Questions about a stalled fishless cycle

[LatrinoBidet]

Hello. I am wondering if I could get some advice regarding my new tank. This is my fourth tank setupt and I have decided to do fishless cycling using pure ammonia. I would have done it sooner, but I only recently found out about how inhumane cycling with hardy minnows is. Here's a bit about my tank...

• 20 Gallons
  
  
• 84° F
  
  
• Day 7 (but only added ammonia on day 2)
  
  
• GH 0 (was 180) / KH 60 (used buffer to maintain) / PH 6.5 (buffer to maintain) / Nitrites 0 / Nitrates 20
  
  
• Ammonia ~2ppm
  
  
• 5 pieces of driftwood (3 from established tank)
  
  
• Pest snail invasion / have been removing about 1 per day (thanks Petco!)
  
  
• Gravel substrate capping Fluval, Carib sand on one side
  
  
• Assorted Crytps, Anubias, and other plants. Not quite a planted tank, but quite a few plants.
  
  
• Using Seachem Stability Daily
  
  
• White translucent fungus growing (sign of bacteria colonizing in driftwood)
  

The process just doesn't seem to be going anywhere aside from the fungal growth, which I have had in several tanks during cycling. Once the tank cycles I know the shrimp and snails will yum that stuff up. The KH and PH are being maintained using Seachem's buffer. Otherwise they would be lower.



Any thoughts?

 

[FishGuest5123]

If this is your 4th tank set up then just take some filter media out of your other cycled filters. Just stuff it in your new filter. That will speed things up and should actually give you an automatic cycle. Good luck!

 

[LatrinoBidet]

I would love to but the other tanks are 2000 miles away. I should have noted that I am setting this up for my mother across country. Great advice though.

 

[Colin_T]

Hi and welcome to the forum

Make sure there is plenty of aeration/ surface turbulence and give it time. The tank has only been going for 7 days and it normally takes about 4-5 weeks for an aquarium to cycle and develop all the beneficial filter bacteria.

The white fluffy stuff on the driftwood is usually fungus, and does not have anything to do with the filter bacteria. It is just growing on something that is rotting on that part of the wood.

2ppm of ammonia is fine.

84F is a bit warm for most fish but is fine for cycling an aquarium. After the cycle I would reduce the temperature unless you plan on keeping discus.

You can add liquid bacterial supplements to help speed the process up. I normally add a double dose each day for a week and then put the rest away to use on another tank later on. Try to add the supplement near the filter intake so it is drawn into the filter where it is used.

---------------------
What happened to your GH?
I would increase the GH to at least 100ppm but it depends on what fish you want to keep. Unless you are keeping wild caught fishes that come from very soft water, there is no need to have 0 GH.

Apart from that just give it time. In a couple of weeks the first groups of filter bacteria will appear and you should start to get nitrites. Then a few weeks after that you get nitrates and the ammonia and nitrite drop to 0. Then it's off to the fish shop for some fish.

 

[LatrinoBidet]

Hi and welcome to the forum

Make sure there is plenty of aeration/ surface turbulence and give it time. The tank has only been going for 7 days and it normally takes about 4-5 weeks for an aquarium to cycle and develop all the beneficial filter bacteria.

The white fluffy stuff on the driftwood is usually fungus, and does not have anything to do with the filter bacteria. It is just growing on something that is rotting on that part of the wood.

2ppm of ammonia is fine.

84F is a bit warm for most fish but is fine for cycling an aquarium. After the cycle I would reduce the temperature unless you plan on keeping discus.

You can add liquid bacterial supplements to help speed the process up. I normally add a double dose each day for a week and then put the rest away to use on another tank later on. Try to add the supplement near the filter intake so it is drawn into the filter where it is used.

---------------------
What happened to your GH?
I would increase the GH to at least 100ppm but it depends on what fish you want to keep. Unless you are keeping wild caught fishes that come from very soft water, there is no need to have 0 GH.

Apart from that just give it time. In a couple of weeks the first groups of filter bacteria will appear and you should start to get nitrites. Then a few weeks after that you get nitrates and the ammonia and nitrite drop to 0. Then it's off to the fish shop for some fish.

Thanks for this! I have no idea why the GH dropped. The PH and KH dropped as well but I brought them up using Alkalinity Buffer. Gonna do a big water change when the cycle is done. That should bring the GH back to normal. Is it fine at 0 for the cycling period?

 

[Colin_T]

0 GH is normally ok to cycle a tank but make sure the pH doesn't drop.

If your water supply has some GH then do a big water change now. You can do another after the tank has cycled.