View Full Version : Stalled cycle? Or normal?
I've tested my waters the past few days, and my ammonia and nitrite levels have remained the same..
Ammonia is about 4-5ppm, and nitrites are holding steady at 1ppm...
I haven't had to dose the tank again yet due to dropping ammonia levels.
Is this completely normal and I'm just being impatient or what?
:help:
rich311k
02-02-2009, 9:45 PM
It can happen. You should start to see movement again soon. How long has it been?
jpappy789
02-02-2009, 10:20 PM
How much ammonia were you normally dosing?
KarlTh
02-03-2009, 3:48 AM
How did you seed it with bacteria?
Temeraire
02-03-2009, 4:33 AM
What is your pH?
It's been about a week since I put the first dose of ammonia in. I put in around 5ppm.
Don't have anything to seed the tank with. Newbie to aquariums.
My pH last I checked was between 7.4 and 7.6
Sploke
02-03-2009, 7:40 AM
Keep testing and waiting...starting from scratch, it can take up to 4-6 weeks to get fully cycled. If you have a LFS, you can ask for a cup of gravel or filter media from an established filter to speed things up.
KarlTh
02-03-2009, 7:41 AM
You really need the bacterial source, or it can take months.
rich311k
02-03-2009, 7:52 AM
Sounds like everything is normal. If your LFS wont give you any media buy a decoration or peice of wood from one of their tanks.
Didn't test yesterday..
Came home tonight to test and ammonia had dropped to around .25ppm.... nitrites were between 1 and 5ppm.... Colors are so close it's hard to tell...
dosed some more ammonia into the tank :)
colinsk
02-04-2009, 8:25 PM
Are you seeing nitrates yet?
Are you seeing nitrates yet?
I'll go test now and report back.
According to the nitrate test, which i followed directions 1000% (even used the stopwatch function of my iphone to time it), I'm between 5ppm-10ppm...
I wonder if the live plant i had gotten from the LFS has helped speed up getting the bacteria? Its weird though, as the plant wasn't in a tank with fish.. It was in a tank with other plants being fed co2..
colinsk
02-04-2009, 10:10 PM
Plants can consume ammonia, nitrites and nitrates. In fact they need them. If you were to take an aquarium and plant it wall to wall and put .5 inches of fish per gallon (within reason) you would not have to cycle at all.
The fact that you are starting to see nitrates means you are getting close to the finish.
:thm:
shawnhu
02-04-2009, 10:56 PM
According to the nitrate test, which i followed directions 1000% (even used the stopwatch function of my iphone to time it), I'm between 5ppm-10ppm...
I wonder if the live plant i had gotten from the LFS has helped speed up getting the bacteria? Its weird though, as the plant wasn't in a tank with fish.. It was in a tank with other plants being fed co2..
The roots of plants contain the bacteria we all need.
Ah.... Well good then :)
Started my cycle not this past sunday, but the sunday before...
Couple factors that I think helped (inadvertently):
1. We started the tank up with a live plant from the LFS.
2. My tap water has about 1ppm of ammonia in it, which we used to fill the tank..
The plant has since been removed as it turned mostly brown within a week, so we ditched it.
How often should I check for nitrates? I just dosed my tank again tonight and got it back up to about 3-5ppm of ammonia.
colinsk
02-04-2009, 11:31 PM
Since you are getting some, don't worry about it yet. When you have 0 ammonia and 0 nitrites and you are dosing ammonia then measure your nitrates. That is when you stop adding ammonia and need to do a big water change and then you will be ready to add some fish.
I declared my fishless cycle officially over today. I added two snails to the tank.
shawnhu
02-05-2009, 12:31 AM
Since you are getting some, don't worry about it yet. When you have 0 ammonia and 0 nitrites and you are dosing ammonia then measure your nitrates. That is when you stop adding ammonia and need to do a big water change and then you will be ready to add some fish.
I declared my fishless cycle officially over today. I added two snails to the tank.
colinsk is right, check your ammonia and nitrite levels instead. After a while, you'll get used to knowing how many drops it takes to get from 0ppm ammonia, to 5 ppm. At that point, you can stop testing for ammonia also, only nitrite. When your nitrite hits 0ppm after 24 hrs of adding ammonia, you're pretty much done.
Here's how I do it, to save test kits.
Add ammonia, test, adjust ammonia to 5ppm. Take note of how much it takes from start, to 5ppm.
Wait 1 week, test ammonia, and adjust for 5ppm.
Test daily only when ammonia starts to drop more than 2ppm after a day.
Once ammonia hits 1ppm after 24 hrs, stop testing for ammonia, and just dose for 5ppm each day.
Start testing nitrite once a week. Repeat until nitrite is at 0. If you suspect that something is wrong, then test for nitrate.
You mentioned that your water has 1ppm ammonia in it from the tap, that's too high for fish to live in. You will need to treat your water before adding it to the tank. Lowering your pH can help de-toxify the ammonia. You can also filter your water before adding it to the tank. There's products available like Ammo-Chips to de-toxify ammonia. It might be feasable for you to have a tub for water changes, and run a bio-filter through it so remove the ammonia before it enters your fish tanks.
Temeraire
02-05-2009, 4:40 AM
Won't a number of dechlorifiers such as prime already detoxify ammonia when added to water?
Won't a number of dechlorifiers such as prime already detoxify ammonia when added to water?
I think prime does as well.
Most people on here so far have just told me to dose the tank with prime (for the full gallon amount, not just what I'm adding) before adding water from a python...
KarlTh
02-05-2009, 10:01 AM
Plants can consume ammonia, nitrites and nitrates. In fact they need them. If you were to take an aquarium and plant it wall to wall and put .5 inches of fish per gallon (within reason) you would not have to cycle at all.
The fact that you are starting to see nitrates means you are getting close to the finish.
:thm:
Less than that. Moderately planted tanks often (IME) do not really need any bacterial filtration as it's all taken up by the plants. I never see nitrate in mine, so at some point in the nitrogen cycle the plants are taking it all up.
I don't think inches of fish mean anything, though - we live in a universe where volume increases with the cube of length.
colinsk
02-05-2009, 10:31 AM
Yes, I agree, I was trying to keep it simple. I know Diana Walstead will plant a tank and then add the full fish load the next day but she is also a master of diagnosing problems. I figured 1/2 a load would give a newbee more time to work on problems.
Certainly 8" of oscar in a fully planted 10 gallon would not work out. :)
Wow came home to a suprise.
Just tested, and my ammonia was down to 0-.25ppm.... I think it was closer to 0, as there wasn't really any green in the color. It was a semi-dark yellow..
Nitrites are still hard to read... somewhere between 1-5ppm.. The 1 and 5 colors are pretty close.
How unusual is it to have a tank cycling so fast? I've only been dosing ammonia for two weeks now.
jpappy789
02-05-2009, 8:12 PM
What test kit are you using?
Are you continuing the ammonia dosing?
What test kit are you using?
Are you continuing the ammonia dosing?
I'm using the API master freshwater liquid kit.
I dosed last night up to 4-5ppm of ammonia!
jpappy789
02-05-2009, 8:30 PM
Sounds like it is coming along, just keep dosing the ammonia low. Once the ammonia and nitrites are consistently zero after dosing you are ready to stock.