Are You All Ready For....... Another Cycling Question?

[blabay]

I know everyone must be getting sick of these questions, but here goes anyway!

I've started a fishless (add and wait) cycle on my 30g freshwater tank and I'm about 9 days into it. My ammonia levels have only dropped from 4-2 in that time period. Is this normal? Many of the other topics I've read on this forum are giving me the idea that Ammonia should start to drop in just a couple of days.

Temp is set to 86F and I'm using a litre of Seachem BioMatrix in my Eheim 2213 filter. I don't have hardness levels, but I know the water in this area has historically been pretty hard. Ph has remained at a constant 7.4
I'm using ammonia from Ace hardware that appears to be the right stuff.

I'm going to assume you will all tell me just to be paitient, am I right?

 

[Colin_T]

It usually takes a couple of weeks before the first colony of good bacteria have built up and the ammonia levels start to drop. Then it is a couple more weeks after that before the nitrite has gone up and down.
People who claim they have no ammonia after a couple of days have either used a filter off an established tank, or are lying.
Try to maximise the surface turbulence and wait
If the cycling process seems to stall, then do a 90% water change (with dechlorinated water) and continue the process.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yeah it often hangs at the start of a good week or so before you see any real movement, bit more patience!!

 

[waterdrop]

patience, patience, we can't get enough beds for all of them in this hospital

 

[blabay]

Alright, alright, I'll wait.

Thanks for the help.

 

[blabay]

Patience paid off. Ammonia is processing in less than 12 hours. Now I just have to wait for the Nitrite. I'm just now starting to get slight amounts of Nitrate. Would I be able to add live plants yet?

 

[kevinthecow]

In 86F for plants?
Can they live?
I've had bad luck with higher temps with plants. (Well, my friend has. )

 

[Thommo]

In 86F for plants?
Can they live?
I've had bad luck with higher temps with plants. (Well, my friend has. )

My tank is generally any where from 28-30 deg C (82-86 F) with plants and currently having no probs . Although I am sure if you get the wrong plants for a higher temp you could have issues.

CHEERS
Thommo

 

[blabay]

I just had a thought...
Would this cycling happen faster if my tank wasn't covered? I'm running an airstone and a spraybar on the filter return to agitate the surface. Is this enough or should the tank be uncovered?
This also begs the question....Should a tank be covered at all unless absolutely necessary (to prevent fishies from jumping out)? I built a hood in which to house the lighting and I plan on having plants. Should I do away with the glass cover altogether?

 

[fatheadminnow]

I just had a thought...
Would this cycling happen faster if my tank wasn't covered? I'm running an airstone and a spraybar on the filter return to agitate the surface. Is this enough or should the tank be uncovered?
This also begs the question....Should a tank be covered at all unless absolutely necessary (to prevent fishies from jumping out)? I built a hood in which to house the lighting and I plan on having plants. Should I do away with the glass cover altogether?

I don't think it matters at all. I wish I had a cover for my tank just because the water evaporates so fast without it. I loose about 15% of water once a week due to evaporation.

And no, I do not think it will alter the cycle, just because the bacteria grow in your filter, and not so much in the tank. Besides, you have an aerator which is plenty.

The only thing that might happen is the glass cover is probably going to get dirty on the underside from water splashing on it all the time from the bubbles that pop at the surface, and it will have to be cleaned a lot.

I would just leave it on.

-FHM

 

[blabay]

Oooops!
I think I have a problem now. Ammonia was being processed to 0 in less than 12 hours for a few days. So, I quit measuring it and just kept adding ammonia every morning and every evening assuming it was being processed. My Nitrite levels spiked, and I've been monitoring them and occasionally NItrate (which is not rising). I guess I should have continued checking ammonia as the levels are now off the chart 8+ !
Did I kill off the bacteria I wanted? Is the process going to start over? What should I do? I'm not going to add any more ammonia until its 0 again, thats for sure.

 

[waterdrop]

Do a large water change as soon as convenient and recharge the ammonia to 5ppm. It shouldn't have had time to hurt things. At around 8ppm a different species is encouraged to grow and that's why you don't want it that high.

You should be measuring ammonia, nitrite(NO2) and pH twice daily on the 12 and 24 hour (from ammonia add) marks and logging them in your notebook.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[blabay]

I did about a 80% water change last week and that seemed to do the trick. Once the ph got back up to normal, the ammonia disappeared. My nitrites also finally went from off-the-scale to 0 today! It looks like I'm nearing the end of my cycle after nearly two full months! One thing thats odd is that I'm still reading 0 nitrates. Shouldn't the nitrates be on the rise, or is there a lag between nitrite decrease and nitrate increase?

 

[theshadowinc]

hmm you mentioned about adding plants and if you would be okay to do that. You don't need to have a cycled tank to add plants to your fish tank. Are you going for a planted tank? if you are 0 across the board everything seems to be okay I think you would be safe. Pretty long cycle time!

psst with a planted tank set it up put the plants in if its heavy planted vertually no cycle time in most cases, sorry to tell you the news now but didn't see this post till now

Gratz on your cycled tank

theshadowinc

 

[blabay]

Thanks for the heads up. I didn't realize plants would help the cycle that much, anyway, I wouldn't have had the funds to put anything in the tank besides sand. I don't even have the lighting figured out yet. I better hurry though. I still don't understand why I'm not getting any nitrate readings yet???