Help with my fishless cycle

[Jorgenp12]

Hello everyone Im new in the forum and in the hobby, I have problems with my cycle and I dont know what to do

I started the fishless cycle on June 24, my tank is 45 Gallon, I used tap water, prime, and api quick start. My tap water ph: 8.2, kh: 13, GH: 26.
I added pure ammonia 4.0 ppm nitrite and nitrate was 0.
After a week the ammonia was the same and I had 0.25ppm nitrite and 0 nitrate. On July 8 since I didnt see any change, I read that one of the problems could be the minerals on the tap water and since my tap water is too mineralized I decided to do a 50% water change using R/O Water. So I did the water change
my ph went down to 7.4, kh 6, and gh 13, The ammonia went down to .50ppm and nitrites disappeared. So I added ammonia again to 2.0ppm.
Since then I dont have changes and I dont know what to do, I added TSS+ 4 days ago but everything is the same. ammonia 2.0, nitrites 0, nitrates 0
What should I do? I shouldn't changed the water? Im frustrated with my empty aquarium

and I dont have experience is my first aquarium and I dont know what to do.
Thank you.

 

[JBAwrench]

Hello everyone Im new in the forum and in the hobby, I have problems with my cycle and I dont know what to do

I started the fishless cycle on June 24, my tank is 45 Gallon, I used tap water, prime, and api quick start. My tap water ph: 8.2, kh: 13, GH: 26.
I added pure ammonia 4.0 ppm nitrite and nitrate was 0.
After a week the ammonia was the same and I had 0.25ppm nitrite and 0 nitrate. On July 8 since I didnt see any change, I read that one of the problems could be the minerals on the tap water and since my tap water is too mineralized I decided to do a 50% water change using R/O Water. So I did the water change
my ph went down to 7.4, kh 6, and gh 13, The ammonia went down to .50ppm and nitrites disappeared. So I added ammonia again to 2.0ppm.
Since then I dont have changes and I dont know what to do, I added TSS+ 4 days ago but everything is the same. ammonia 2.0, nitrites 0, nitrates 0
What should I do? I shouldn't changed the water? Im frustrated with my empty aquarium

and I dont have experience is my first aquarium and I dont know what to do.
Thank you.

I have never tried the bottled ammonia.
I have however heard of this same complaint before, so this is what I do.
Get 4 or 6 feeder goldfish and throw them in the tank,goldfish are resilient and can tolerate terrible water conditions, add tetra safe start and the gold fish.
Leave the tank alone for 2 weeks.
It will cycle,you can return the fish once you want to add your main fish.
B.t w do not clean your filter media.
That is where the good bacteria live.

 

[Essjay]

Fish-in cycling is not really recommended these days as it takes its toll on the fish going through the cycle. Fishless or a plant cycle is better for fish.

Hard water is better than soft water for cycling as the bacteria need inorganic carbon - carbonates - to multiply well.

Have you read the cycling method on here https://www.fishforums.net/threads/cycling-your-new-fresh-water-tank-read-this-first.421488/
This was written because with the older method so much ammonia was added that it was turned into enough nitrite to stall the cycle. With this method less ammonia is added, and only when certain targets have been reached so that nitrite can never get high enough to stall the cycle.

Tetra Safe Start is one of the better bacterial starters but even that won't work if it's been allowed to get too cold or too hot during transport or at the store.
What I would do is another water change using pure tap water to raise the KH, then test the ammonia level and add more ammonia, enough to get 3 ppm. Then read the method in that link. Then I'm afraid it's a question of waiting. It took 7 weeks for my tank to cycle without a bacterial starter.



There is another option but that would mean replacing your plastic plants with a lot of live ones..........

 

[Retired Viking]

I have used Tetra SafeStart Plus on other peoples tanks and it works very well. I use the planted cycle for all my own tanks, it is a natural cycle and much better for my fish.

 

[Jorgenp12]

Fish-in cycling is not really recommended these days as it takes its toll on the fish going through the cycle. Fishless or a plant cycle is better for fish.

Hard water is better than soft water for cycling as the bacteria need inorganic carbon - carbonates - to multiply well.

Have you read the cycling method on here https://www.fishforums.net/threads/cycling-your-new-fresh-water-tank-read-this-first.421488/
This was written because with the older method so much ammonia was added that it was turned into enough nitrite to stall the cycle. With this method less ammonia is added, and only when certain targets have been reached so that nitrite can never get high enough to stall the cycle.

Tetra Safe Start is one of the better bacterial starters but even that won't work if it's been allowed to get too cold or too hot during transport or at the store.
What I would do is another water change using pure tap water to raise the KH, then test the ammonia level and add more ammonia, enough to get 3 ppm. Then read the method in that link. Then I'm afraid it's a question of waiting. It took 7 weeks for my tank to cycle without a bacterial starter.



There is another option but that would mean replacing your plastic plants with a lot of live ones..........

Thank you essjay unfortunately I read the article too late
Another mistake that I made was that I rinsed all the gravel, decor and everything with no treated tap water, but I use double dose of seachem prime after I fiilled up the tank. Do you think that is affecting the cycle?

 

[Essjay]

It shouldn't. There won't be much chlorine/chloramine in the water that was left after the rinsing.

But be careful about adding more water conditioner than the dose started on the bottle. i know Prime says it can be overdosed but we should try to keep the chemicals we add to a tank to the minimum.

If you start following the fishless cycling method on here now, it should work fine. And the Safe Start may speed it up.

 

[Jorgenp12]

It shouldn't. There won't be much chlorine/chloramine in the water that was left after the rinsing.

But be careful about adding more water conditioner than the dose started on the bottle. i know Prime says it can be overdosed but we should try to keep the chemicals we add to a tank to the minimum.

If you start following the fishless cycling method on here now, it should work fine. And the Safe Start may speed it up.

Thank you Essjay I will follow the method and wait patiently

 

[Jorgenp12]

Hello again,
Its been a month and still no changes, ammonia has not dropped yet, no nitrites no nitrates.
should I drain the tank and start over?