Cycling

[jiffy]

Well, I have been trying a fishless cycle on a 10 gallon for 3 months now. Yes it is rather ridiculous. I have pretty much run out of paitence.

EDIT---
For those of you interested...here is a link to my thread that has the progress (or lack there of) for my cycle

http/fish.orbust.net/forums/index.php?sh...showtopic=31101

 

[Cheese Specialist]

I'd use 'hardy' fish to cycle.

I admire your patience though!

 

[Fiddlesticks]

Dont give up. I just had a month long cycling ordeal but all is well now. Danios are supposed to be pretty hardy

 

[luxum]

I don't understand why your nitrite hasn't spiked. Have you tried another test kit, sometimes the reagents go bad (or were bad from the start) and give false readings. Also, what are your nitrates at? That could help to determine what's going on in there. You could switch to using fish, but to me it's unethical to subject fish to toxic levels of ammonia and nitrite, regardless of how hardy they are. Your choice of course.

Edit: wait, it looks like it did spike in April. Really need nitrate readings. I think you might be done, actually. Stop adding ammonia, let the ammonia and nitrite levels come to zero (not with water changes, let it get converted). Then add the small dose you've been using and check the levels in 24 hours.

 

[jiffy]

My nitrites did spike, around April 28th, at 5 ppm. From then out it was on the decrease. Eventually I did a 90% water change so that I could bring the ammonia back to a readable level (as it had always been sky high and never hit 0) and after I did the water change my ammonia was down to 4.0 ppm and my nitrites went up from .75 ppm the day earlier to 2 ppm after the water change.

I have kept a very detailed log of what I have done.
You can click here to look at my log

Today, I also tested my tap water and also dechlorinated tap water to make sure the test kit was ok. Both of these tests showed 0 nitrites and 0 ammonia.

I do not have a nitrate test kit, so I am unsure of what those are.

Also, my pH is 7.9, the same it has been since I set up the tank (before adding ammonia) and my GH is 179ppm, also the same since day 1

 

[cometcattle]

I'd use hardy fish.

Too bad you can't get some used filter media. I just stripped down my 10g fry tank, so I could have another 10g planted community. I stuffed a piece of filter media from my 29g into the filter for the 10g. I did add 1 platy from another tank. It cycled in 2 days.

 

[Cheese Specialist]

Dont give up. I just had a month long cycling ordeal but all is well now. Danios are supposed to be pretty hardy

Yeah, but this is 3 months!!!!

 

[Sky042]

Did you try any of the other souces? i.e. buying some plants from your LFS hell in that amount of time I think even the hagen cycle product would have worked.

 

[Bruce's Reformed Nephew]

I know that I could not wait for three months for my tank to cycle.

I admire your patience. I would go with the nice hardy danios or white cloud minnows to cycle at this point.
-BRN

 

[Weirdfish]

I voted for keep with it, but only coz it'll make me feel better knowing someone is worse off than me.

Actually I feel bad for getting impatient after just over 3 weeks )

 

[luxum]

Yeh, i looked at your log, and i'm seeing that both ammonia and nitrite spiked and then fell, i missed the nitrite spike the first time i looked, hence my edit. Leave the tank alone, keep taking readings until both ammonia and nitrite hit 0, don't dilute it with water changes, shouldn't take long. Then add your dose and see what happens in 24 hours, i suspect both will read zero and that your nitrates are astronomical. Or you could just do several large water changes and then add fish if you want to chance it, it looks like it has already cycled based on your data.

The 3 month thing has me baffled, i fishless cycle in 1.5 weeks, start to finish, but i have some seeding material.

 

[kgrehm]

lol who put give up?

 

[Socrates]

There's no option for "throw in a bag of Bio-Spira and then add fish."

 

[jiffy]

I have decided that unless some miracle happens today or tomorrow when I test the water, I am going to do the water changes until everything is 0. Then Im going and getting some dainos, and hopfully everything will work out ok.

 

[tstenback]

Man you are one of the most patient people i have ever come across. You have done everything possible to make this work and i think the main problem is the switching of techniques in the middle. I agree with luxum and if you do your water changes and get everything to zero. Try one more thing. Add a small bit of ammonia and wait a day and test again. It just might be ready.
Good luck Jiffy