What could I have done wrong?

[MikeMTL]

I'm on day 28 of cycling a 25G (fishless with ammonia). I have seen 0 progress. My ammonia is still at about 4ppm. Nitrites and Nitrates are 0. I don't understand where I could've gone wrong. My water is drchlorinated. I have 4 plants, an airstone and some lava rock. Temp is 80 and ph is at 7.8. I'm running an Aquaclear 30 with biomedia and a sponge.


2 days ago I started using Seachem Stability, dosing as the bottle says. Still, nothing has changed.


What can I possibly be doing wrong? I'm out of words here. I'm willing to do close to a 100% WC and starting over, i'm just worried the same thing will happen.


Let's say hypothetically, that I forgot to dechlorinate the water (which I didn't (, wouldn't the chlorine and chloramine evaporate 24 hours after adding the water anyways allowing the cycle to start?

 

[JuiceBox52]

Let's say hypothetically, that I forgot to dechlorinate the water (which I didn't (, wouldn't the chlorine and chloramine evaporate 24 hours after adding the water anyways allowing the cycle to start?

Chlorine with evaporate, chloramine wont

 

[FishGuest5123]

I would remove the plants because they can take up your ammonia and nitrates right now. Put them in a glass container by a window. Drain 50% of the water and use any dechlorinator except Prime. Stability doesn’t do much for starting a cycle. Get some Tetra Safe Start+ and pour the entire bottle in your filter and around your tank. Add your proper amount of ammonia. Wait a couple of days and test. When your ammonia drops below 1ppm, add more. Don’t do any water changes. Let nature take its course. In a number o days you will see ammonia start to drop and nitrites will start to appear. This is the longest stage and can take several weeks but hopefully with the Safe Start, it will progress faster. Finally, you will see nitrites start to drop and nitrates will appear. Once you have 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, and some nitrates, you are cycled. Add ammonia one more time to be sure ammonia and nitrites fall back to 0. If they do, just do a water change to get your nitrates down below 20ppm. 10ppm is better. You can then add your fish.

 

[Treestone]

I'm on day 28 of cycling a 25G (fishless with ammonia). I have seen 0 progress. My ammonia is still at about 4ppm. Nitrites and Nitrates are 0. I don't understand where I could've gone wrong. My water is drchlorinated. I have 4 plants, an airstone and some lava rock. Temp is 80 and ph is at 7.8. I'm running an Aquaclear 30 with biomedia and a sponge.


2 days ago I started using Seachem Stability, dosing as the bottle says. Still, nothing has changed.


What can I possibly be doing wrong? I'm out of words here. I'm willing to do close to a 100% WC and starting over, i'm just worried the same thing will happen.


Let's say hypothetically, that I forgot to dechlorinate the water (which I didn't (, wouldn't the chlorine and chloramine evaporate 24 hours after adding the water anyways allowing the cycle to start?

Your situations definitely a bit of a weird one. Maybe using fish food instead of ammonia will help. I agree with @Deanasue but I've had some pretty quick cycles with Stability. The plants are definitely not the issue, even if they could grow at such a crazy rate, taking up all the nitrogen, OP says that ammonia is still around 4ppm. Try the tetra product, it might just improve your luck.

 

[FishGuest5123]

Good point. Slept through that fact. Thank you!

 

[Retired Viking]

I would try tetra safe start plus. That should help, it has the right bacteria. Or you could buy a few more fast growing plants and switch to a planted cycle. I have done that on all my tanks without a problem.

 

[MikeMTL]

I would remove the plants because they can take up your ammonia and nitrates right now. Put them in a glass container by a window. Drain 50% of the water and use any dechlorinator except Prime. Stability doesn’t do much for starting a cycle. Get some Tetra Safe Start+ and pour the entire bottle in your filter and around your tank. Add your proper amount of ammonia. Wait a couple of days and test. When your ammonia drops below 1ppm, add more. Don’t do any water changes. Let nature take its course. In a number o days you will see ammonia start to drop and nitrites will start to appear. This is the longest stage and can take several weeks but hopefully with the Safe Start, it will progress faster. Finally, you will see nitrites start to drop and nitrates will appear. Once you have 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, and some nitrates, you are cycled. Add ammonia one more time to be sure ammonia and nitrites fall back to 0. If they do, just do a water change to get your nitrates down below 20ppm. 10ppm is better. You can then add your fish.

Do you think at this point, doing a 50-75% WC would harm anything at all?

 

[MikeMTL]

I would try tetra safe start plus. That should help, it has the right bacteria. Or you could buy a few more fast growing plants and switch to a planted cycle. I have done that on all my tanks without a problem.

Yea, I don't have the tetrasafe in my area. I've read decent things about Stability though on some other message boards.

 

[MikeMTL]

Chlorine with evaporate, chloramine wont

Can you ever overdose on a water conditioner? Would it be too late to dump a little more in the water just in case?

 

[Retired Viking]

Dr. Tim's Aquatics Freshwater One & Only Nitrifying Bacteria

Do you have Dr Tim's bacteria

 

[FishGuest5123]

Can you ever overdose on a water conditioner? Would it be too late to dump a little more in the water just in case?

You can overdose it. How long has it been since you changed that water? I highly recommend ordering Seachem Safe Start if you can. Stability is good for settling in new fish but not for cycling a tank quickly. I’ve never had luck with it. Unless you have a lot of time in your hands. It’s just not the same bacteria as in Safe Start+. I’ve given my opinion and what I would do. I wish you good luck in whatever you decide. Also, ammonia works much better than fish food.

 

[MikeMTL]

You can overdose it. How long has it been since you changed that water? I highly recommend ordering Seachem Safe Start if you can. Stability is good for settling in new fish but not for cycling a tank quickly. I’ve never had luck with it. Unless you have a lot of time in your hands. It’s just not the same bacteria as in Safe Start+. I’ve given my opinion and what I would do. I wish you good luck in whatever you decide. Also, ammonia works much better than fish food.

I've never done a WC. I added my water over 3 weeks ago with ammonia and have been waiting ever since. When you say I can overdose, how easy is it to do that? I'm pretty sure I've dechlorinated the water in there now, however, I can't see why else my cycle isn't starting. If I add dechlorinator to it again, can it overdose if I basically double it (whatever is already in there plus whatever I add in extra)?

 

[FishGuest5123]

I would start over. If you didn’t dechlorinate 3 weeks ago, it wouldn’t make a difference now to add more.

 

[utahfish]

Ive never used anything to cycle a tank other than fish food. Also no point in doing water changes during a cycle if no fish unless ammonia gets above 5ppm in which case the cycling process can stall.

 

[MikeMTL]

Ive never used anything to cycle a tank other than fish food. Also no point in doing water changes during a cycle if no fish unless ammonia gets above 5ppm in which case the cycling process can stall.

That's the thing, my cycle never started. Something must be up... I want to maybe do a big water change to see if it stimulates it to start.