Fishless cycle help needed

[tumble]

I'm 25 days into my first fishless cycle and just as I was convinced everything was going to plan and i was doing everything right, the readings from my test kit surprised me.

I added ammonia at the start to 4-5ppm and then waited til it dropped to 1ppm then topped up back to 4-5ppm.

It seemed that the ammonia reading was starting to drop in a 12 period and almost reached 0ppm in the time period, but now it seems to have slowed and I get readings of 0.6ppm and then top up to about 2.4ppm as per the instructions i d/loaded from another forum.

I use the Hagen test kits and and as i've been concerned about the ammonia readings i haven't done the Nitrites for a few days. Last time i did them a i got a dark purple color which was at the top of the color chart 3.3ppm but today i got a tan/peachy color which isn't like anything on the scale (is this just off the scale), same goes for nitrates which i tested for the first time.

Readings i've just taken are:

Ammonia 0.6ppm
Nitrite 3.3+ppm (presuming off scale)
Nitrate 110+ ppm (presuming off scale)
pH 6.3

Am I doing this right or has something gone wrong?

All help greatly appreciated.

John

[anonapersona]

I think you need to do a small water change to get the pH back to a reasonable level and reduce the nitrates to something reasonable.

I read somewhere that high nitrates can damage the ammonia consuming bacteria. This could be your trouble.

Because the bacteria are on surfaces, not in the water, this will no harm the cycle, just don't mess with the gravel or filter media.

[Leopardess]

The fact that it is taking you 25 days, alone, tells me something isn't right. A fishless cycle can be completed in under two weeks...

Your nitrates are really high, which suggest things are being converted. But I would do a little water change, for the pH and to lower them.

Also, how come you let the ammonia drop down to 1ppm in the beginning? I've heard to keep it up around 6 ppm to allow enough food for the bacteria to develop.





Here's some good links:
http://myfishtank.net/articles/fishlesscycle.php

http://myfishtank.net/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=4084


Those will help, I'm sure.

[tumble]

I'll try a small water change and then monitor what happens.

From all the stuff i've read on fishless cycles, it doesn't suggest that it is any quicker than a normal cycle process. It is just more humane. I know it maybe a bit quicker if your tank is heavily planted and you use filter material etc from an established tank.

I seeded mine with some gravel from a friends tank who had no diseases and put it in a media bag and placed into my aquaclear filter. I dont' have any real plants, just a few caves and some plastic plants.

I added some more to the tank last weekend which seems to be when things slowed down. I rinsed them all before placing in the tank and they are all aquarium safe. Not sure if this had any effect.

Thanks for your thoughts though.

[RTR]

The issue is that your pH has fallen below the optimum growth levels for the nitrification bacteria. You need to do water changes to reduce the nitrates down to not more than 40ppm, better long term at and below 20ppm, and to restore you KH to support the ph in the tank.

Small water changes will not help. Your tank is becoming an overloaded cesspool. Dilution is way to go.

[TKOS]

Actually you are better off not having real plants in during the fishless cycle. Live plants will consume the ammonia and nitrites which will actually leave you cycling slower as the bacteria doesn't have that huge load to consume by itself. Depending on tank size, I believe that it can easily take 4 weeks or so to do a proper fishless cycle. Just do what RTR said and you should be back on track.

[tumble]

Thanks, I'm gonna do the water change right away, probably 50% to get the nitrates down.

I'll test and watch the nitrate levels and pH

thanks for the help