Help!!! Ammonia stuck at same spot during cycle

[Essjay]

No I don't. All the plants I know about do need fertiliser. The plant experts in the plant section might be able to help. But I expect that any plant which does not need fertiliser would ve very slow growing, and they wouldn't take up any significant amount of ammonia, which is what you need plants for with this very slow cycle.

 

[drizzy_052248]

No I don't. All the plants I know about do need fertiliser. The plant experts in the plant section might be able to help. But I expect that any plant which does not need fertiliser would ve very slow growing, and they wouldn't take up any significant amount of ammonia, which is what you need plants for with this very slow cycle.

I was just searching it up and it said that a java fern did not need fertilizer, as well as hornwort but it said minimum tank size for hornwort was 15-20 gallon so i cant get that.

 

[Essjay]

I suggested hornwort as a temporary plant in case you didn't want to keep live plants permanently. It would be OK in 10 gallons until you'd got fish and the bacteria started to grow properly, but I agree, it would take over a 10 gallon if it was there permanently.


What I am trying to achieve is this.
Your tank is stuck doing a fishless cycle with fish food.
If you had fast growing live plants in the tank, they would remove the ammonia from fish, so once the plants established themselves it would be safe to get fish.
But for this to happen, they should be fast growing plants; slow growing plants would not remove all the ammonia from a fully stocked tank.
At first, I thought you didn't want the bother of live plants so I suggested floating plants to keep the fish safe, then to remove the plants a bit at a time to give the bacteria chance to grow some more to make up for the plants you took out. So you'd end up with no live plants but enough bacteria.
If you've changed your mind about having live plants permanently, you need fast growing plants so you can get fish. Java ferns and anubias are slow growing plants but they'd still need a bit of fertiliser to thrive. And depending on how many and what type of fish you want to have in the tank, you might need a lot of java ferns to cope with the ammonia. For example, a single betta in a 10 gallon tank would probably be OK with a big java fern and an anubias. But more than that you'd need several java ferns.
But I'd still add a liquid fertiliser for java ferns. Not as much as for other plants, but still a bit.

 

[drizzy_052248]

I suggested hornwort as a temporary plant in case you didn't want to keep live plants permanently. It would be OK in 10 gallons until you'd got fish and the bacteria started to grow properly, but I agree, it would take over a 10 gallon if it was there permanently.


What I am trying to achieve is this.
Your tank is stuck doing a fishless cycle with fish food.
If you had fast growing live plants in the tank, they would remove the ammonia from fish, so once the plants established themselves it would be safe to get fish.
But for this to happen, they should be fast growing plants; slow growing plants would not remove all the ammonia from a fully stocked tank.
At first, I thought you didn't want the bother of live plants so I suggested floating plants to keep the fish safe, then to remove the plants a bit at a time to give the bacteria chance to grow some more to make up for the plants you took out. So you'd end up with no live plants but enough bacteria.
If you've changed your mind about having live plants permanently, you need fast growing plants so you can get fish. Java ferns and anubias are slow growing plants but they'd still need a bit of fertiliser to thrive. And depending on how many and what type of fish you want to have in the tank, you might need a lot of java ferns to cope with the ammonia. For example, a single betta in a 10 gallon tank would probably be OK with a big java fern and an anubias. But more than that you'd need several java ferns.
But I'd still add a liquid fertiliser for java ferns. Not as much as for other plants, but still a bit.

I dont know, i might go to the store and just look at the prices of some plants and ask the people that work there and like search it up a little, i might buy them, i might not, ill let you guys know though. Thanks, il keep you guys updated on whats going on, also in terms of ammonia, should i keep adding fish food?

 

[Essjay]

Yes, keep adding food until you decide what to do. It will feed the bacteria you already have, and hopefully grow some more. But remove it before it goes mouldy and put some more in.

Don't forget that most pet store workers haven't a clue so any advice they give on plants may be rubbish. Always do your own research.

 

[mcordelia]

I have a water sprite in my tank, which is very similar to water wisteria (one is a fern plant, the other one is some other type of plant, but they look almost the same and behave very similarly).

I added it to my tank on January 8th, when it looked like this:

And I took a picture of it just now, and it looks like this:

The second picture is more zoomed out since I couldn't fit the whole plant in the picture (still missing a bit where it goes all the way to the surface, and there is an amazon sword plant and a fish to make comparison more difficult!

The plant that is floating at the top in the second picture is some raggedy looking hornwort.

In the past 20 days that this plant has been in my tank, I have not dosed any liquid fertilizer (I added root tabs to the soil in December when I set up the tank but haven't touched those since), and the only change has been the addition of fish. Eventually, I will probably decide to add some liquid fertilizer, but in the interim, it's clearly growing without fertilizer as well.

The plants that Essjay recommended to you, and most of the plants that seem to be available to you in your store, are hardy plants that should grow virtually on their own with no effort. If a plant is $5-10, I would just take the risk and see what happens. You can't really screw much up with a plant. If it dies, it dies, and you take it out of the tank and say "oh well, tried that, it didn't work, what's next?"

I also wanted to add a little bit of a teaching point after reading the conversation you and Essjay have been having, the term "crashed cycle" or "tank crash" is more commonly used when there is a tank with fish in there already, and either due to poor maintenance, equipment failure, or a sudden change in something (like for example the water company changing the water source), the cycle gets disrupted and/or fish become ill and die because the balance of the aquarium goes off-kilter. In most cases, the most easily measurable signs of this are new ammonia or nitrites where the tank had been not showing any for months, or a drastic swing in pH (more than 1.5 units in either direction).

I like the strategy Essjay is trying to steer you towards - she is basically trying to set you up so you can get fish sooner rather than be stuck in cycle never-never-land forever. I absolutely agree that with the amount of bacteria you have established in your tank to date, coupled with a few fast-growing plants (If it were me choosing, I would get the water wisteria and the hornwort (but only if the hornwort looks okay, mine looked like crap in the store and isn't looking any better in my tank), and also the amazon sword plant since I think they're really pretty and bettas usually like to rest on their leaves), you should be able to start with one fish, and then gradually go from there.

you might still see some ammonia/nitrites when you add the fish, but at least you will have the fish to look at, and at least you will be moving forward on your aquarium journey, and at least you should have enough bacteria in your tank to very quickly finish the cycle at that point.

 

[drizzy_052248]

Yes, keep adding food until you decide what to do. It will feed the bacteria you already have, and hopefully grow some more. But remove it before it goes mouldy and put some more in.

Don't forget that most pet store workers haven't a clue so any advice they give on plants may be rubbish. Always do your own research.

sounds good will do! Thanks i appreciate it

 

[drizzy_052248]

I have a water sprite in my tank, which is very similar to water wisteria (one is a fern plant, the other one is some other type of plant, but they look almost the same and behave very similarly).

I added it to my tank on January 8th, when it looked like this:
View attachment 127712

And I took a picture of it just now, and it looks like this:
View attachment 127713

The second picture is more zoomed out since I couldn't fit the whole plant in the picture (still missing a bit where it goes all the way to the surface, and there is an amazon sword plant and a fish to make comparison more difficult!

The plant that is floating at the top in the second picture is some raggedy looking hornwort.

In the past 20 days that this plant has been in my tank, I have not dosed any liquid fertilizer (I added root tabs to the soil in December when I set up the tank but haven't touched those since), and the only change has been the addition of fish. Eventually, I will probably decide to add some liquid fertilizer, but in the interim, it's clearly growing without fertilizer as well.

The plants that Essjay recommended to you, and most of the plants that seem to be available to you in your store, are hardy plants that should grow virtually on their own with no effort. If a plant is $5-10, I would just take the risk and see what happens. You can't really screw much up with a plant. If it dies, it dies, and you take it out of the tank and say "oh well, tried that, it didn't work, what's next?"

I also wanted to add a little bit of a teaching point after reading the conversation you and Essjay have been having, the term "crashed cycle" or "tank crash" is more commonly used when there is a tank with fish in there already, and either due to poor maintenance, equipment failure, or a sudden change in something (like for example the water company changing the water source), the cycle gets disrupted and/or fish become ill and die because the balance of the aquarium goes off-kilter. In most cases, the most easily measurable signs of this are new ammonia or nitrites where the tank had been not showing any for months, or a drastic swing in pH (more than 1.5 units in either direction).

I like the strategy Essjay is trying to steer you towards - she is basically trying to set you up so you can get fish sooner rather than be stuck in cycle never-never-land forever. I absolutely agree that with the amount of bacteria you have established in your tank to date, coupled with a few fast-growing plants (If it were me choosing, I would get the water wisteria and the hornwort (but only if the hornwort looks okay, mine looked like crap in the store and isn't looking any better in my tank), and also the amazon sword plant since I think they're really pretty and bettas usually like to rest on their leaves).

Yes thanks for the reply, i will be looking today in a couple hours at the store and see what happens and ill update it here!

 

[drizzy_052248]

I have a water sprite in my tank, which is very similar to water wisteria (one is a fern plant, the other one is some other type of plant, but they look almost the same and behave very similarly).

I added it to my tank on January 8th, when it looked like this:
View attachment 127712

And I took a picture of it just now, and it looks like this:
View attachment 127713

The second picture is more zoomed out since I couldn't fit the whole plant in the picture (still missing a bit where it goes all the way to the surface, and there is an amazon sword plant and a fish to make comparison more difficult!

The plant that is floating at the top in the second picture is some raggedy looking hornwort.

In the past 20 days that this plant has been in my tank, I have not dosed any liquid fertilizer (I added root tabs to the soil in December when I set up the tank but haven't touched those since), and the only change has been the addition of fish. Eventually, I will probably decide to add some liquid fertilizer, but in the interim, it's clearly growing without fertilizer as well.

The plants that Essjay recommended to you, and most of the plants that seem to be available to you in your store, are hardy plants that should grow virtually on their own with no effort. If a plant is $5-10, I would just take the risk and see what happens. You can't really screw much up with a plant. If it dies, it dies, and you take it out of the tank and say "oh well, tried that, it didn't work, what's next?"

I also wanted to add a little bit of a teaching point after reading the conversation you and Essjay have been having, the term "crashed cycle" or "tank crash" is more commonly used when there is a tank with fish in there already, and either due to poor maintenance, equipment failure, or a sudden change in something (like for example the water company changing the water source), the cycle gets disrupted and/or fish become ill and die because the balance of the aquarium goes off-kilter. In most cases, the most easily measurable signs of this are new ammonia or nitrites where the tank had been not showing any for months, or a drastic swing in pH (more than 1.5 units in either direction).

I like the strategy Essjay is trying to steer you towards - she is basically trying to set you up so you can get fish sooner rather than be stuck in cycle never-never-land forever. I absolutely agree that with the amount of bacteria you have established in your tank to date, coupled with a few fast-growing plants (If it were me choosing, I would get the water wisteria and the hornwort (but only if the hornwort looks okay, mine looked like crap in the store and isn't looking any better in my tank), and also the amazon sword plant since I think they're really pretty and bettas usually like to rest on their leaves), you should be able to start with one fish, and then gradually go from there.

you might still see some ammonia/nitrites when you add the fish, but at least you will have the fish to look at, and at least you will be moving forward on your aquarium journey, and at least you should have enough bacteria in your tank to very quickly finish the cycle at that point.

Hey guys, so i went to the store turns out because of the corona situation and where i live we are in a lockdown, they arent selling anything live right so no live animals, no live plants, just curbside pickup for products only like food, toys stuff like that, so bummer . I will keep on adding fish food and i guess we'll see how it goes, i will update here weekly, also, i forgot to mention, your plants absolutely look lovely they look so cool lol, definitely my plan in the near future, jus want to become more experienced lol. anyways appreciate you guys for helping, talk to you soon!

 

[mcordelia]

Oh bummer! well, I guess that kind of takes it out of your hands then. On the plus side, your tank will be super done cycling by the time you get fish!!

Thanks for the comment about the plants! As I said, I don't really know anything about plants either, this is the first tank I've ever done plants in and that started in December so very much learning as I go. So far, I haven't completely managed to kill anything (hornwort is a question mark however!) and it seems low stress enough, so I recommend giving it a shot when you are able to!

 

[drizzy_052248]

Oh bummer! well, I guess that kind of takes it out of your hands then. On the plus side, your tank will be super done cycling by the time you get fish!!

Thanks for the comment about the plants! As I said, I don't really know anything about plants either, this is the first tank I've ever done plants in and that started in December so very much learning as I go. So far, I haven't completely managed to kill anything (hornwort is a question mark however!) and it seems low stress enough, so I recommend giving it a shot when you are able to!

yes foresure thank you guys so much, my goal is to definitely have a tank like yours! im continuing putting fish food and i will update test results sunday to see if anything change, thank you!

 

[mcordelia]

Sounds like a plan!!

 

[drizzy_052248]

Sounds like a plan!!

Wow, um hey guys, so im pretty sure this is good news, ammonia is like yellow with a little green, not quite zero, but forsure lowerer than 0.25 in my opinion, and nitrite is at 0. I'll attach the picture, one with flash, and one without just so you guys can see and tell the difference. let me know your thoughts on this!! Thanks

 

[Slaphppy7]

Looks like 0 ammonia and 0 trItes, to me...

 

[drizzy_052248]

Looks like 0 ammonia and 0 trItes, to me...

No way.... You don't understand how long ive been waiting for this moment!!