Stalled Cycle (revisited)

[kimberly]

I posted at the beginning of February about my fishless cycle which had stalled. Click here to read that thread. I followed the advice given to me and did a dechlorinated water change and added enough ammonia to reach 1.2ppm. That was over 2 weeks ago now. I've been testing for ammonia and it has remained at 1.2ppm. The nitrites are at 0. The ph is 6.8. The temperature is and has remained in the high 80s.

rdd1952 said "If you don't see the ammonia dropping and nitrite rising in about 2 or 3 days, then something is wrong." Well, it hasn't dropped and it's been over 2 weeks. I don't know what to do. I have gone through an entire ammonia kit and have had to buy a new one. I need some help. Does anyone know what might be causing my cycle to stall? Did the 100% water change kill off any potential beneficial bacteria? What should I do?

 

[st24rsap]

the water change wouldnt have killed off any good bacteria as long as you used the correct amount of declorinator added to the fresh tap water ? but if your Nitrate has always been 0 you had no good bacteria anyway

do you know anyone local you can get any mature media from to give the process a kick start.

 

[P&J]

Have you verified that your test kit is working? I'm not exactly sure how to do that, but perhaps try testing some plain old dechlorinated water and see what happens. Can someone else weigh in on that? Should dechlorinated tap water show zero ammonia, or is it possible to have a low reading?

Or maybe pick up a different brand of test kit and see if you get the same results.

Another thought: Does your water conditioner/dechlorinator claim any sort of ammonia-lock or ammonia detox effects? I remember reading on here that some products such as AmmoLock will give false positives. Again, can someone else with more knowledge weigh in?

Just me brainstorming, so I hope this helps! Maybe someone can pick up one of these leads and give some advice

-P

 

[kimberly]

the water change wouldnt have killed off any good bacteria as long as you used the correct amount of declorinator added to the fresh tap water ? but if your Nitrate has always been 0 you had no good bacteria anyway

do you know anyone local you can get any mature media from to give the process a kick start.

No, unfortunately I don't know anyone with an aquarium that could help me seed my tank. The Nitrate has always been 0. The Nitrite was 0.6ppm before I did the water change and it's been 0 ever since.

 

[kimberly]

Have you verified that your test kit is working? I'm not exactly sure how to do that, but perhaps try testing some plain old dechlorinated water and see what happens. Can someone else weigh in on that? Should dechlorinated tap water show zero ammonia, or is it possible to have a low reading?

Or maybe pick up a different brand of test kit and see if you get the same results.

Another thought: Does your water conditioner/dechlorinator claim any sort of ammonia-lock or ammonia detox effects? I remember reading on here that some products such as AmmoLock will give false positives. Again, can someone else with more knowledge weigh in?

Just me brainstorming, so I hope this helps! Maybe someone can pick up one of these leads and give some advice

-P

I used the test kit on my Betta's 1.5 gallon tank and it gave me different readings. The second kit I have is the same brand but it's a new kit from a different store. Both old and new kits have given me the same reading. I've been using Big Al's Multi Purpose conditioner. It says nothing about ammonia on the bottle. It says it dechlorinates the water and helps with stress coat. click here to view it. Should I do another water change and use a different brand of dechlorinater? Am I looking at another 2 months of cycling here?