over 3 weeks and ammonia still high!

[jiffy]

I have been using the fishless cycle to cycle my 10 gallon tank for the past 3-4 weeks, and I still have not seen my ammonia go to 0. The lowest it got was 3.0 ppm and then I added more ammonia so that it would get back to 5.0 ppm.

Also, just the other day my nitrites finally showed up, but they are only between 0 and .25 ppm.

I didnt use media from another tank, and I know that cycling can take a while, but does this seem excessively long to anyone else?

 

[Bol]

No, may not be unusually wrong, from what I've read (fishless cycling can take up to eight weeks).

Also, just as a reminder, I think you're supposed to cut your ammonia dose in half after the nitrites show up.

 

[methical]

do you think that u can get some media from another tank ?? because it only took me about 2 1/2 weeks to cycle enough that i could add a few danios in

i guess its different for everyone but some media would help a lot

 

[jiffy]

As for cutting the ammonia back to half, I read that doing that is really just cheating the cycle. If you think about it supposing your tank can cycle 5.0 ppm of ammonia in 24 hours. When you cut back to a dose of 2.5 ppm, your bacteria that needed that 5.0 ppm is going to die off eventually (not instantly but not months either). It is the same thing as if you only add a partial load of fish after fishless cycling. You are supposed to slowly add fish then so that the bacteria can re adjust to a larger load. So in my opinion, it is best to keep the ammonia at 5.0 ppm.

I tried a LFS near my house for some media, but unfortunately they didnt have anything they could give me. Im tryin to be paitient though.

 

[modernhamlet]

I tried a LFS near my house for some media, but unfortunately they didnt have anything they could give me. Im tryin to be paitient though.

Are there any other LFS around you? Because that's pretty lame of them. If you've purchased from them and they want you to continue to do so, they should be able to part with $0.02 worth of gravel or filter media.

My 29g cycled in 19 days without fish. Without media from my LFS, that would have been double. I'm pretty patient, but not when I don't need to be...

 

[Dorsal]

Are rocks and logs from an existing tank sufficient ?

 

[harried_mom]

Rocks are good...don't know about logs.

 

[TheWaterBoy]

Its been 23 days for me. I did not add anything from another tank. I am the same place you are my nitrites are about .25 and ammonia went down to 4ppm. I was afraid to add anything from another tank cause it could have snails and I dont want snails

 

[tstenback]

I just cycled a 29 gal and the longest part of the cycle was the nitrite spike so keep going with the ammonia until the nitrite spike is done. The nitrite spike takes a while to build up but when it comes down it comes down quickly. For me it was 2 weeks long but came down to zero from 5 in only a couple of days. Be patient, the reward will come when you stock your tank and the fish dont have to fight through the cycling.

 

[modernhamlet]

Its been 23 days for me. I did not add anything from another tank. I am the same place you are my nitrites are about .25 and ammonia went down to 4ppm. I was afraid to add anything from another tank cause it could have snails and I dont want snails

If you're fishless cycling, any hitchhiking snails won't have any food (unless they can process ammonia!) and will die off before the cycle completes. At least that's what happened with me. I put a couple of potted crypts in the tank early on and had a couple dozen snails. By the time I was ready to add fish, the snails were gone.

HTH!

 

[TheWaterBoy]

Do you think I would be able to add it now and it help and still have time to get rid of snails?

 

[modernhamlet]

Do you think I would be able to add it now and it help and still have time to get rid of snails?

I certainly wouldn't stop a month's worth of cycling on account of a few snails. Maybe someone who's had a bad infestation can say otherwise, but I'd push forward.

 

[jiffy]

modernhamlet - there are 2 good LFS shops near my house. one is about 2 minutes away and last time I was in there to buy a couple things I asked about some media and they said they didnt have any.

The other store is about 20 minutes away and I havent tried there yet, although I was ther a few weeks ago to get supplies. I think I will give them a call and say I was going to stop in to get some stuff and ask if they have any media. If they say no, I dont have to waste a trip. If they do, yahoo for me.