Hit A Brick Wall With Fishless Cycle?

[Steph2790]

I've never tried them, but if I buy a heater again it would be one of the digital ones that measures the actual temperature in the tank too, saves you on thermometer as well.
Also, I wouldn't dose the ammonia before it has actually gone down to 0. If the nitrItes are off the charts, the API test normally turns purple at the bottom immediately, then to avoid a stalled cycle I'd do a 90% water change to bring that back to measurable on the test and redose ammonia again. The cycle gets faster this way. Don't clean the filter for a good while after the cycle or during. I leave it off for 2-3 months in a new tank. A filter needs time to establish bacteria and 99% of the times cleaning it too early will cause a spike.

Thanks, well I've just done around a 80% water change and set everything back up. Gave the sponge and biomax a quite swish in the old tank water and my god the sponge didn't half stink! Now I've just tested the water again and got this result:

Nitrite drops didn't turn purple in the bottom of the test tube when I added them but the colour soon intensified to this deep purple reading. Would you still say this is off the scale? Thought the water change may have brought them down a lot. Puzzled by this I checked my tap water for nitrites and got a bright blue reading so 0ppm of nitrites in the tap water... It's strange how its still so high even after such a large water change.

Ammonia on the other hand has reduced, to around 0.25ppm ide say. Shall I redose straight away or wait for it to drop to 0ppm and then redose to say 2-3ppm??

Thanks for your help

Size wise, white clouds would fit, but they're a very active fish that like to swim far and fast, so aren't really recommended for tanks of less than two feet long.

There are loads of lovely tropical fish that would be very happy in there (and tropicals are not harder to keep, or more delicate). You could look at ember tetras, harlequin rasboras, green neons, sparkling gouramis, featherfin rainbows or chilli rasboras.

Will have a read up on the fish you've recommended thanks

 

[snazy]

I am just wondering, but why did you wash the filter media? You don't even have fish to actually get proper debris. You are doing a fishless cycle and washing anything inside the filter is absolutely unnecessary and slowing down your cycle. It doesn't matter you washed it in tank water, it will wash off some bacs from it at this early stage of the cycle. Don't touch it for 3 months at least, even after the fish are in. It will always look dirty, but that's how a cycled mature media looks and should look.
Everytime I washed a filter so early, even two months after the cycle finished, it caused a spike and not a small one. Last time in my latest tank in the space of 1 hour after my cleaning madness, the tank was reading 0.50ppm ammonia already. A year ago it happened in another tank of mine after washing the filter(in tank water) too early after the cycle, but the ammonia went through the roof 4ppm + and I was battling three water changes daily(yes, it was rising that fast) for a week until it settled back. There's something about it needing more time to actually not cause any problems when washed and in my experience it's best to leave it for a good while when you have a new tank. If you think your tank gets dirty easily or the flow is reduced, etc...while not washing the filter for 2-3 months, then you don't have adequate filtration to start with and need to upgrade your filter or get a second one.That's how I look at it.

As for the colour of nitrItes, they don't look off the scale to me. Normally it goes to more like wine colour.

 

[Steph2790]

Oops probably shouldn't have done that then. Ah never mind. I redosed ammonia to around 2 ppm so will see how it progresses during the next few days. Will have a shop around for heaters tomorrow and see what I can find.

 

[phantomlink]

Its getting there, the phase from Nitrite to Nitrate takes longer then ammonia to Nitrite, but as mentioned above when you see it go from purple to blue overnight, there is no greater joy

 

[Steph2790]

Well tested today and something's given my cycle a well needed kick up the backside. Ammonia has dropped from 2ppm to 1ppm and the nitrite test didn't seem as purple more of a pinkish colour today which I hope means its reducing. Been having a look at heaters and have decided on the fluval e series 50w I think. Then as my confidence builds with the new fish keeping hobby ill always have a heater if I want to buy an additional tank can see this getting addictive lol.

Thanks for all your help so far guys and of course I will keep you posted on my progress

 

[KCB]

can see this getting addictive lol.

It's a slippery slope, but the good kind .

 

[DrSlackBladder]

Once I was at your stage in the fishless cycle (nitrite spike), it was only another week until I suddenly had zero nitrites, so hang in there. The longest part of my cycle was initial ammonia drop, seemed to take forever (well, about 14 days). My cycle took a month in total, at 28C, then I dropped the temp over a few days to 25C before adding fish.

 

[Acetone]

I'm having a horrible time 6 weeks and high ammonia but little or no Nitrites/Nitrates i'm going to get the ammonia down and do a fish in cycle. Its getting quite desperate as my old tank is leaking more and more. at the moment the tank is taped up with electric insulating tape and doesn't look. This tank can only last a little longer and everytime I do a water change it goes worse. I was thinking of buying some of the Bacteria you can buy from the LFS but heard mixed reactions over these products. Any help would be good to kick start my new tank

 

[DrSlackBladder]

If you're forced to make the changeover due to a leaking old tank, you can move the old substrate and any ornaments, plants, into the new tank, and cram the old filter media into the new tank's filter to kickstart the new filter cycle. Or just add the old filter to the new tank and run both old and new filters for a few weeks until you have sufficient bacteria colony in the new one.

 

[fluttermoth]

Move all the filter media from your old tank to the filter in the new tank, when you move the fish; once you've got rid of the current ammonia that's in there, of course.

Remember that it's not tanks that cycle, technically; not even filters, it's the filter media. Think of the media as being paired with the fish rather than the tank or filter; if you move the fish along with the media, you don't need to do another cycle.

 

[Acetone]

The old Media was in an internal Juwel filter the new tank has a hood filtration system which has a bit of a different set up. I don't want to lose any fish especially my L191 Pleco which cost me £25. I tried moving 1 of the filter sponges to the new tank to see if that would help but so far no luck. i have ceramics and bio balls now that came with the tank

 

[Steph2790]

Right today, just got back from work and noticed this sort of clear stuff what looks like its growing on the gravel. Sort of movers with the flow of the water and started in like little stringy bits but now I seem to have a few patches of it. Is it algea? Should I leave it alone as I'm in the middle of my fishless cycle or is it better to get rid of it? You can see it between the ornaments I have in my tank

 

[Steph2790]

Right I carried out a small 20% water change approx 5 days ago to get rid of the gunk. Added a heater and temps been at at steady 28-29oC

The water change took my ammonia level from 1ppm to between 0.25ppm - 0.50ppm. Let ammonia drop to a definite 0.25ppm and then added 1ml of ammonia about 3 days ago which brought my ammonia levels to somewhere around 2ppm.

This was 3 days ago now and I've not since seen a drop in ammonia (still around 2ppm) yet the strange thing is my nitrite level seems to keep dropping and dropping day by day. It was 2ppm before water change. Then after the water change was around 1ppm and its come down to 0.50ppm a few days ago and now it's at 0.25ppm this morning???

Shouldn't the ammonia be dropping BEFORE the nitrite? Not the other way around? I'm on day 21 today and it seems to be taking forever. What do people suggest? A water change or just leave it and see if the ammonia drops?

I thought the ammonia eating stage had already started as ide had my initial dose of ammonia drop and a massive nitrite spike but now things seem to be messing up??

Any help and advice is greatly appreciated