Trying to stay patient w/ cycle!!

[DrOizo]

Well you need to introduce some bacteria into the tank first. The bacteria doesn't just appear out of nowhere. Usually people plant up aquariums and they come with bacteria on them. My advice would to be get some gravel or media form another aquarium and watch what happens. i'm sure this will sought your probs out

 

[TheWaterBoy]

You have to remember if you've just placed conditioned water in a new clean sterile tank and added ammonia then there will be no good bacteria in there, you've in effect created a sterile body of water. You really need to boost it with bio-spira or gravel form establised aquarium. This will vastly increase the speed at which your bacteria will be able to get 'up to speed'

From my understanding there would be a small amount of bacteria in there from the begining even without seeding the tank with bacteria. I guess this could be the reason why it is working so slow. But this leaves me confused again because I am pretty sure I have a bacteria bloom in my tank. which would mean the amount of bacteria would be high. If my information is incorrect please tell me so I will have a better understanding of whats going on.

I didnt use Bio-Spira because i heard so many mixed opinions on whether it actually worked or not. Which I would have used it anyway but I also heard that it would throw my tests off.

 

[modernhamlet]

Sorry about not getting back to my topic sooner.

-I added enough ammonia to get it up to between 4 and 8 ppm
-My temp is set to 82
-I did not add any media cause I didnt think I had a source I could trust not to add bad things to my water as well as good.
-I havent added any ammonia because I planned on waiting for the ammonia to before I added more with the intent on keeping it at around 5ppm at all times.
I couldnt see the point in adding more and more ammonia before there was any bacteria converting it into nirtites. For example: If i had added half of what it took to get it up to 5ppm every day and the bacteria took a week to start breaking it down then by the end of the week I would have a total of 20ppm before the ammonia even began being converted. It just didnt seem logical. why not just wait till it started breaking it down before adding more.

Add the most trustworthy media you can. Putting no media in is going to make it take forever. With no fish in there, you aren't likely to do too much harm, as long as it's not cruddy gravel from Walmart or something...

I did just about the same thing you mentioned and my 29g tank cycled in 19 days. Most others say to keep pouring the ammonia in though and they know a lot more about fish than I do.

Good luck!!

 

[TheWaterBoy]

Thank you everyone. I will try to get media as soon as possible to seed the tank. I will also keep adding ammonia as many have said. I appreciate all the replys.

 

[MadCow]

I bought a potted plant from my lfs. Put the whole thing in my tank undisturbed, pot and all. I had read that these made good starters. I also had a trusted source for gravel, so added that as well. But I would think the plant would certainly help. I plan to probably throw my plant away when I am done. Unless it is still healthy and looks good in my tank, then I may decide to keep it awhile. Only paid $4.99 for it so is disposable in my mind.

 

[TheWaterBoy]

I called my LFS and none have the product Bio-Spira, so I ask to get some type of media and they told me they couldnt. I tried all of them. Getting the same answer. What is wrong with these people. Even the one I plan to buy fish from wouldnt. I guess I should just go to the place and talk to the person who knows the most about fish maybe that would get me further then by phone.

Sorry, I had to rant a little.