Weird Cycling?

[triliaeris]

A quick background, I have about 8 aquariums at home ranging in size from a 28 gallon to a few 1.5 gallons (all over a year old and cycled), so this issue has me quite confused.

I've purcased a 36 gallon aquarium for my office, and have begun cycling it (fishless). I've so far done it the same as all the others, I first added enough ammonia to make about 5 ppm, then I've added the same amount each day while testing for nitrite and nitrate as well.

For the first few days I saw ammonia only, but then on day 4 I saw about .25 ppm of nitrite (ammonia was around 8 ppm)... nitrate was still 0 ppm. I then cut down the ammonia to half and added some seed material from my home tank. The next day I got a reading of 8+ ppm of ammonia, 0 ppm of nitrite, and about 1 ppm of nitrate.

I've not added ammonia for the past 3 days to try to get the spike to drop, my current readings are:

Ammonia 8+ ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: Between 5 and 10 ppm

My question is, is all well here? Or is something wrong? I am hoping to see the ammonia start dropping soon, as it's been about 8 days since I started. I know the cycle normally takes around 14 days or so (as mine have before), but something seems off... maybe it's because it's been awhile since I last did a large cycle and I just like to panic.

Anywho, I'd love to hear someone say this is normal. Otherwise if it's abnormal, if someone could suggest something I'd love it as well!

 

[Egmel]

A quick background, I have about 8 aquariums at home ranging in size from a 28 gallon to a few 1.5 gallons (all over a year old and cycled), so this issue has me quite confused.

I've purcased a 36 gallon aquarium for my office, and have begun cycling it (fishless). I've so far done it the same as all the others, I first added enough ammonia to make about 5 ppm, then I've added the same amount each day while testing for nitrite and nitrate as well.

For the first few days I saw ammonia only, but then on day 4 I saw about .25 ppm of nitrite (ammonia was around 8 ppm)... nitrate was still 0 ppm. I then cut down the ammonia to half and added some seed material from my home tank. The next day I got a reading of 8+ ppm of ammonia, 0 ppm of nitrite, and about 1 ppm of nitrate.

I've not added ammonia for the past 3 days to try to get the spike to drop, my current readings are:

Ammonia 8+ ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: Between 5 and 10 ppm

My question is, is all well here? Or is something wrong? I am hoping to see the ammonia start dropping soon, as it's been about 8 days since I started. I know the cycle normally takes around 14 days or so (as mine have before), but something seems off... maybe it's because it's been awhile since I last did a large cycle and I just like to panic.

Anywho, I'd love to hear someone say this is normal. Otherwise if it's abnormal, if someone could suggest something I'd love it as well!

What's the pH? A cycle can stall if the pH goes too low. Ideally reduce the ammonia to around 5ppm (just do some water changes) otherwise it can inhibt the growth of the bacteria. (can't remember which ones, think it's likely to be the nitrite->nitrate ones!)

 

[triliaeris]

A quick background, I have about 8 aquariums at home ranging in size from a 28 gallon to a few 1.5 gallons (all over a year old and cycled), so this issue has me quite confused.

I've purcased a 36 gallon aquarium for my office, and have begun cycling it (fishless). I've so far done it the same as all the others, I first added enough ammonia to make about 5 ppm, then I've added the same amount each day while testing for nitrite and nitrate as well.

For the first few days I saw ammonia only, but then on day 4 I saw about .25 ppm of nitrite (ammonia was around 8 ppm)... nitrate was still 0 ppm. I then cut down the ammonia to half and added some seed material from my home tank. The next day I got a reading of 8+ ppm of ammonia, 0 ppm of nitrite, and about 1 ppm of nitrate.

I've not added ammonia for the past 3 days to try to get the spike to drop, my current readings are:

Ammonia 8+ ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: Between 5 and 10 ppm

My question is, is all well here? Or is something wrong? I am hoping to see the ammonia start dropping soon, as it's been about 8 days since I started. I know the cycle normally takes around 14 days or so (as mine have before), but something seems off... maybe it's because it's been awhile since I last did a large cycle and I just like to panic.

Anywho, I'd love to hear someone say this is normal. Otherwise if it's abnormal, if someone could suggest something I'd love it as well!

What's the pH? A cycle can stall if the pH goes too low. Ideally reduce the ammonia to around 5ppm (just do some water changes) otherwise it can inhibt the growth of the bacteria. (can't remember which ones, think it's likely to be the nitrite->nitrate ones!)

PH is actually around 7.6, so it's not low (if anything I need to lower it, lol). If the ammonia doesn't drop soon I'll do a water change to lower it... I didn't think of that. The weird thing is that the end of the cycle (the nitrite -> nitrate part) is working great... I assume it's from my seeding from the other tank though, right?

 

[Breeze7050]

Might want to use (if possible to get from home to office) a filter, some water, rocks ect from your cycled aquariums to jump start it... do a search on it.

 

[triliaeris]

Might want to use (if possible to get from home to office) a filter, some water, rocks ect from your cycled aquariums to jump start it... do a search on it.

Actually I did that (I called it "seeding")... that's what seemed to cause my nitrites to drop and my nitrates to jump up. Is it possible that I got mostly one type of bacteria rather than the other?

 

[Inchworm]

Hi triliaeris

That's very unlikely.

Your tank was cycled at the point where you added the bacteria laden filter media. Depending on the amount of media you used, it could support an appropriate number of fish without your doing anything else. Then, as time went on, you could have added a few fish at a time until it was fully stocked. The bacteria would have increased with each new fish added.

I have 25 tanks running currently, with the number changing frequently. I've never done a "fishless" cycle, and, except for when I moved to a new apartment and lost a bunch of bacteria in the process, have not formally cycled any of them. They are all clones of my original tank.

 

[triliaeris]

The ammonia is too high to add fish. I'm not into making them insane and watch them swim into the wall over and over again.

Any reason this was moved multiple times? I'm not really a beginner for one, two it's probably going to die in this forum and I really really need some help.