One week into a fish less cycle

[Canine]

Hi everyone , I am one week into my fishless cycle and am seeing high levels of ammonia and nitrites with medium to low levels of nitrates.

I am now experiencing a hair algae bloom.
Am I doing something wrong ?

I have a 135 litre planted tank with a Co2 system.

I run the lights for approximately 8 hours a day

I have attached some of the recent tests of the water.

would appreciate any help possible

 

[Essjay]

How heavily planted is your tank? If there are good number of plants you don't need to do a fishless cycle. This is because plants take up ammonia as fertiliser and they don't turn it into nitrite.

But you have a lot of nitrite in the tank at the moment. How much ammonia have you added to the tank, and how often? If you have added a lot of ammonia there may well be too much for the plants to take up which is why you are seeing nitrite.

 

[Canine]

How heavily planted is your tank? If there are good number of plants you don't need to do a fishless cycle. This is because plants take up ammonia as fertiliser and they don't turn it into nitrite.

But you have a lot of nitrite in the tank at the moment. How much ammonia have you added to the tank, and how often? If you have added a lot of ammonia there may well be too much for the plants to take up which is why you are seeing nitrite.

Hi there, thanks for you help!

I currently have one Anubis plant, two Lindernia Rotundfolia, micranthemum tweediei, one amazon swordplant, one limnophila Aquatics and two alternanthera reinecki.

I used some jbl filter start on the first day of cycling and have otherwise used fish food. I haven’t went to the method of constantly adding bottled ammonia to the tank.

I am not too concerned about whether the duration of the cycle, more so the bloom of hair algae after a week of cycling

 

[RowdyBub50]

I've got no plants in my 283 litre, assuming the hair algae was brought in with the plants. I've kept some plants in the past, I used to put a dark blanket over the tank to block out any sun for a few days. The plants should survive it and hopefully the algae does not.

 

[Canine]

I've got no plants in my 283 litre, assuming the hair algae was brought in with the plants. I've kept some plants in the past, I used to put a dark blanket over the tank to block out any sun for a few days. The plants should survive it and hopefully the algae does not.

Hi there,

thanks for your advice, i will try that, by the time the tank cycles I am hoping that a cleanup crew will deal with the hair algae to the point that it is no longer visible to the eye.

bit concerned by blacking out the tank with some of the plants I have but I will give it a go and see what effect it has!