Tank Not Cycling Help!

[waterdrop]

Hi fishnoob85,

I've seen lots of fishless cycles that have started off with a very slow two or even 3 weeks of trying to drop the very first dose of ammonia to zero. In the cases I've seen, they finally do indeed drop to zero and the fact that they were slow on this very first drop does not in fact seem to have much bearing on whether the overall fishless cycle will be one of the slower or faster ones.

Reviewing the details you've laid out in some of your posts there I don't see anything wrong with what you're doing relative to our many other fishless cyclers or the RDD article or the various other things we've all passed around in the last few years or so. I'd just keep testing and logging and plugging away!

~~waterdrop~~

 

[FishNoob85]

Thanks waterdrop, I'm hoping to start seeing some reults this week and will keep you all posted on how I get on. If the ammonia takes 3 weeks to drop, does that mean the nitrite is gonna take 6?

EDIT:
Just done some tests:
ammonia - between 2 and 4 (can't really tell but lighter than yesterdays)

nitrite - 0.25- definately a shade of purple so something is happening

ph still 7.5

 

[waterdrop]

If the ammonia takes 3 weeks to drop, does that mean the nitrite is gonna take 6?

No, that's what I was trying to say in that second sentence. There's not much, if any, correlation between a slow beginning and the speed of any of the other phases in my opinion.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[OldMan47]

Thanks for the defense Chrissi but I was feeling a bit put upon and did not act in the best way that I should have. My apologies to all, especially Jabba for any offense I might have given. I am not always the best judge of my own actions. Jabba and everyone else here is entitled to their own opinions whether I agree with them or not. Time on a forum means very little compared to common sense.

 

[Rediahs]

Thanks for the defense Chrissi but I was feeling a bit put upon and did not act in the best way that I should have. My apologies to all, especially Jabba for any offense I might have given. I am not always the best judge of my own actions. Jabba and everyone else here is entitled to their own opinions whether I agree with them or not. Time on a forum means very little compared to common sense.

Hm. That's very nice of you. Maybe I missed something cause your post seemed normal to me... but then again I do sometimes miss things related to social cues that others seem to pick up.... to me it's quite invisible, I don't see any offensive content but if you say so. I'm sure you know better than me what you wrote or intended to write.

 

[Jabba]

I appreciate the comments, I have cooled off somewhat, apologies maybe due both ways here I think.

I do try not to make ANY post or remark personal in nature knowing where this can lead, clearly I too failed in that department since OldMan47 felt the way he did, he responded accordingly and then it escalated.

 

[FishNoob85]

Hi again everyone,

Well its been a week since i last posted and im happy to say that my tank is now cycling fine, Got my first 0ppm reading of ammonia and the nitrites have been increasing rapidly and are now 5.0ppm or more. Added 4.0ppm ammonia last night (22:30)and now they look like there just over 1.0ppm (10:30). Not sure if it was a coincidence, but after i added "Cycle" that came with the tank (a week ago), i started to see progress very quickly.

Thanks everyone for your help, ill keep you posted on how its coming along in case anyone else who reads this was having similar problems.

 

[waterdrop]

Its a coincidence. Congrats on reaching your "nitrite spike" stage. On what day of fishless cycling would you say you first reached ammonia dropping to zero in 24 hours? On what day of fishless cycling would you say your nitrite first hit the highest range on your nitrite test?

~~waterdrop~~

 

[FishNoob85]

Ok guys, sorry ive not been very good at keeping people posted with various stages and stuff, just had alot on.
My tank is now fully cycled. it took about 6 weeks. 3 weeks before i noticed an ammonia drop then as soon as i noticed the first drop it was processing ammonia in about 24 hours for a couple of days then 12 hours after that. During this time my nitrites spiked and then they took about 2 weeks to drop. I kept adding ammonia for 1 week after my readings were all at 0, mainly because i didnt have time to get any fish but probably better in the long run.

I now have 9 barbs (5 tiger and 4 green) all with very vibrant colours (the red on the dorsal fin is almost neon on the males and the green barbs are like a metallic blue almost) As other people have posted about barbs, their headstanding abilities are very worrying but then as soon as you open the lid to feed them they're like piranha's, following your hand untill you drop something in!

Anyway, thanks everyone for your help and if anyone is reading this because their tank isnt cycling then just stick with it. Once it gets going it all happens quite quickly!