If you are already using a liquid test, recheck the instructions and make sure you are following them correctly. When doing a color comparison of the liquids beware of misreading the color because of shadows. Bright white light from behind your back is the best way to make the comparisons.

 

[Dave220]

hi

I've got a liquid test and I've done the test again this is what i got

Ammonia - 5 (after adding 20 drops of ammonia)
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 5

 

[Miss Wiggle]

is that reading immediately after adding ammonia?

take another reading 12 hrs after adding ammonia, that will give us much more information.

also can you take a reading of your tap water to give us a baseline.

 

[Dave220]

Hi

Here's my tap water test

Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 5

And here the results after 12 hours

Ammonia - 4.0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 5

Does this help?

Thanks

 

[mwood2]

by the sounds of your readings it seems you lost your cycle and need to re start. Only other thing I can think of is that the nitrite bacteria is fully grown which would mean that if you read it every 12 hours and your ammonia goes down and still no nitrite. The first seems like the most likely.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yeah those readings look very much like the start of a cycle to me. you've got some ABacs as ammonia has dropped, but not many as it's only dropped 1ppm in an hr.

an always with these things a trend of results is infinitely more helpful than a snapshot of one result.

keep up the cycle as usual and take readings every 12 hrs, when you've a few days worth then post them up here and we'll have another look and may be able to tell you some more.

 

[Dave220]

what should i do then becuase this would be the second time i had to start again??

 

[Miss Wiggle]

without knowing the full story it's hard to say exactly why it's failed twice.

did you keep a log of your daily readings and everything that you did? if so then can you post that up for us and it may help us decipher what's gone on.

Oh just realised you've not given pH readings,, pH crash is the most common reason for a cycle to stall, what are the pH freadings?

 

[Dave220]

30th
Ph 7.6
Ammonia - 7.0

1st
ammonia - 2.0 (topped up with ammonia)
nitrite - 0

2nd
Ammonia - 2.0 (topped up with ammonia)
nitrite -0

3rd
Ammonia - 2.0 (topped up with ammonia)
nitrite - 0

4th
Ammonia - 2.0 (topped up with ammonia)
nitrite- 0

5th
Ammonia - 2.0 (topped up with ammonia)
nitrite - 0

6th
Ammonia - 2.0 (topped up with ammonia)
nitrite - 0

7th
Ammonia ammonia 2.0 (topped up with ammonia)
Ph - 7.9 - 8.0

8th
Ammonia - 4.0
nitrite 0

9th
Ammonia - 2.0 (topped up with ammonia)
Nitrite - 0

10th
Ammonia - 3.0
nitrite - 0

11th
Ammonia - 2.0 (topped up with ammonia)

12th
Ammonia - 5.0
Nitrite - 0

13th
Ammonia 5.0

14th
Ammonia 4.0
nitrite - 0

15th
Ammonia - 3.0 (topped up with ammonia)
nitrite 0

16th
Ammonia - 4.0
nitrite - 0

17th
Ammonia - 4.0

18th
ammonia - 2.0 (topped up with ammonia)
nitrite- 0.5

19th
Ammonia 6.0
nitrite - 0

21th
ammonia - 2.0
nitrite -0
Topped up to 6.0

(when away)

29th
Ammonia 2
nitrite 0.25

30th
Ammonia 2
nitrite 0.25

31th
ammonia 2 (topped up with ammonia)
nitrite 0.25

1st
ammonia 2 (topped up with ammonia)
nitrite 0

2nd
Ammonia 2.0 (topped up with ammonia)
nitrite 0.25

3rd
Ammonia 4.0
nitrite 0.25

4th
Ammonia 3.0
nitrite 0.25

(went away)

7th
Ammonia - 2.0 (topped up with ammonia)
nitrite 0
nitrate 5.0

Thia is what I have, just checked my PH its still at 8.0

 

[Miss Wiggle]

so you've just come back from a fewe days away and the bacteria haven't been 'fed' with ammonia in the mean time?

this would be enough to set you back a few days at least in the cycle, the bacteria colony is very fragile and will start to die off after 24 hrs with no food.

when you say you've topped up do you mean the ammonia dropped down to 0 and then you've added back up to the reading that you gave or that the reading is before you toppped up with ammonia and you raised it back to 5ppm from that point?

do you have any other details, days when you did a water change, filter maintenance, added plants...... any other bits and bobs going on with the tank really?

i take it the days with no pH result you didn't test for it?

 

[Dave220]

The ammonia has never gone down to zero it has alway stayed at 2.0 for some reason, so i the ammonia went up from 2.0 to 5.0.

I did two water changes because i added alot of plants and it was kept messes in there.

correct i didnt take readings of the pH every day

 

[Miss Wiggle]

what test kit are you using? are you sure it's not faulty? take a sample of the water, test it yourself and then take the same sample to the lfs and ask them to test it and compare the results.

doesn't happen that often but its worth a check if there's something funny going on.

have you at any point recently added ammonia and left it several days to see if it drops to 0 at all, it would be very unusual for it to always stick at 2. trying to think what possible reasons there would be and the only thing i can think of is your filter is too small i.e. there's no room for any more bacteria to grow. however even if this was the case the ammonia would eventually drop to 0 if you didn't top it up.

 

[Dave220]

Im using API master kit and i will try that thanks.

No i havent left the ammonia to fall to 0 and the my filter is a Tetratec EX 700 and it's new

 

[Miss Wiggle]

what size is the tank?

do test the test kit, but leave it for the ammonia to fall to 0 now and see how long that takes, only top it up when it reaches 0 and no more than once every 24 hrs.