Running out of patience

[Zonker]

Hello all. Well.....I don't know how much more of this I can take. I got a 10G aquarium for Christmas. I did a bunch of research (since I've never had one before) and learned about the nitrogen cycle and cycling in general. I also read about fishless cycling. I seemed like a great idea. If the result is the same and no fish get stressed or killed in the process, why not? Well, I decided to give it a try. I followed the plan as best as I could and everything was going well. My tank eats ammonia very quickly, but I've been in a nitrite spike forever!! I have no idea what to do next. I've been reading other people's experiences and the most common answer in this situation is "just be patient". As I mentioned, I got the tank at Christmas and still no fish! Is it possible that in some cases, fishless cycling just doesn’t work? I don't want to "sacrifice" a fish, but I don't know where to go from here. Maybe I need a pet rock instead ;) Seriously, does anyone have any advice? All the water parameters check out ok, I just can get past this nitrite spike. Anyway, sorry for the rant, just had to let off some steam.

Hmmm....pet rock.....


Thanks in advance

Zonker

[RTR]

Have you checked the pH and KH? A lot of tanks that arrest in that phase have insufficient KH to support the pH, so it crashes to levels below which the needed bacteria cannot multiply.

See:

http://www.tropicalfishcentre.co.uk/Fishlesscycle.htm

HTH

[Cearbhaill]

Also- I've run into more than one "old" or expired test kit.
Try having your LFS or another source test your water for you with a fresher kit.

[hcuevas]

I started cycling my new tank in January 9th and only a week ago my nitrites went down. It seems like an eternity. Ammonia had reached zero long time before. I would suggest measuring nitrates if they are raising it means your nitrite feeding bacteria are growing and only is a matter of more time. If nitrates are not increasing then you might have a problem and the cycle is not developing.

If you have done too many water changes during the period you may have slow down the cycle process. The PH issue is something to be considered.

Also a fishless cycle is slower as the volumes of organic matter to feed the bacteria colonies are lower. Bio-Spira may help you to speed up the process.

I am talking based on my own experience and being a beginner as you are. But for sure the guys here will correct me if I am telling you something wrong.

[hcuevas]

I forgot to tell you something. The nitrites in my case went down in 24 hours. It was not a clearly measurable process. One day they were very high in the morning, a bit lower at night and next day zero!! It has a lot of sense at the growing rate for the bacteria colonies are exponential.

[Anne L.]

I finished cycling a 10 gallon about a month and a half ago. I had trouble getting the nitrite spike to go down.

How much ammonia were you using to spike the tank? I was using 2.5 ml of household ammonia, and then when I went to spike the tank with 5 ml, lo and behold, I was getting nitrites again after I had thought they dropped to zero.

The folks here told me to continue cycling with 5 ml ammonia per day and let the nitrites spike again. This took a while again, and was very frustrating, but it eventually dropped to zero, within a day or so, and is fine now.

Have patience, it seems like forever, and it'll work eventually. I think it took me 39-42 days, something like that.

[Zonker]

Thanks everyone for the advice. I've been adding enough ammonia every day to keep it at around 2 - 3 ppm. I'll check my ph and kh again to make sure it's normal. I think I'll take a water sample to the lfs and have them test it just in case my test kit is a dud. I've read that high nitrite readings can cause inaccuarate nitrate readings....is this true?

Thanks

Zonker

[Anne L.]

You may not be putting enough ammonia in to get your nitrites spiking high enough. I did not do any water changes during the fishless cycle.

That's what happened to me, and the advice was to bump up the ammonia to 5ppm. I didn't test for nitrates at all during this time, because I couldn't get hold of a kit. So I don't know about the inaccurate readings.

Taking a sample to the LFS certainly wouldn't hurt.

How long has the nitrite been high?

[Zonker]

My nitrite reading has been off the chart (in my case, 3.3 ppm is the max the kit will read) for 7 weeks. It was recommended that I do some water changes to bring the nitrites down to a level that the test can read. The strange thing is that no matter how much water I change, the nitrites are still really high, and within 1 day, they're off the chart again.

I hope the test from the LFS might help shed some light on my problem.

Thanks

Zonker

[TKOS]

To find out exactly what your nitrites are, take a sample of water out and cut it in half with fresh water. Then see if you get a reading on the chart. If it does give you a reading then multiply the result by 2 to get the off the chart reading. If it is still off the chart keep cutting it. This will give an indication of exactly where those nitrites are.

[sprite42]

You may also want to test your source water to see what your levels are going in.

[snakeskinner]

I finished an ammonia cycling on a 10 gallon about a month ago. I was adding 7ml of ammonia at first, when I saw nitrites I dropped to 3ml and kept adding. My ammonia dropped to 0 after about 2.5 weeks and my nitrites went off the chart and after 2 weeks never came down any at all. I finally did a 100% waterchange and added 3ml ammonia. I did a 100% water change 3 times and the nitrites started to stabalize and I kept adding 2ml of ammonia for a week and the ammonia and nitrites stabalized at 0. I did one more 100% waterchange and started adding shrimp pellets for a week before adding my two large mystery snails. I planned to transfer my betta at the same time but he caught something while I was gone over the weekend and died. I've had the snails there for about 2 weeks and all my levels are fine. I don't know if I did the right thing but it seemed to work. I wonder if I was adding too much ammonia in the beginning and it all piled up and created way too much nitrites for the bacteria to take care of in a short amount of time. Kyle

[Zonker]

I was thinking of doing that. I've done a few 95% water changes and they brought the nitrites down, but they quickly went off the scale again. Maybe a few successive large changes would bring it down.

Zonker