Hello All
I am currently in day 13 of a fishless cycle. I’ve seen nitrite rise to 5 and back to 1 but my ammonia refuses to drop below 1.
I started the cycle by adding fish food and got ammonia up to 0.5 where it pretty much stayed (I would have liked to get it higher but adding more fish food didn’t seem to help). My nitrite started rising soon after and got up to between 2 and 5. I got sick of the inaccuracy of the fish food method and the bits floating around my tank so I got some bottled ammonia on Monday and got the levels up to 2ppm. The next day ammonia was at 1 but nitrite had shot to 5, the next day nitrite fell to 2 and then 1 but ammonia has stayed at 1.
I have been adding JBL denitrol bacteria in a bottle to get things going faster which could possibly explain why the nitrite was handled quickly but doesn’t explain why the ammonia is staying high. I also had to clean the filter on Tuesday as it had bits on it so I am worried I may have somehow killed the ammonia eating bacteria without harming the nitrite eating ones.
I also have live plants (slow growing, low light ones since I only have the light the tank came with), snails that came with the live plants and what I think is brown algae, which the snails are eating. So perhaps the snails and the parts of the plants that died are contributing to the ammonia and the plants and algae are using up the nitrite?
I’ve done quite a bit of research on fishless cycling but not come across anything about nitrites going down but ammonia staying up. So is anyone able to help me understand might be going on?
Other relevant facts:
My tanks size is 95L
My PH started as 7.6 but has gone up to 8.6
According to my test kit the nitrate level in my tank is 40ppm, however the nitrate in my tap water is 80ppm! I don't think I believe these results. I looked up the water companies water quality report which says the nitrate in my tapwater should be around 30ppm
I’ve been dechlorinating my water with JBL biotopol and have often accidentally been using too much (5-10x amount).
I have JBL Phosex in my filter after my LFS suggested my phosphate level was too high.
A am using the API testmaster kit to test my levels.
I am currently in day 13 of a fishless cycle. I’ve seen nitrite rise to 5 and back to 1 but my ammonia refuses to drop below 1.
I started the cycle by adding fish food and got ammonia up to 0.5 where it pretty much stayed (I would have liked to get it higher but adding more fish food didn’t seem to help). My nitrite started rising soon after and got up to between 2 and 5. I got sick of the inaccuracy of the fish food method and the bits floating around my tank so I got some bottled ammonia on Monday and got the levels up to 2ppm. The next day ammonia was at 1 but nitrite had shot to 5, the next day nitrite fell to 2 and then 1 but ammonia has stayed at 1.
I have been adding JBL denitrol bacteria in a bottle to get things going faster which could possibly explain why the nitrite was handled quickly but doesn’t explain why the ammonia is staying high. I also had to clean the filter on Tuesday as it had bits on it so I am worried I may have somehow killed the ammonia eating bacteria without harming the nitrite eating ones.
I also have live plants (slow growing, low light ones since I only have the light the tank came with), snails that came with the live plants and what I think is brown algae, which the snails are eating. So perhaps the snails and the parts of the plants that died are contributing to the ammonia and the plants and algae are using up the nitrite?
I’ve done quite a bit of research on fishless cycling but not come across anything about nitrites going down but ammonia staying up. So is anyone able to help me understand might be going on?
Other relevant facts:
My tanks size is 95L
My PH started as 7.6 but has gone up to 8.6
According to my test kit the nitrate level in my tank is 40ppm, however the nitrate in my tap water is 80ppm! I don't think I believe these results. I looked up the water companies water quality report which says the nitrate in my tapwater should be around 30ppm
I’ve been dechlorinating my water with JBL biotopol and have often accidentally been using too much (5-10x amount).
I have JBL Phosex in my filter after my LFS suggested my phosphate level was too high.
A am using the API testmaster kit to test my levels.
