Fishlesss Cycling - Confusion !

[thefishgirl]

Hello,
I am attempting a fishless cycle by adding pure ammonia to a 90 litre aquarium. Its planted, and has a temperature set to 30oc. Its been 2 & 1/2 weeks and my readings are really odd!! I have no idea whats happening and it doesnt follow any online graphs...

Time in days >>>>>>>
Nitrate - 25,25,25,50,100,250,250, (my test kit only tests upto 250)
Nitrite - 0,0,1,5,10,10,10,10 (my test kit only tests up to 10)

Ammonia was dosed to 5ppm, then when Nitrate hit 50 and Nitrite hit 5 - it was dosed to a level of 3ppm each night. By morning it is returned to 0.


I did a 75% water change when Nitrates hit 250, but the levels all stayed the same.



What happens next??? I wish i hadn't bought the tank

thanks for your help!

 

[guppy2198]

It could of been a nitrate spark that happened shortly after the water change. However, the nitrate levels should of gone down. Check your test kits are working properly and do a re-test. If the test results are the same consider purchasing a new one. Good luck.

 

[Skins]

Which test kit are you using?
Welldone for choosing the fishless cycle method, Yes there are times when the process can be frustrating but just hang in there. Like Guppy2198 said it could be your test kit(nitrate) that could be at fault.

Keith.

 

[electropunk06]

hi i've heard that nitrate test kits can be quite unreliable.
how long is it taking for your nitrites to come down to 0ppm?
Lloyd

 

[thefishgirl]

hi i've heard that nitrate test kits can be quite unreliable.
how long is it taking for your nitrites to come down to 0ppm?
Lloyd

My kit is the 5in1 tetra test kit. It tests nitrate,nitrite, Gh,Ph and Kh on one stick. I have tested it on my tap water and the readings are very accurate. So its not the kit at fault.

My nitrites arent coming down at all!. Over the cycle they changed 0,0,1,5,10,10 ( measurements were taken every other day). The most the kit measures up to is 10mg/l and its definatly 10+ of Nitrite. It has stayed at 10+ for the last few days and has not altered, even after a water change.

Thanks

 

[electropunk06]

hi, i would advise a api masters test kit. you should be testing for ammonia as well.
its just a matter of waiting until the levels start to drop but they will eventually. cycles vary in length some lasting many months but it is what is best for fish.
Lloyd

 

[thefishgirl]

When my cycle is complete, can i fully stock my aquarium?

I would like to end up with:
A school of tetras/cardinals
A few striped loaches
and A dwarf gourami or a few Mollys and guppys

 

[elisew]

Well done on choosing the fishless cycle

You said 'My kit is the 5in1 tetra test kit. It tests nitrate,nitrite, Gh,Ph and Kh on one stick.'

I don`t wish to be rude at all but I think before you start asking about stocking your tank, you really need to be using a proper liquid test kit and getting your levels stable first

As has already been recommended the API liquid test kit is probably your best bet to ensure your results are correct, this in turn will enable people to help you and give you the correct advice

 

[Aqua Tom]

Get an API or any other liquid based test kit. They are far more accurate than the test strip type of tetser.

They can be had at a reasonable price from Ebay.

Handy Link to API's on Ebay.

 

[waterdrop]

Hi fishgirl and welcome to our beginners section!

The reason they are all recommending the bigger, more complicated liquid master testing kit is that over the years we've found the paper strips to be so unreliable that they end up being worse than bad.. they cause you to make wrong decisions sometimes!

After you obtain your liquid kit and practice using it (test your tap water and your tank water and post up the results here) you'll want to see again what the nitrate(NO3) levels seem to be (performing the nitrate test is a pain, takes a -lot- of shaking!)

If you are way up in the 80 to 160ppm range then, just like before it would be a good idea to gravel-clean-water-change all the tank water out (turn off heater and filter before this) and refill with conditioned, temperature-matched (test with your hand) tap water and the re-charge your ammonia back up to about 2-3ppm concentration (during the nitrite spike phase, which you are in, we like to lower the dosing down from the usual 4-5ppm to only 2-3ppm.) After an hour or so you are free to test again and if it still doesn't seem to have gone down a whole lot you can plan to do the whole thing yet again! These occasional water changes during the 2nd and 3rd phase of fishless cycling are helpful in several ways: they lower the nitrate(which slows N-Bac growth in high concentrations), they raise the pH usually, they add back in some trace calcium and other minerals the bacteria use and they give you practice in doing the kind of water changes you'll be doing a lot of after you have fish.

~~waterdrop~~
ps. Hang in there, it can seem frustrating but it is the right way to become a good fishkeeper!

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome to the forum FishGirl.
With water at the upper limit of your nitrate test, you need to be aware that 1 ppm of ammonia is converted into 3.6 ppm of nitrate. If you are having any trouble at all telling the difference between levels of nitrate, that multiplier can certainly trip you up. If you are adding the ammonia based simply on a calculator, rather than measuring the ammonia concentration, you will have enormous levels of ammonia by now. For the first couple of weeks, it is a bit unusual to see any ammonia conversion to nitrites, so a daily dose of 5 ppm for 2 weeks would mean you have (5x14) about 70 ppm of ammonia after those first 2 weeks. If you have simply failed to post the ammonia concentrations you are observing, that will be another story. Many test strips cannot measure ammonia at all so I would not be too surprised to find that you have indeed dosed too much ammonia. One of the hazards of too much ammonia is that above about 8 ppm, the wrong bacteria will dominate the bacterial population that develops. What makes them the wrong bacteria is that they do not do well at the trace ammonia levels we cannot even measure that show up in an established tank. That means the right bacteria need to start developing after the wrong ones lose the ability to process the ammonia because the levels have dropped. It more or less starts the cycling process over again at that point. If nitrites remain, you would not need to re-establish a nitrite processing bacterial population though.