Cycling Not Working?

[martyn413]

Tested my tank last night.

Ammonia 0ppm
nitrite 5ppm or higher

I added more ammonia.

It is really worth the wait doing a fishless cycle. Makes me feel better knowing the fish will have a better change of life once the tank has cycled.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

bacteria will start to die off after 12 hrs without food, so do your big water change in the morning and go get your fish that day.

 

[martyn413]

No no,

Have to wait until nitrites have reached 0ppm too (That why i've put more ammonia in the tank). NitrAtes will be sky high and i'll do a water change to reduce these.

Once my tank has cycled and i've done a water change i will add more ammonia to keep the bacteria alive. On the way home from work, i'll pick up a few fish.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

sorry, didn't mean now, just meant when the cycle is done as you were asking when it's done what do you need to do before adding fish

 

[martyn413]

Thanks,

Fishless cycle is new to me so i really want to get it right. Also, at some time in the future I'd like to pass on my knowledge.

I can't wait until the cycle has completed. I'm testing the tank daily.

Martyn

 

[martyn413]

My water stats:

3 May
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0.50

put more ammonia in at 8pm ish then tested the tank at 10:15pm
ammonia 8ppm

This morning 4 May my stats are:

Ammonia 0ppm
Nitrite 0.50 ppm.

I've put more ammonia in the tank and will test the water. I'll be back home form work at about 4 ish so i'll test the water then.
Does this seam ok?

Martyn

 

[Miss Wiggle]

nearly there now! just be patient and wait for your nitrite to fall

 

[martyn413]

Hi all,

Well my cycle took a nose dive. After the ammonia was going to 0ppm in under 12 hours, i've been adding more ammonia to get it to 6ppm. On Friday night the tank looked clowdy for the first time, then on saturday i added more ammonia because it was at 0ppm. I tested the tank late on sunday and the ammonia was still at 6-7ppm so i tested for nitrite and it was 0. I left the tank until monday and did a big water change. The ammonia was at 2ppm, nitrite 0. I left the tank for a while then tested the water at 6pm and the ammonia was 0ppm and nitrite was 0.25. Nitrate was 10ppm.

It seams weird that the tank was going fine then stalled.

Any ideas why this happened?

Martyn

 

[Miss Wiggle]

cycles do stall from time to time often with no discernible reason. there are loads of factors that can affect cycling so pinning down exactly what's happened can be a nightmare.

just keep adding your ammonia to 5ppm each day and soon enough it'll be done.

 

[GoldLenny]

Check your KH and pH. If the KH gets too low, it will starve the N-bacteria and cause them to stall in growing. This happens often to people with soft water that is not sufficiently buffered.

This would be a good time to figure out your tap/source water chemistry baseline.

Run the cold water for a minute. Fill a gallon bucket or wide mouth container (for surface area reasons). Test for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH, KH and GH. Post numbers. Add dechlor product (if needed). Wait 24-48 hours and test water again. Post results. Quite often you will see the pH change and the KH/GH change as the buffers used by the utility wear out and the CO2 levels change. This will give you a better idea of what will happen in your tank as the water from your PWC's "matures" in the tank.

 

[martyn413]

Hi everyone,

My water stats this morning.

Ammonia 0
Nitrite not sure. light Blue indicates 0, light purple indicates 0.25 - the colour was dark blue but not purple
Nitrate 10

I put ammonia in the tank last night at 10pm and tested the water at 6.30.

Can i get my fish today?

Thanks

Martyn

 

[Miss Wiggle]

nope, if your not sure about nitrite don't get them just yet. did you just run 1 test? if the colours a bit off and you can't work out exactly what it is give the test tube a good rinse out and do another test, they can easily get contaminated if somethings got into the test tube.

 

[martyn413]

i always rinse the tubes before/after use. if i had to guess i'd say the reading was somewhere between 0 - 0.25.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

then your not done cycling yet, wait until ammonia and nitrite are both consistently getting down to 0. IME it's best to continue adding ammonia for a few days after you first get both readings to 0, just gives you a chance to make doubly sure the tank is ready for fish.

Obviously it's down to you but if it was me I'd be aiming to get my fish this weekend coming. Sounds like the tank will be done cycling in the next day or two, then a day or two extra to check it's stable and you'll hopefully be good to go at the weekend. means you don't have to rush as well as you can do your big water change first thing in the morning, leave the tank getting up to temp as yuo browse your lfs's then bring your fishies home and your around to monitor them.

 

[martyn413]

You're right. Why rush it now when i've waited so long.

I was stressing a bit trying to work out how to get the fish on a week day and do a water change and make sure it doesn't go too long with out an ammonia source.

Martyn