Stalled Cycle?

[nike12301]

I'm trying to fish in cycle my 36 gallon tank.

It's been a month and my ammonia has never reached above .25 and I've seen no nitrates. I do water changes every couple days.

I've had filter media from an established tank in there for about two weeks. I used Stress Zyme+ and saw no results. Now I've been using Cycle.

Still no nitrites.

A couple days ago my ammonia dropped down to zero, which I thought meant nitrites would show up soon. A couple days later the ammonia started to creep back up again and I never saw any nitrites.

Is there such thing as cycle just being "stuck"?

I know you have to be patient, but this doesn't seem right to me. It's been a month and most posts here say filter media from a mature tank will speed up the cycle greatly.

 

[backtotropical]

Hi Nike12301,

I don't think there is anything wrong with your cycle. If you have mature media like you say, it may be the case that you will never see any nitrite. The nitrite oxidising bacteria colony in the mature media is possibly sufficient to handle the nitrite being produced. Also, if you are doing water changes, those will dilute the nitrite concentrations.

If you are still seeing ammonia and it is disappearing, which it is, then your cycle is going fine. I would guess your mature media is skewing the results that you are expecting to see.

Patience is the key, I'm afraid. Just keep doing what you are doing until ammonia and nitrite are both consistently 0 without the need for lots of water changes.

When ammonia and nitrite both stay at 0 for 7 days in a row without a water change, you are cycled.

Keep your chin up. It sound like you are making good progress.

BTT

 

[nike12301]

Hm... Very interesting.

Thanks a lot. Now I know why maybe my nitrites weren't showing up.