Fishless cycle - cloudy water

[sinfulhorse]

I have been fishless cycling since January 2 and quite frankly am getting quite tired of waiting for my nitrites to zero out

To cap it all, over the last three days, my water, which was crystal clear, has gone green and cloudy, and some of my nice tall grass like plants, have gone flat and appear to be in a critical condition

Is the sudden cloudiness at this late stage normal or is it more likely to be caused by the demise of the plants (no idea what they are called)?

Thanks

 

[daza]

It is taking a long time, but from what I have read I don't think that it is unheard of for a cycle to take maybe 6 weeks.

Have you had a water sample tested by your LFS to confirm that your test kit is correct? If not then you could consider doing that.

How much ammonia are you adding at the moment? Are you still using the Jeyes stuff?

If you add ammonia and then take a reading immediately afterwards, what is the level of ammonia? How much has it dropped to 24 hours later (down to 0.1 as mentioned in your previous posts)? If you can't answer this just yet then make a note when you next add the daily dose.

I have heard of white cloudy water, which is a bacterial bloom. I haven't experienced or read about a green one, but it's probably the same/similar thing...anyone else know about that?

 

[sinfulhorse]

Daza

I haven't taken ammonia readings immediately after adding it but I am keeping to half a capful of Jeyes per day and it is always at 0.1 24 hours later. I think that the green is just from the dying plants which I have removed from the tank tonight

Will give it a couple of days to settle down and retest

If still no luck with nitrites, will take water sample in to the LFS

As always, thanks for the feedback

I can always drain it and add a couple of Royal pythons

 

[Aylana]

I had a green algae bloom in the late stages of my fishless cycling. I think that and bacterial blooms are quite common. I simply covered the tank with a blanket for 3 days to keep out the light and the algae died off. My plants came out of it fine, they can do without light longer than algae can apparantly. Alternatively you can buy products which clump together the algae so your filter can catch it and filter it out of the water.

Good luck with your cycling
Aylana

 

[daza]

Try taking an ammonia reading soon after adding the half-capful. See how much it is, it should be below 5mg/l.

Depending on that reading, you could perhaps try reducing the dosage. All the instructions I have read say to add around 3-5mg/l (I used 5 and it was fine).

However, I have often wondered why the size of the filter and therefore the volume of filter media doesn't seem to be considered. Since this is where the bacteria mainly grows, my logic would tell me that the filter media can only be home to so-many bacteria and therefore can consume only so-much ammonia. Therefore, if too much ammonia is added then it will never be completely consumed...Anyone agree or disagree with that?

If you are experiencing a green bacterial bloom, and as Aylana says she had one near the end of the cycle, then I would say to keep on as you have been for now but get a LFS water reading and take that ammonia reading soon after adding it and let us know what it is.