I think my fishless cycle is doomed!

[sarxlives]

Hello everyone!

I have been attempting to get my aquarium cycled for the past month and I've been through so many ups and downs. At the moment, my aquarium reads:

7.4 PH
0.50 ppm of Ammonia
0 ppm of nitrite
5.0 ppm of nitrate

The temperature of the water is about 80F. The only things in the tank is the substrate and a water heater.

When I originally began this cycle I just added some fish food and waited. The ammonia spiked to about 2.0ppm and was stuck there for a while. About one week later, nitrite started to appear but in low quanties (0.25 to be exact). Unfortunately, the previous heater I had in the tank was too powerful and heat the water up to 100F and I think that stalled the cycle. After that mess, I did a 100% water change which subsequently dropped the ammonia to 0.50ppm but then I couldn't find any nitrites. A week after that I did another water change and added Tetra Safestart to the water but that changed virtually nothing. Now I'm stuck with the parameters I listed above. Any help? It's been about a month and two weeks now

BTW I tested my tap water which yielded these results:

0.50 ppm of Ammonia
5.0 ppm of Nitrate
1.5 ppm of Nitrite
6 PH

Because of this I was told to switch to prime to treat the water.

 

[Slaphppy7]

Welcome to the forum.
Is your tap water chlorinated?...I don't see you mention using a dechlor to start the cycle, which is required, with chlorinated tap water.
Do get some Prime. You don't need the SafeStart, though it doesn't hurt.

 

[sarxlives]

My bad, forgot to mention that. Yeah I do use declorinator. Before I used the generic brand that came with the aquarium itself but I switched over to prime.

 

[Slaphppy7]

No problem.
Doing a fishless cycle with flakes can be tricky, because you can't precisely control the amount of ammonia you are adding to the tank; it's much easier with pure ammonia, or Dr. Tim's: https://store.drtimsaquatics.com/Ammonium-Chloride-Solution-for-Fishless-Cycling.html

If you have an Ace Hardware near by, they sell pure ammonia; you don't want one that has perfumes, surfactants, etc...

Sounds to me like something has stalled your cycle; if I were you, I would consider starting over, and following the directions here precisely: https://www.fishforums.net/threads/cycling-your-new-fresh-water-tank-read-this-first.421488/

 

[sarxlives]

No problem.
Doing a fishless cycle with flakes can be tricky, because you can't precisely control the amount of ammonia you are adding to the tank; it's much easier with pure ammonia, or Dr. Tim's: https://store.drtimsaquatics.com/Ammonium-Chloride-Solution-for-Fishless-Cycling.html

If you have an Ace Hardware near by, they sell pure ammonia; you don't want one that has perfumes, surfactants, etc...

Sounds to me like something has stalled your cycle; if I were you, I would consider starting over, and following the directions here precisely: https://www.fishforums.net/threads/cycling-your-new-fresh-water-tank-read-this-first.421488/

At this point I would agree. I have no idea where my cycling is at this point point.

 

[Naughts]

I wouldn't recommend using Prime during the fishless cycle. It binds the ammonia for about 24 hours which is not going to help the beneficial bacteria which need to feed off the ammonia. Save it for when you have fish.
Alternatively, have you considered a planted cycle?

 

[Slaphppy7]

Empty the tank, and start over...DO preserve whatever media you have in your filter, though, and keep it wet with old tank water at all times, I'd be willing to bet you have at least some beneficial bacteria growing on it...

 

[Slaphppy7]

I wouldn't recommend using Prime during the fishless cycle. It binds the ammonia for about 24 hours which is not going to help the beneficial bacteria which need to feed off the ammonia. Save it for when you have fish.

It converts ammonia to ammonium, which the BB (beneficial bacteria) will consume.
If the OP does not dechlor his tap water, BB will never grow.

I've done many fishless cycles with Prime.

 

[Naughts]

But their pH is above 7 (and I assume the tap water would rise to near 7.4 if left to stand for 24 hours)?

I didn't say not to dechlorinate, just that choosing Prime for the cycle would be counterintuitive as the OP has already spent a lot of time on this.

OP - can you test your tap water after you have left it standing for 24 hours so we know if it is raising due to gassing off, or if there is something in the tank increasing the pH?

 

[sarxlives]

Sure. I'll give a reply tomorrow

 

[Malawif@n]

Yes I agree prime will dechlorinate water and convert ammonia to ammonium which is consumable by beneficial Bactria and it lasts for 48 hours.

 

[Essjay]

it lasts for 48 hours.

It's somewhere between 24 and 48 hours. being a pessimist, I prefer to err on the side of caution and assume 24 hours

 

[mbsqw1d]

and I assume the tap water would rise to near 7.4 if left to stand for 24 hours)?

Its important to understand what the true PH is of your tap water. Tap water often has a high content of co2 which gasses off when left to stand. Co2 in water creates carbonic acid which lowers the PH.
Leaving your tap water to stand for 24 hrs before doing a PH test will give a true reading.

 

[LordHappy]

Happy day...every couple of weeks I throw out a pretty big pile of floating plants, some moss and other vegetable matter. If you send me a private message with your address, I'll send you a pile of plants via priority mail for free. Just toss them in the tank, they'll have some beneficial bacteria to help things along and it'll speed this up a bit. It is possible that the plants are infused with the Happy Day virus, which simply can't be helped.

 

[Slaphppy7]

Happy day...every couple of weeks I throw out a pretty big pile of floating plants, some moss and other vegetable matter. If you send me a private message with your address, I'll send you a pile of plants via priority mail for free. Just toss them in the tank, they'll have some beneficial bacteria to help things along and it'll speed this up a bit. It is possible that the plants are infused with the Happy Day virus, which simply can't be helped.

Nice!