Yet Another Fishless Cycle Question!

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Other similiar readings at this stage of your cycle have been labelled as a Cycle Stall, i had three of them.
I would suggest a 50% water change with warm, de-chlorinated water.. monitor the ammonia and NitrIte for a while then probably re-dose to 2ppm.

Yeah, that is kind of what I figured, because week or so ago, I was clearing both ammonia and nitrite within 12 hours... I just did a 50% change, so I will test my parameters again in a few hours. I tested ammonia this morning (about 14 hours after the 2ppm dose, and it was still at about .25ppm. I tested right before the WC and it was at zero, so again, it was about 18 hours before it cleared completely. Hopefully after this wc, it can go back to clearing with 12 hours again, and stay that way for another week or two! -_-
 
So, I did the WC, tested a few hours later, ammonia and nitrite were 0, nitrate about 60ppm, ph was about 7.0. I redosed 2ppm of ammonia, rechecked PH right now, and it's at 7.8. I will test again before work and see if the ammo has cleared in 12 hours.
 
Ugh... :crazy:

Ammonia still taking about 18-20hrs to clear 2ppm!

PH: 7.6 (had to buffer with more bicarbonate of soda because it was back to 6.6)
nitrite:0
nitrate: 80ppm

Is this normal for it to take this long? It seems that I can't get 2ppm of ammonia to clear in under 12 hours yet. I am getting a little bit frustrated because it feels like it has just stalled? Further back in the thread, I did a 90% wc not too long ago, and a 50% wc the other day, but it's not helping the ammo clear faster? Any ideas? should I just keep dosing the 2ppm once a day after it clears to zero, and hope and pray? I just don't understand why it was clearing in 12 hours before, and now it's not?
 
Don't re-dose until it clears '0', dosing too much can promote the growth of a wrong type of bacteria.
I would continue to be patient if i was you, you seem to have done the hard work already.
Also, i would continue to prove it is clearing in such a time on a regular basis... regularity can be more important at this stage IMHO...monitoring the PH closely and hoping NOT to have to do another water change.
Having to use Bicarb is a good idea at this stage, but start thinking about a more permanent solution once your cycle is finished.

Terry.
 
Don't re-dose until it clears '0', dosing too much can promote the growth of a wrong type of bacteria.
I would continue to be patient if i was you, you seem to have done the hard work already.
Also, i would continue to prove it is clearing in such a time on a regular basis... regularity can be more important at this stage IMHO...monitoring the PH closely and hoping NOT to have to do another water change.
Having to use Bicarb is a good idea at this stage, but start thinking about a more permanent solution once your cycle is finished.

Terry.


Hi again. No, I am definitely waiting until it's zero completely before I redose ammonia, and am only dosing once a day. And yeah, I am definitely hoping that the PH stabilises when I have fish! I want a lower PH, because of the fish I want to keep, but not so low that it crashes, or where I have like nil KH.
 
Okay, I think my cycle is stalling again... It's taking almost a whole 24hrs for 2ppm of ammonia to drop to 0. Juts tested after dosing nearly 2ppm about 20 hours ago (when it had been at 0) and these are my readings:

Ammonia: .25ppm
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 80-100 ppm (looks a little bit more than 80 on the API chart, but def nowhere near the highest 160 mark)
PH : back down to 6.4 AGAIN!! :grr:

PH keeps falling to low 6's even after I have added bicarbonate of soda to bring it up several times.

I did a 90% WC a three or so weeks ago, and a 50% a little over a week ago. Is my only option to do another massive WC to bring nitrate down and PH back up? It's getting very frustrating now as I started cycling on the 27 of June!! so it's been about 7 weeks now! My ammonia clearing keeps slowing down so I am at a loss of what more to do at this point?? Someone help!


Also, is it normal for my nitrite to clear in about 10-12 hours, while the ammonia isn't?
 
Do you have a lot of surface agitation in the tank? This will help increase the oygen in your water and reduce the carbon dioxide which will help raise the ph. Someone will have to come along and verify this statement, however, I believe it is the carbonic acid from carbon dioxide and acid from excess nitrates in your water that are breaking down the buffer you are adding, consequently lowering your KH, and causing your PH to drop because there is nothing in the water to buffer the acid.

jb
 
Do you have a lot of surface agitation in the tank? This will help increase the oygen in your water and reduce the carbon dioxide which will help raise the ph. Someone will have to come along and verify this statement, however, I believe it is the carbonic acid from carbon dioxide and acid from excess nitrates in your water that are breaking down the buffer you are adding, consequently lowering your KH, and causing your PH to drop because there is nothing in the water to buffer the acid.

jb

Yeah, i have done that - raised my filter outlet slightly higher to get more surface agg., and it didn't seem to make much of a difference tbh. PH is still at 6.4.
 
I am really stumped now. It's been about 24hrs now, and I can't process 2ppm of ammonia. It's at .25ppm still. Nitrite is 0, nitrate about 40ppm. This is two days after I did a massive wc, with temp matched, dechlorinated water. Can this stall just be down to the PH again? UGH!!! :crazy:
 
Added a little bit more BOS earlier, bumped the PH back up to 7.4. Any ammonia that was there when I tested this morning is now gone. :unsure:
 
So, I a pretty convinced that almost two months later, my cycle is completely finished. I have been clearing 2ppm of ammonia and nitrite within about 13 hours over the last 5 days. SO..... I added some of the fish finally! I did a massive 90% WC, added some amazon sword, cambomba, dwarf water lettuce, and have a bunch of vallsineria on the way to me. Some big bogwood and a bunch of dried Indian almond leaves.

PH: 7
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 20

Added a trio apistogramma cacatuoides (one male, two female) and a bristlenose plec, for now. I'll add the hatchets in a few weeks and the cardinals in a month or so. The cacs look great, and both females have now turned bright yellow already, one very, very bright; wonder if I will wake to eggs very soon already? The plec is just rasping on the bogwood and looking great.
 
Well done :good: always great to see great results in a thread.
Now, have you thought about a more permanent solution to your PH issues?
Continue to monitor all results for the next couple of weeks (as should be done with all fishless cycles), closely monitoring your PH. A gently swing of 1ppm either way may not make any difference to your new fish, but anything more needs looking at.
Best of luck, we need pics..!!!!

Terry.
 
Well done :good: always great to see great results in a thread.
Now, have you thought about a more permanent solution to your PH issues?
Continue to monitor all results for the next couple of weeks (as should be done with all fishless cycles), closely monitoring your PH. A gently swing of 1ppm either way may not make any difference to your new fish, but anything more needs looking at.
Best of luck, we need pics..!!!!

Terry.


Yeah, cheers! I know I will have to keep an eye on the PH/GH/KH as well as everything else. I will be testing everything 2x a day for the next week or so. My PH from the tap (after been sat out for 24 hrs was 7.2), so I am hoping it can remain a bit more stable now. I obviously don't have a real massive bioload to start with, so I think that with regular 15-20% WC' s, everything should go well. Fed the cacs a tiny bit of bloodworm, as they are still quite small, and they gobbled it up, and the male seems to be following the females around and posing for them quite a lot, but of course they are playing hard to get.
 
You shouldn't, theoretically, need to keep a close eye on the KH/GH...once you know what it is coming out of your tap, then unless there is some drastic change from your water company/nature then it will remain either hard, hard/soft, or soft.
I would keep feeding to 4/5 times a week initially, feeding only enough that your current fish wil eat within 1/2 minutes...overfeeding is a major cause of alot of accidents, mishaps and problems.

Terry.
 

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