Two Months, Not Cycling?

[jlane1980]

LONG EMAIL ALERT!!! LOL

Hi,

OK, i 'inherited' my, fully stocked, tropical, fish tank from my Grandfather about 2 months ago.

He had it overstocked and looking not very good, when i got it. After water changing lots of water, i managed to get it looking good. After some helpful advice, i changed the stock around (it's now different to my signature, i can't remember how to change it!) and get it to within acceptable levels for it's size (120l). Also, i have been monitoring the ammonia levels etc. closely.

My problem, and the reason i'm begging, for your help and advice is as follows. My ammonia level isn't changing! Originally (about 4-5 weeks ago), i thought it might have been a problem with my filter media not having any of the required bacteria. So, thanks to this website, i had some donated to me. I left that running in my filter for a couple of weeks, with no joy. I then thought it might be my trickle filter not running efficiently enough to do the job, so brought a canister filter, running that with both the donated filter wool, some of my old filter wool, and some new stuff, also with some ceramic noodles in the bottom (first stage). That's been running for the past 2-3 weeks, with STILL no drop in ammonia level!

I have been doing frequent water changes, 25-40% every other day for the first 2 weeks, now i do a 25% twice weekly, just to keep on top of the ammonia level. I'm using no other additives to the water, other that SeaChem Prime, at water changes. My levels are CONSTANT, and not fluctuating at all! I'm guessing because of my frequent water changes???

My current levels are as follows: Ammonia: 0.25ppm - Nitrate and Nitrite: 0 (I've never had a reading at all on these) - pH: 7.2 (about 7.0 in the morning, 7.2 at night) - Temp 26 degrees.

I had, at first thought it might be my test kit, API master test kit. So i brought another one. Still the same. I took a sample to my LFS, they got the same readings. I've tested my tap water, nothing abnormal there.

I'm really running out of ideas!

Somebody Help me, please!

P.S. So far i've had no casualties (apart from one of my own mistake!), i'm not too sure if this is just sheer luck, or i'm doing something right!

Thanks

Jon

 

[The Taffy Apple]

Good evening JLane..

Far, far from me being any sort of expert (i am a relative 'newbie' myself) but this problem, in my own statistical way, happened to me as i was cycling my small 30L first tank.

I realised after a few weeks that at certain days of the week, my tap water returned a reading of .25ppm Ammonia. I traced this back to the times and periods my water company adds its' chemicals.

I hope this is the answer to your problem, maybe not... but certainly worth monitoring.

Regards,
Terry.

 

[Rogue4Fish]

.25 is deemed acceptable. Not ideal, but if you can't get it any lower, I wouldn't worry too much.

Make sure you're not over feeding as this wont help.

R4F

 

[Embrace]

Also, for the next week or so, do 10% changes everyday to see if that helps.

 

[jlane1980]

OK, thanks a lot, that's a weight lifted off my shoulders. If 0.25ppm is acceptable then i'm not as worried as i first was about it all! I guess, because i hadn't seen the spike in nitrite then nitrate, then my cycle must be working, and had been since my first set up and run in of the tank? I guess the old filter wool, that my grandfather had been using had enough of the bacteria in it to cope!
I was expecting to see, at least a small amount of Nitrate though. Is this always the case? The way i read it, it goes ammonia, nitrite, nitrate - so with nitrate being a no show, does that mean my religious, twice weekly water changes are removing it, before it gets a chance to build up to a readable level? Or am i just being stupid?

 

[bullit]

whats the reading straight from the tap?

 

[jlane1980]

Just tested my tap water.
I'm getting 0.25ppm ammonia, 0 on both Nitrite and nitrate and 7.2 on pH.
I've read somewhere that water with no nitrates is a rare thing. I live in Helston, in Cornwall. According to my LFS, we have 'good' water down here. Is that right?


Edit: Typo 0.225 to 0.25ppm Ammonia