Help with cycling my tank for the first time

[Fishy2020]

I began cycling my 25 litre fish tank last week but I don't understand the readings I'm getting.

I initially added ammonia and got a reading of about 2 ppm.

After two days the ammonia dropped to zero and I also get zero readings for nitrites & nitrates.

I then added some more ammonia and four days later the ammonia reading has dropped to zero again with no nitrites or nitrates either.

The tank is also very cloudy now and has quite a strong smell too but I'm assuming I shouldn't clean it when trying to cycle?

What am I doing wrong? Do I need to start over in order to get rid of the cloudiness/smell?

Thanks in advance for any help as I've no idea where to go from here.

 

[Stefan3289]

I began cycling my 25 litre fish tank last week but I don't understand the readings I'm getting.

I initially added ammonia and got a reading of about 2 ppm.

After two days the ammonia dropped to zero and I also get zero readings for nitrites & nitrates.

I then added some more ammonia and four days later the ammonia reading has dropped to zero again with no nitrites or nitrates either.

The tank is also very cloudy now and has quite a strong smell too but I'm assuming I shouldn't clean it when trying to cycle?

What am I doing wrong? Do I need to start over in order to get rid of the cloudiness/smell?

Thanks in advance for any help as I've no idea where to go from here.

@essjay is an expert with tank cycles. I have an idea, but don’t want to give it in case it’s wrong

 

[Phreaker]

Have you added any filter media or substrate from an already cycled tank?

 

[Fishy2020]

No this is my first tank so I haven't added anything from an already cycled tank

 

[Essjay]

Have you used any bacterial starter?
Are there any live plants in the tank?

Is the cloudiness white? If it is it's a bacterial bloom which are common in new tanks. These are not the bacteria we want to grow, though; bloom bacteria eat carbon based chemicals rather than nitrogen based, they multiply very quickly and live floating in the water and we see them as the cloudiness. They die off once they've eaten all their food, but every tank is different so there's no set time for them to die.

The smell - what does it smell of?

 

[Fishy2020]

Have you used any bacterial starter?
Are there any live plants in the tank?

Is the cloudiness white? If it is it's a bacterial bloom which are common in new tanks. These are not the bacteria we want to grow, though; bloom bacteria eat carbon based chemicals rather than nitrogen based, they multiply very quickly and live floating in the water and we see them as the cloudiness. They die off once they've eaten all their food, but every tank is different so there's no set time for them to die.

The smell - what does it smell of?

Thanks for your reply.

I have three live plants in the tank and I added a dose of Colombo Bacto Start at the beginning as it came with my tank.

Yes , I'd say the cloudiness was white. There is also a film over the top of the water.

The smell is a sulphur/egg smell.

 

[Essjay]

It shouldn't smell sulphurous.
You could try adding a bit of the bacto start to a tub of water and see if that starts to smell after a couple of days.
What substrate do you have on the bottom of the tank?


Plants take up ammonia as fertiliser and they don't turn it into nitrite or nitrate. It is possible they are removing the ammonia, especially if they are fast growing plants.

 

[Fishy2020]

I'll try adding the bacto start to a tub of water and see what happens. If it does start to smell does that mean the only way to remove the smell from the tank would be a water change? Or do you think would it eventually go on its own?

Substrate wise I used Tropica plant care substrate with a layer of Love Fish gravel on top.

The plants are a java fern, amazon sword and I can't remember the other actually without digging out the label

Would i best doing a water change and starting with a higher dose of ammonia then? Or would I be better removing my plants for now?

 

[Phreaker]

No reason to remove the plants, you can just do a water change and redose the ammonia to like 4ppm.

 

[Fishy2020]

Great, I will give this a try. Thank you so much for your help, much appreciated.

 

[Essjay]

With the amazon sword in there, you probably don't need to do a fishless cycle. It is a fast grower and will probably use all the ammonia made by the future fish so you can do a silent cycle instead. With a 25 litre tank, you can't have many fish so the bioload will be light.

What fish were you intending for the tank?


(You may also find the the Amazon sword completely fills the tank, they are big plants)

 

[Fishy2020]

With the amazon sword in there, you probably don't need to do a fishless cycle. It is a fast grower and will probably use all the ammonia made by the future fish so you can do a silent cycle instead. With a 25 litre tank, you can't have many fish so the bioload will be light.

What fish were you intending for the tank?


(You may also find the the Amazon sword completely fills the tank, they are big plants)

Ah really? I am planning on just keeping a single betta in the tank so I think I might try doing a silent cycle then.

Thanks for the help. I'm thinking I should have just asked here first before I started trying to cycle my tank as everyone's help is really useful!

 

[Essjay]

A single betta will not need a fishless cycle with those plants. A sword plant is capable of taking up one betta-worth of ammonia. (When I did a fishless cycle for a betta in the same sized tank, I used just 1 ppm ammonia which was plenty and I never saw ammonia or nitrite after I got the betta)

Edit - forgot to say, make sure the plants are growing, then do a water change to get rid of the smell before fish-shopping. You may want to wait till the bacterial bloom clears, though it won't harm a fish, just make it hard to see them.

 

[Fishy2020]

A single betta will not need a fishless cycle with those plants. A sword plant is capable of taking up one betta-worth of ammonia. (When I did a fishless cycle for a betta in the same sized tank, I used just 1 ppm ammonia which was plenty as I never saw ammonia or nitrite after I got the betta)

Edit - forgot to say, make sure the plants are growing, then do a water change to get rid of the smell before fish-shopping. You may want to wait till the bacterial bloom clears, though it won't harm a fish, just make it hard to see them.

Great that's good to know, I will do as you advise before going ahead and getting the fish. Thanks again, you've been so helpful!