cycling

[jeff_hopkinson]

Hi, I have a rio 180 which i am trying to cycle fishless. it has been going for two weeks now temp is set at 30c no live plants only plastic ones ammo up and then down now is 0. until i add more ammo. the problem is with the others both peaked nitrite at 5.0ppm. nitrate at 80ppm. four days ago nitrite dropped to1.0ppm and the nitrate to5.0ppm and still read same am i doing it wrong.

 

[glolite]

Sounds like it's cycling quicker to me. Did you add any gravel from the other tank or filter medium? This can speed up the cycling.

 

[jeff_hopkinson]

Hi, thanks for quick reply. Yes i put a sponge out of a fluval2 in the filter in the new tank. i had got the fluval running in one of my 10 gals tank. is it normal for the nitrite and nitrate to drop like they have if so then i can expect the nitrite to clear any time now. i hope.

 

[rdd1952]

If you're still adding ammonia daily to raise the level to about 1 ppm and the nitrite has dropped, You are probably cycled. Once the ammonia spike drops, you have to continue to add ammonia daily to feed the bacteria you have already developed. That is why the nitrite spike usually takes so long: you are feeding it daily. The part that is puzzling is the nitrate. It should be off the chart high when cycling is complete. If you didn't add more ammonia every day after it originally dropped to 0, you may have lost what you had originally done. Add enough ammonia again to raise the level to about 2 ppm and see how long the ammonia and nitrite take to drop to 0 again.

 

[afireinside]

2 weeks u've been cycling? i only thought it was only 2 to 3 days!

 

[Sky042]

I'm curious how your nitrate has gone down without a water change or live plants?

 

[Sky042]

2 weeks u've been cycling? i only thought it was only 2 to 3 days!

It's impossible to go through a nitrifying bacteria cycle in 2-3 days unless you're basically colonizing from another tank.

 

[StarOrbs]

I'm curious how your nitrate has gone down without a water change or live plants?

I've had this happen to me too. It was weird one day my test Kit said 20PPM then the next couple days it said around 5 PPM then a few days later is went up to 50PPM and thats where it still is. Those couple days where my test kit read a lower nitrate was when I added some Stree Zyme to my tank. So perhaps it causes the test kit to give a false reading.

 

[rdd1952]

Most chemicals will cause false readings because they detoxify things like ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. I'm not sure that Stress Zyme falls into that catagory or not though. If you do a complete fishless cycle by adding enough ammonia at the start to raise it to 5 or 6 ppm and then waiting on the drop to zero. Then adding to raise to 1 ppm everytime it drops back to zero and waiting on the nitrite spike to drop. Your nitrates will never come down until you do the water change at the end.

 

[vMaCx03]

How long does cycling take??? Fishless is when u just add water and turn th pump on and add the pH decrease increase stuff??? Please help me. I never knew I had to do this when I got my first fish.

 

[StarOrbs]

Fishless cycling is when you add a certain amount of ammonia to a tank and continue to do so everyday until nitrite and ammonia readings via a test kit are both 0. There is a lot of information here:
http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=88643
You can find the fishless cycling information under the Fishless Cycling link in the link I provided.

 

[Bloo]

How long does cycling take???

Broadly speaking, fishless cycling takes approx 2 - 3 weeks.

 

[lorax311420]

Ive been having the same problem with my fishless cycle. i have been at it for about 2 months and still no nitrites or nitrates and ammonia is at about 4ppm. Ive been adding stress zyme every week as directed. the first couple of days i saw some nitrites and ammonia went down but now everything is all messed up. I am getting a little ticked off because i really want some fish in there.

 

[Bloo]

I might be entirely wrong here, but by adding stress Zyme on it's own, you're never going to cycle your tank
You need to add pure ammonia - and only that.

 

[Sky042]

Ive been having the same problem with my fishless cycle. i have been at it for about 2 months and still no nitrites or nitrates and ammonia is at about 4ppm. Ive been adding stress zyme every week as directed. the first couple of days i saw some nitrites and ammonia went down but now everything is all messed up. I am getting a little ticked off because i really want some fish in there.

What did you use for a bacteria culture?