Will It Ever Be Ready ?

[richrich]

Hello,

I have had my aquarium set up now for nearly 6 weeks, I am doing a fishless cycle. It's soooo slow.

Tank is 180 litre, trickle filtration system. Temp set to 28oc

6 weeks ago I started the tank off, added ammonia to take it to 5ppm and tested daily

After 3 weeks, it was still 5ppm. Nothing was happening.

I spoke to a friend and was able to get some filter media from him. I put a bag of water and algae from his tank into my filter and bingo, within 2 days the tank was clearing ammonia. It would clear 5ppm in about 12 hours. I have since been feeding the tank with anough ammonia daily to take it back to about 4ppm and again, it is cleaing it back to nil withinn 12 hours - perfect

Now the nItrite level is through the roof (as expected). I know that it takes twice as long for the nItrite to clear to nitrAte but I have no idea how long the first part took as it did nothing for 3 weeks then worked instantly when I added some media to the filters.

It has so far been 2 weeks and the nItrite is still in a huge spike, the tester just goes instant dark purple. The water is well circulated as it is a trickle feed from the lid so there is good circulation

My concern is the tank failed to develop any bacteria to deal with the ammonia on its own and this only resolved itself after I added a bag of media/bacteria. My concern is that for the same reason, it may not produce and of the required bacteria to process the nItrite.

After 6 weeks I am really keen to get some fish and while I know patience is the key, it would be frustrating if in many more weeks its still the same.

Am i doing anything wrong?

Thanks

 

[Dark Wolf]

I'd wait at least another week before doing anything, Nitrite usually take between 2-4 weeks to drop, and with only two weeks gone, and sit and wait a bit longer, before wondering if something is wrong with your tank.

 

[Jonno]

turn the temp up to 30 - 35 degrees and add loads of aeration

 

[**sarahp**]

was going to say up the temp - but I was beaten to it also check your ph - if its 6.4 or lower that may be part fo the problem (it lowers when it processes ammonia) if it is low do a 30/40% water change REMEMBER the dechlorinator!!!! this should bring the ph back up to a sensible level. Chances are that if there were bacteria to process ammonia in the media you added there will be bacteria to process nitrIte they may just take a while to eat through all the stuff.

If you think of it like this you will see why it takes so long - you added 5ppm ammonia and the bacteria process it in 12 hours so they produce approximately 5ppm nitrite but you dont have enough bacteria to process that much nitrite - they can only do 2ppm in 24 hours. Then you add anther 5ppm ammonia which creates 5ppm nitrite but you still have 3ppm left from yesterday so now you have 8ppm but at least your bacteria doubled so now you can process 4ppm but that still leaves 4ppm. Then you add another 5ppm ammonia and so it goes on and on. The bacteria are mutiplying like mad but just not fast enough to keep up with the ammonia you are adding but they will catch up eventually. When they do you go from throught the roof nitrites to nothing in about 12 hours.

(I know thats a very simplistic and not truely scientific description but I hope it helps!!)

 

[richrich]

Thanks guys,

Is there anything I can test to see if the bacteria is starting to develop to clear the nitrites? At least if I can see it is starting to work I can sit back and chill

Would I be right in thinking that I need to do nitrAte tests to confirm the nitrIte is being converted to nitrAte ?

 

[mark.w.jones]

Don't worry about the nitrate part at all. If your nitrite is being converted then the only place for it to go, is to nitrate, and nitrate is only removed from an aquarium by plants and also by diluting it when you do a water change. There aren't bacteria in your filter which utilise it as such.

 

[Thirdfloor]

Thanks guys,

Is there anything I can test to see if the bacteria is starting to develop to clear the nitrites? At least if I can see it is starting to work I can sit back and chill

Would I be right in thinking that I need to do nitrAte tests to confirm the nitrIte is being converted to nitrAte ?

A nitrAte test will indeed let you know that your nitrIte eating bacteria are developing. I had a very similar situation to yours when I cycled my tank. Just keep testing every day, one day out of the blue you will do you test and see 0 nitrIte. When it happens, it seems to happen fairly fast.

Hang in there, patience is key. You are *probably* down to a matter of only a few days.

 

[SJ2K]

Will It Ever Be Ready ?

No, give up now and get your money back


...Only joking, stick with it, all pays off in the end