No Progress In Cycling

[cathat143]

I'm on day ten of fishless cycling for my new 48 gallon tank and have seen no drop in my ammonia levels yet. Since day one I've had some mature filter media in my new filter (half a sponge from my ten gallon tank), and three days ago I added even more sponge from the old tank. I thought that with the mature media that I would be seeing progress sooner.. but none yet.

A few days ago I also added a little Baking Soda as I read on here that it could help me reach a more ideal pH for bacteria growth.

Here are my current stats:


Temp: 30C/86F
Ammonia 4.0 mg/L (since day 1..)
Nitrite 1.5 ppm
Nitrate 20 ppm
GH 75 ppm
KH ~220 ppm
pH 7.8
(I also have air stones going)


Is the alkalinity too high? Honestly that's the one stat that I'm not really sure about (don't know what it means). But from what I've read on here all my other stats seem to be good for bacteria growth.

I'm getting a bit frustrated waiting with no progress. Is there anything I can do now but continue to wait?

 

[waterdrop]

Ten days is very soon. Its very common not to see any action at this point. You aren't doing anything wrong. You have to build up millions and millions of A-Bacs before you will detect them lowering the ammonia.

Are you using a good liquid-reagent based test kit?

~~waterdrop~~

 

[smegforbrains]

When I set up my second tank (22 UK gal), I took about 5 gallons of water from my other tank (20 UK gal). I ran this with half of the media from my 20 gal's Fluval 3+ (3+ in 22 gal also). I ran this for two weeks, planting after about ten days, before readings were OK for fish to be added.

 

[waterdrop]

Each tank is an independent situation. Adding mature media is an action that enjoys a high rate of success. Lacking better statistics, many of us even tend to say it follows an 80/20 rule of success. Nonetheless, its success or failure seems to be a pretty absolute thing, if it fails, it fails. The transported colonies just sometimes die in their new environments.

Patience and steady application of the methods sited here and interaction with the members will usually eventually bring a success that is well worth it in the long run. Good Luck,

~~waterdrop~~

 

[cathat143]

Thanks for the replies. I'm using the API test kit. Guess I'll keep waiting.. but am hoping things get going really soon.

 

[OldMan47]

There is no problem with your KH. Mine runs that high right from the tap and all of my tanks are full of healthy fish. As others have already said, the mature media is not a guarantee of a fast cycle but I would always expect it to provide some help. Actually, it looks like you have some nitrites in the mix so you may well be running a faster cycle than many people experience. If you hang in there, things will progress just fine for you.

 

[petertr]

There is nitrite in the tank - that means it is working.

Just needs to beef up the number of ABacs to manage the amount of ammonia in the tank - which I'm assuming is higher than your old tank ever had to handle.

pH is fine.

 

[cathat143]

Good news everyone, Ammonia is at 0 today (Day14)! That happened really suddenly after a long time of no change.


Nitrite 1.0ppm
Nitrate 10.ppm

I thought nitrite would be higher at this point -- does this mean that my nitrite is already being processed pretty well, or is this a normal reading at this stage?

 

[OldMan47]

A nitrite level of only 1.0 when the ammonia first gets low is a bit unusual. My first guess would be that the nitrite processing bacteria have indeed started to develop. To me that holds a lot of hope but don't rush things now. Keep on feeding the ammonia and monitoring the results.