cycling..44 days

[allwet]

yes 44 days and counting.i have done three other fishless cycles in a short time.20 to 32 days.were cycling a 25g high tank now.the tank was seeded from day one with large quantity of gravel,rocks,and a dozen bio balls.i added the ammonia to bring the reading to 5.0 or closer to 6.0.the ammonia is reading between 1.0 to maybe 1.5.nitrites are 2.0 and nitrates are 10.the only difference in this tank is i used estes small gravel or sand.its much smaller than a bb,white in color.the other three sucessful cycled tanks i used blend of de river gravel from two different mfgs.surely the gravel like sand im using as described above wouldnt make any difference would it?filtration is two ac/200's.btw the ammonia reading has been at its present reading for several weeks now and i haven't added any ammonia other than the first day.their are floating plants and aquarium safe ornaments in the tank.any of you had to wait this long for your tanks to cycle?thanks.allwet..........

[RTR]

Excessively hig ammonia readings at the beginning commonly results in extended cycle time, at least by the posts seen on the boards.

[Fishskin]

This is at the long end but not out of the ordinary and things seem to be proceeding....should be OK.

[wetmanNY]

Though allwet doesn't post a pH, I've only recently understood myself how much the nitrifying community is slowed by pH values below ~6.8. This may not be a contributing factor here, but it's worth mentioning.

[Tempest]

Something seems wacky here to me... allwet says he/she only added ammonia the first day... I think I'd question the test results on the ammonia by now.

[allwet]

hello and thanks for your replies.yep..forgot to mentioned the ph.it is 8.2.read the ammonia this am again and it is staying at 1 to 1.5.been that way for several weeks.am using the ap test kits.i checked for ammonia in my other three tanks and the readings are all 0.something is sure wrong imo although i could be wrong.i told the wife it should only take about 30 plus days to cycle the tank but i was sure wrong.guess i'll wait one more week.if its still reading 1.0 ammonia i might have to drain the tank.what do you all think? allwet...........

[Tempest]

allwet-- Is there any difference on the new tank in the chemicals you might have used in it other than ammonia? I am thinking that if your other tanks show a zero ammonia then you may be getting a false positive in the new tank. I simply cannot see how it is possible that you had only added ammonia once in 44 days, have nitrites showing up now, and are still getting an ammonia reading.

[allwet]

hi tempest.been using the same bottle of ap ammonia tester for a few months now.i am now out of it and i just got back from the Lfs and they were out of the ap one bottle tester also.however they did have the two bottle tester and im going to go in and test right now.will be back with the results later.allwet...........

[allwet]

well tempest i just checked the water for ammonia with ap 2 bottle tester and it shows between 1.0 to 2.0.im in no hurry so i can let the tank go and keep checking every day and see what happens.after another week however i might empty it and cycle with fish as i use to do that pretty successfly(sp)in the 60's and 70's.i also might add some more well established gravel to the tank in hopes that that will speed it up.allwet........

[goldfish freak]

It does seem strange that the ammonia read that high after 44 days, when only one dose was added at the beginning. Do you remember how much ammonia you added? I am betting that your test kit is reading incorrectly. I had a problem with a faulty ammonia test kit myself when I did my last fishless cycle. My test kit was reading alot lower levels of ammonia than there actually was. I was adding so mauch ammonia to my water daily that it began to have a very noticeable ammonia smell to it. This could the reason why you did not have to add any more ammonia, yet you have a nitrite and nitrate reading, and why your cycle is taking so long.

[allwet]

well it seems like it was about four teaspoons full gfreak.at the beginning i seeded the tank with more than enough good bacteria from other tanks.i put in a few more handfulls a while ago.i havent fooled with the filters and havent cleaned the glass so i will just wait and see what happens.i've kept the temp at 85 and run the lights for 8hrs a day.allwet..........