9 days and still no nitrites

[cutechic]

I've been doing fishless cycling in my 10 G, adding 6 drops of ammonia/day, which got me an ammonia reading of 5 ppm the first day I did it.

I still don't have any nitrites and nitrates, and the ammonia reading is 0.5-1.0 ppm right before I put in the ammonia each day. Is this normal?

 

[merlin]

Dunno, but when you use fish it can take 3-4 weeks.

 

[cutechic]

Dunno, but when you use fish it can take 3-4 weeks.

I know, but with fishless cycling I heard it is only supposed to take 10-17 days.

Also, I've got some gravel from my established 5 gallon tank, which I thought would speed things up. I guess not

 

[Dorsal]

Please keep us posted if it comes good. I'm keen to use this for my new tank

 

[cutechic]

Does anyone know if this is normal???

 

[LoveMyOscar]

...

 

[cutechic]

Grr, it's been a week and a half and still no nitrites. I hate being patient!

 

[modernhamlet]

Grr, it's been a week and a half and still no nitrites. I hate being patient!

It could be worse. You could be 2 days into a fishless cycle, with no other tanks to get bacteria from and no other fishies to keep you company. Just waiting. And hoping you don't screw it up and have to start all over again.

So keep yer head up! Any day now!

 

[cutechic]

Grr, it's been a week and a half and still no nitrites.   I hate being patient!

It could be worse. You could be 2 days into a fishless cycle, with no other tanks to get bacteria from and no other fishies to keep you company. Just waiting. And hoping you don't screw it up and have to start all over again.

So keep yer head up! Any day now!

True, I should always be optimistic

P.S. Were you talking about yourself when you talked about the 2 days into fishless cycling with no fish to keep you company?

 

[kmurph]

Did you seed your filter with a media from an established tank? Just a thought. My thinking would be that seven to nine days would be a bit early to see anything dramatic. (IMO)

 

[modernhamlet]

P.S. Were you talking about yourself when you talked about the 2 days into fishless cycling with no fish to keep you company?

Yes, alas! I've been fighting the urge to get a betta to keep me company. Soon enough though!

Besides, I still don't know which fish I'm getting. That should keep me busy for a couple of weeks.

 

[cutechic]

Yes, alas! I've been fighting the urge to get a betta to keep me company. Soon enough though!

Besides, I still don't know which fish I'm getting. That should keep me busy for a couple of weeks.

Be prepared that if you get a betta, you'll soon end up with several They're very easy to become addicted to.

kmurph: No, I didn't because I don't have any filter cartridges to replace the one I'd be taking out of my 5 gallon.

My thinking would be that seven to nine days would be a bit early to see anything dramatic.

Ok, I just saw that on a couple other forums peoples' tanks were finished cycling in 10 days.

 

[kmurph]

AHHH .. without seeding your filter with some media from an already established tank, the cycle will be longer because there is NO bacteria. You could even use a handful of gravel from another tank as there will be the bacteria you need in it. I would think that if you gave it some more time, letting the bacteria grow, things will get going.

Good luck

 

[Where the river goes]

With gravel from an established tank, I still didn't see any nitrites for a couple of weeks. I'm in the fourth week of a fishless cycle now and things are going well though, except for cloudy water that has lasted a week now, it seems to be a bacterial bloom that doesn't want to clear up

When I did a fishless cycle on my minibows it took one of them 8 without any gravel from an established tank and the other minibow 6 weeks with gravel from the other minibow.

 

[BadKarma99-4spd]

my 55 gal us had taken 16 days to produce nitires and now its been 14 days with no nitrates, like they said every tank is different.

good luck