Fishless Cycling...

[scubadoo]

It sounds to me as if you're very nearly there.

You can either just carry on as you are until ammonia and nitrites are all at 0 after about 12-15 hours (from 4-5ppm), but I'd be tempted to do a 50% water change then continue adding your ammonia for a few days just to be sure its all OK.

I had a situation very similar to this at the end of my fishless cycle, and it all looked as if I was done, did the water change and added a full stock of fish, then my nitrites went through the roof !

I'm still not sure why, but the upshot was I lost a few fish (mostly neons) and ended up doing twice daily water changes of about 40% to keep on top of the nitrites - no fun on a 190l tank.

So I'd advise a bit more patience just to make sure your all OK.

The other thing I'd also consider is if you're running your tank at a higher temp during the cycle to aid the bacterial growth, turn it down now to your eventual stocking temp and keep adding the ammonia - I'm fairly certain that the temp drop caused a die off in my bacteria at the critical time.

 

[robyngunston]

Okay.....I did a 60% water change.....last week and it is still taking 2 days for the ammonia to drop from 4 to 0? The Nitrite = 0 and the Nitrate is about 60.
Any ideas on what I could do to make the process quicker?
I have the standard filter that came with my tank (Rena Aquarama 60) surely I don't need another filter?
Other than that all that is in the tank is sand.....gravel from the lfs (this was used to seed the tank and is currently in a stocking) a few bits of the same gravel out of the stocking are on the sand and an airstone and heater? Oh and three small rocks that the lfs gave me...he said they would help stabilise the water and encourage bacteria growth?
Any advice would be most appreciated

 

[Egmel]

Okay.....I did a 60% water change.....last week and it is still taking 2 days for the ammonia to drop from 4 to 0? The Nitrite = 0 and the Nitrate is about 60.
Any ideas on what I could do to make the process quicker?
I have the standard filter that came with my tank (Rena Aquarama 60) surely I don't need another filter?
Other than that all that is in the tank is sand.....gravel from the lfs (this was used to seed the tank and is currently in a stocking) a few bits of the same gravel out of the stocking are on the sand and an airstone and heater? Oh and three small rocks that the lfs gave me...he said they would help stabilise the water and encourage bacteria growth?
Any advice would be most appreciated

It could be that you've reached the max your filter can process, if you only up the ammonia to 2ppm does it drop in one day? What's the spec of the filter, lph etc. sometimes the built in filters are not as powerful as you'd choose if you bought one.

By the sounds of it nitrite is being processed at a similar rate to ammonia which is always a good sign.

 

[robyngunston]

[/quote]
It could be that you've reached the max your filter can process, if you only up the ammonia to 2ppm does it drop in one day? What's the spec of the filter, lph etc. sometimes the built in filters are not as powerful as you'd choose if you bought one.

By the sounds of it nitrite is being processed at a similar rate to ammonia which is always a good sign.
[/quote]

Hi there
Yes if you half the amount of ammonia that is put in it takes half as long to come down
I also noticed that the water seemed quite dirty and had something floating on the top of it you could only see this in certain light as it wasn't that noticable? There also seemed to be white fluffy stuff floating about in the tank after the water change? Not sure if this was algae that had maybe rubbed off the filter or airstone pipe?
What filter would you recommend? Does that not mean I would have to start this whole process over again?

 

[Egmel]

Yes if you half the amount of ammonia that is put in it takes half as long to come down

OK so it seems like you're hitting a ceiling somewhere and that is most likely to do with the space for your bacteria to grow.

I also noticed that the water seemed quite dirty and had something floating on the top of it you could only see this in certain light as it wasn't that noticeable?

Sounds like an oily film, what sort of turbulence does your filter outlet make on the water surface? if it doesn't make a lot then anything that lands on the surface will likely stay there if it's not heavy enough to break the water surface tension.

There also seemed to be white fluffy stuff floating about in the tank after the water change? Not sure if this was algae that had maybe rubbed off the filter or airstone pipe?

No idea I'm afraid.

What filter would you recommend? Does that not mean I would have to start this whole process over again?

Depends on how heavily stocked you want to go. I don't know figures exactly but if your filter can only process half the standard amount of ammonia this suggests that you would be able to keep less fish than if it could process the full 4 ppm.

I'm only really a beginner so I can't recommend filters, I was told that eheim were a good brand and that external was better than internal for my 70l (20G) tank. Have a search in the hardware section, there's plenty of threads talking about which filters are best. Someone there might also know about the limitations of your current filter.

Good Luck