Fish Cycle Stalled After Weeks

[waterdrop]

Hi Greg, In a fishless cycle its a good habit to establish two testing times in the 24 hour day. Most people have to choose one in the morning and one in the evening (like 8am, 8pm) such that both are times when they'll have a better chance of being awake and home. Then one of those time (either one) should be established as your "add mark", the time when you will always add ammonia -if- you add ammonia. Ammonia should only be added at most once in a 24 hour period and only on your "add mark" time of day. So, for instance, if your add-mark was always at 8am and one night you tested at 8pm and ammonia was zero ppm, you would just wait until 8 the next morning before adding more ammonia.

Many people ask "won't that starve my bacteria?" The answer is no, they'll be fine. Its better not to be getting TOO much ammonia into the tank over time. The 5ppm type levels we are putting in are really quite a lot of nitrogen going into the tank and eventually it will produce a whole heck of a lot of NO2 and NO3 and both of those things will inhibit the bacterial growth as their levels get quite high. So holding our adds to once a day helps the moderate the overall pace of bacterial feeding. Does that make sense?

A Fishless Cycle tanks, very roughly, about 3 weeks to two months because the two species of bacteria we want happen to be very, very slow growing bacteria and we want a whole lot of them in the the filter before we have fish in the tank. There are a lot of fishless cycles that we see ending somewhere between day 60 and day 80, but also a fair number are faster. You just have to settle in and work on planning other aspects of your tank while this is going on. Remember, the hobby is all about relaxing and getting away from the world of stress. Its better not to try and make fish tanks yet another thing that one feels should be done with speed. (just my opinion )

~~waterdrop~~

 

[gregcool]

yes it does make perfect sence especialy the part about not refeeding the amonia untill 8 hrs latter...iv been testing at ,,,say 8am and then no matter what the result iv been adding amonia back upto 4-5 ppm again then coming home and retesting at 8pm and no matter what the result readding upto 5ppm again and so on every day so ,,,over feeding the amonia by the sounds of it....


well monday this week i have stoped all this as my readings have been near to completeing and i did a huge water change then this morning another 55 percent water change and tested water for nitrite and amonia and both were and have been 0 ,so i have been out and purchaced 6 neon tetras and they are now in the tank and i havent fed them and will not untill tomorow,I just decided that a fish cycle towards the end will be fine a this stage and i have a good filteration system running and surley 6 half inch tetras will not be able to produce to much waist to what the tank has been cyclin to so can you advice from this point how to moove forward into adding more fish ( time scall) and when do i test for amonia and nitrites with tese fish in the tank....and what levels are exceptable ....when fish poo there waist is small and at varius times through the day so does the amonia just pop up tiny and down quickley ect,,,,,thanks buddy....

 

[waterdrop]

Hi Greg,

Most of the ammonia comes from them "breathing," not from their waste. When fish move water through their gills they give off ammonia as well as CO2. Your 90L/24G tank is pretty large for 6 Neon Tetras, so it may take quite a while to see the traces of the toxins they are giving off.

Its important that you continue to test ammonia and nitrite(NO2) at your same morning and evening test times and record the results in your notebook. Take a pH reading and a nitrate(NO3) reading about once per week. With the big water change it will take a while before any traces of ammonia or nitrite show up but just keep up the testing for the next couple weeks.

By the end of a week or within the second week you should either see some traces (which would confirm you are now in a Fish-In Cycle) or there will be no traces and you will be cycled. Once you are cycled, 2 or 3 small to medium fish can be added at a time with at least a week in-between for the bacteria to catch up.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[gregcool]

thanks waterdrop you have made things very clear for me and i fully understand what you are saying and feel very happy now i understand whats going on,thanks again take care...