24 days into fishless cycle. NOTHING but ammonia!

[Rockfish35]

Sorry. I'm stumped at this point as well.

going to restart it with 0 ammonia

recheck everything

and start again

rinse off everything before re filling

and see what happens

ughhh

 

[Colin_T]

Is there something rotting in the tank (possibly in the substrate) that is causing the ammonia?

Is there a pre-filter above the bioballs?
Perhaps put the bioballs into a mesh bag so they are closer together.
Maybe use a sponge before the bioballs.

If you have another tank, take half the filter media from that and add it to the tank and see what happens.

If there is still no improvement, then drain and refill the tank a couple of times and then set it up and do a fish in cycle. Don't add too many fish. Keep the feeding down to 2-3 times per week. Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate 4-8 hours after feeding, and on any day you have an ammonia or nitrite reading above 0.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

 

[Rockfish35]

Is there something rotting in the tank (possibly in the substrate) that is causing the ammonia?

Is there a pre-filter above the bioballs?
Perhaps put the bioballs into a mesh bag so they are closer together.
Maybe use a sponge before the bioballs.

If you have another tank, take half the filter media from that and add it to the tank and see what happens.

If there is still no improvement, then drain and refill the tank a couple of times and then set it up and do a fish in cycle. Don't add too many fish. Keep the feeding down to 2-3 times per week. Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate 4-8 hours after feeding, and on any day you have an ammonia or nitrite reading above 0.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

you need an ammonia and/or nitrite reading above 0 to cycle an aquarium

so a 75% water change every time you do makes no sense

 

[eaglesaquarium]

This is correct. A proper 'fish in' cycle is more complicated than a fishless cycle, and requires a much better understanding of the nitrogen cycle.


The ammonia level needs to be as high as possible (to encourage the bacteria to increase) while remaining as low as possible (for the health of the fish)... this delicate balance can only be kept with close observation of the levels... and the difference between free ammonia and ammonium.
https://www.hamzasreef.com/Contents/Calculators/FreeAmmonia.php

Using the above linked calculator, free ammonia must be kept under 0.05 ppm... but some fish are uch more sensitive than others, so being cautious you'd likely want to be below that...by a considerable margin.


Next for the nitrite, this blocks the fish's ability to take up oxygen in the hemoglobin, and instead it takes in the nitrite... turning the blood 'brown'... hence the term "brown blood disease"... this can be dealt with by adding salt to the tank. The salt inhibits the hemoglobin from taking up the nitrite and the fish can survive. The concentration of salt required depends on the nitrite level. And the amount of salt the fish can handle depends on the species, of course.
See our "Fish in cycle gone wrong" threads for the specifics on the concentrations needed for the salt for nitrite. These are great resources for the fish-in cycle... and if you are going that way, I'd recommend them above any other resource I've seen in terms of readability and ease to understanding what to do.
http://www.fishforums.net/threads/rescuing-a-fish-in-cycle-gone-wild-part-i.433769/
http://www.fishforums.net/threads/rescuing-a-fish-in-cycle-gone-wild-part-il.433778/


Good luck.

 

[Rockfish35]

well i refilled

dechlorinated

added an entire bottle of TSS and 5 3/4 inch tiger barbs


been running 4 days now

feeding every three days

EVERYTHING is zero

exept NITRATE!

it's about 5.0PMM

really?? what do we make of this now??

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Weird... but it seems you are cycled now...

 

[Rockfish35]

Weird... but it seems you are cycled now...

Could it be the TSS?

Creating some initial nitrate

 

[eaglesaquarium]

I don't think so. I think its the TSS cycling that small amount of ammonia produced by those fish.