long cycle

[fishyyy]

My tank has been cycling for about 2 1/2 already (fishless cycle). I didnt use anything from an established tank. The ammonia is about 7ppm, and its been like that all the time. When should the ammonia start to go down?? Can i something from an established tank from anywhere besides a fish store??

 

[Da_Oz]

Any up and running cycled tank you can find. You can take a tank vacuum and suck some mulm out it and put it in your tank. Fish foods can also help a bit with this but not alot. Live plants can help but with that level may kill them back.

 

[pendragon]

My tank has been cycling for about 2 1/2 already (fishless cycle). I didnt use anything from an established tank. The ammonia is about 7ppm, and its been like that all the time. When should the ammonia start to go down?? Can i something from an established tank from anywhere besides a fish store??

Sorry, you've been cycling for 2 1/2 what? Days? Weeks? If it's 2 1/2 weeks, you should start to see it drop any day now. There is no standard time for it to drop, it just does when it does. Sometimes it can take three or four weeks, but that is unusual. My big tank took a little over three weeks for ammonia to reach zero. More typical is seven to ten days, but that's not written in stone.

Are you still adding ammonia daily? There's really no need to add anymore until your reading goes down to zero (or near it). The drop usually happens pretty fast once it starts. It will go from 7.0 to zero within a day or so. Once it reaches zero, you need to continue putting some amount of ammonia in each day to keep the cycle working. Once ammonia drops, you should see nitrite skyrocket.

You are using pure ammonia, right? (If it's pure it will have only ammonia and water in it, but nothing else)

You can put in a handful of gravel or a piece of filter media from any established tank (whose owner will let you have the seed material, of course), and it will speed things along tremendously.

pendragon!

 

[fishyyy]

2 1/2 weeks. Now, i'm adding ammonia every 2 days. I think its pure ammonia. When i shake it, it doesnt form any foam, just a few bubbles, but they disappear right after appearing. On the bottle, it says clear ammonia.
The tank is a 10 gallon tank, by the way.

 

[jams.alaskan]

2 and a half weeks isn't too long - you are on the right tract, just keep it up and you'll have a tank ready to stock in a couple more weeks...

ALASKA

 

[gaya]

I got my 29g cycled in about three weeks. I started it with plants and let it run for about six days and then added two fish. I did add some of that bacteria in a bottle (petsmart). I always heard that stuff doesn't work but maybe it does.