What Do I Do Next With Fishless Cycle

[Togsticles]

These questions must get asked so often but I appreciate the patience and help on this forum regardless of how many times a question is asked.

So my fishless cycle I thought was going really well, I started off with nitrites and nitrates right from the off. It was still taking a day or just over to remove 3-4ppm of ammonia.
The nitrites and nitrates dropped right down.

Now tho my tank is dealing with 2-3ppm of ammonia between 6 and 12 hours reducing it to 0 no problem at all. My nitrites and nitrates how ever are high ish.
Nitrite is between 2 and 5 ppm
Nitrate is between 80 and 160 ppm

So what is my next step? Do I lower the amount of ammonia I am adding but continue to add it so that nitrites will drop?

Many thanks for anyone's time and advice

 

[XAli1971]

Hello,

Welcome and congrats on your aquarium

Just finished the cycle on my 240L tank.

I just kept replenishing the ammonia to 4ppm every day around the same time.

Nitrites went off the chart (40ppm+), then dropped off a cliff after 10 days to 0ppm NO2 overnight

next task is to cinform this for a few days by dosing Ammonia to 4 ppm in the morning and check if it is reduced to 0 ammonia and 0 Nitrite in 12 hours. after that 95% water change to clear the NitrAtes

Some Patience is all you need now

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

How long have you had the situation of ammonia clearing but not nitrites?

What is the pH of you tank water now?

There is a possiblity that your cycling has stalled, due to the pH getting too acidic for the nitrite bacteria colony to grow.

 

[Togsticles]

I have only had this situation for a couple of days I'm just really paranoid of doing something wrong and having to start over or something.

Ph is 7.6

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Lower your ammonia dose (1-2 ppm is fine) and only redose when ammonia is at 0. Do not allow either ammonia or nitrites to exceed 5 ppm. If either does, do water changes to get them down. The same applies to your pH level, but in the other direction. Do not let it drop under 7.0 as this will greatly slow the cycle. However, to test if you are cycled, 1st get a nitrate reading, then dose ammonia to the equivalent of 3 ppm (based on your tank) and wait 24 hours. If you test Ammonia at 0, nitrite at 0 and your nitrates are higher, you are cycled (In tanks with plants the nitrates may not change.).

XAli1971 - please reread your post as you have mixed up nitrate and NO2. Nitrate is NO3 and Nitrite is NO2.

Nitrates went off the chart (40ppm+), then dropped off a cliff after 10 days to 0ppm NO2 overnight

 

[Togsticles]

Thank you very much for the advice I will keep cracking on.

 

[Togsticles]

Ok so 5 days on and I'm still in the same situation. I dose ammonia to 2-3ppm and It's gone to 0 within 12 hours yet my nitrites and nitrates just are not changing.

I tried a 50% water change yesterday morning and it does not seem to have helped.

Should I do a larger water change?

I have read that the nitrite removing bacteria struggle in high amounts of ammonia so have tried dosing to just 1-2ppm and no change.

Would really like any advice on what to try next, I'm starting to get a little disheartened I just want fish

 

[fluttermoth]

It could be the high nitrate stalling your cycle.

A larger water change won't do any harm and might well do some good, so I'd try that before you get too disheartened. The nitrite part of the cycle often takes longer than the ammonia part.

 

[Aqua Tom]

The second stage of the cycle (the nitrite eating bacteria) typically take twice as long as the Ammonia eating bacteria to establish a colony.

Patience.


Tom

 

[Togsticles]

Thank you both for your replies.

I'll keep going and may try a water change at the weekend too.

 

[Cupster]

Thank you both for your replies.

I'll keep going and may try a water change at the weekend too.

Patience, young Skywalker. Time will come yours will:

 

[Togsticles]

Patience is clearly a huge part of doing a fishless cycle because I have got in from work today and done a test and what do you know......

Nitrites are reading the big 0ppm

Out of nowhere too, tested yesterday evening and was still showing deep purple.

 

[Yanks15]

Patience is clearly a huge part of doing a fishless cycle because I have got in from work today and done a test and what do you know......

Nitrites are reading the big 0ppm

Out of nowhere too, tested yesterday evening and was still showing deep purple.

Great feeling isn't it Good luck with the rest of it

 

[Togsticles]

Thank you yanks.

So I just need to go and buy a bunch of fish now right......

No no being serious, I have now redosed the ammonia up to 5ppm with the plan to test in the morning within 10 - 12 hours. If its back down to 0ppm for ammonia and nitrites am I right in saying I do a large water change and then introduce my first fish?

Or should I carry on dosing with ammonia for a while?

 

[Yanks15]

You can check my API test thread for my timeline. I didn't dose NH3 that high towards the end but you still want to dose say 1-2ppm for a week or so and continue testing @ 24hrs. You can test @ 12hrs if you want also. Just go another week to be sure. I did 1-2ppm for about a week then stocked 20 cichlids and haven't had a blip in water stats yet. Just make sure you do a nice 80%-90% WC before adding fish because hopefully your nitrates will be pretty high if you don't have a ton of real plants.


Thanks
Steve