Filter Working Reallyslowly?

[nike12301]

Ive been fishless cycling for a few weeks now. I added some Tetra SafeStart about a week ago, which has worked well for me in the past.

The ammonia dropped, but when I add more, it gets filtered out very slowly. Maybe 2ppm over 2-3 days. I believe I read here once that a functioning filter will eliminate 8ppm of ammonia every 12 hours.

Is there anything I can do to get it filtering at full capacity?

 

[AdamM]

wait till your cycle finishes...?

 

[nike12301]

Every cycle I've done in the past, the ammonia stays high and then drops quickly not gradually like this.

 

[waterdrop]

I agree with your observation nike. Normally in fishless cycling the very first dose of ammonia takes a very long time to go down to zero ppm but once that has happened once or twice the drops begin to get very fast, often beginning to drop daily almost from right after that. So being so far into the process and having it repeatedly take 2 or 3 days is unusual.

You mention a concentration of 8ppm though and that does trigger some alarm bells. At 8ppm we encourage the wrong species of autotrophic bacteria. I hope you haven't been dosing that high(?) The worst part of it is that if we dose at 8ppm and the wrong one takes hold, its also an ammonia oxidizer and so will seem sort of ok for a while but as soon as we drop the dose level down it will completely die out but still occupy the best media spaces and will take a while to clear out before the correct species, the Nitrosomonas spp. can re-colonize.

Not saying this is the explanation though, just a possibility.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[nike12301]

For the most part my doses have been in the 2 to 4 ppm range.

 

[waterdrop]

Good, that's not the problem then. I assume you're trying for a consistent 4ppm when you add (ie. you try to add the same number of milliliters each time?)

Who knows then? You may just have to be patient and give it more time. It may get better or it may show us some new symptom that we can help with.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[nike12301]

This morning I put in just a few drops and now, 8 hours later, I still have a slight ammonia reading, so something definitely isn't working with this filter.

Should I just start over? I really don't want to, but I'm kind of at a loss for what to do.

 

[waterdrop]

I can't find your log of daily results nike. ?.

 

[OldMan47]

The biggest mistake that I see in this discussion is that you believe that the Safestart does something besides empty your wallet. You are near the beginning of a fishless cycle and have no mature media to bring things along more quickly. that means that you will need to put up with a slow movement of ammonia toward zero and you have nothing in your tank or filter to move nitrites on to nitrates. Once the first 2 or 3 weeks of fishless cycling have taken place, you will likely find that ammonia does indeed process quickly but that nitrites have gone completely off the chart.

 

[nike12301]

Once the first 2 or 3 weeks of fishless cycling have taken place, you will likely find that ammonia does indeed process quickly but that nitrites have gone completely off the chart.

I'm well past that point and it's still filtering ammonia out slowly. I did a 90% water change yesterday and added two drops of ammonia. Still hasn't been filtered out.

I'm thinking of just starting all over again. How would I do that, though? Would just cleaning out the filter and dosing with ammonia start me from scratch?

 

[waterdrop]

nike, I'd go slow on a decision like that and take some time to discuss it with us some more. Its not clear that their won't be things we can do and its nearly always to proceed from where you are rather than start over.

I agree with OM47 that the discription in your original post that you'd "been cycling for a few weeks now" could be interpreted as still getting the cycle started, since cycles can take a couple of months or more when they're going slowly.

I'm realizing now that there are a lot of things we don't know (not sure if they may be in other threads) such as the type of filter and the various media in it. Tank size. Actual time water has been in it, etc.

~~waterdrop~~