fishless cycling failing???

Bobafish said:

I put just over 5ppm of ammonia in my tank 5 DAYS ago, but there are still no nitrites appearing at all!!!! and the ammonia level has not dropped at all to my knowledge, it tested at 5ppm today also!!!! All I added to help it was one 2 inch rock from another tank that had finished cycling, but still, I should see nitrites after 2-3days right?
Please correct me if i am wrong on this.
should I add gravel from the established tank???? or more rocks from it????
srry, I am just a bit frustrated , how long will this take

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One rock is not much seeding. Filter material is best, if you have it to spare. It takes a while for the bacteria to start making a dent. 2-3 days is not a lot of time at all. If you don't have filter media to spare, then gravel from your established tank in a nylon can work well. Depending on volume seeding material it can take a week to 8 weeks.

If the other tank has a sponge in it, squeeze the sponge into the filter media on the new tank. I don't see this as failing at all--it can take quite a while for the bacteria beds to develop to the point where they are producing detectable nitrites. Hobby test kits are not able to detect low levels.

This same thing is happening to me -- it's been about 5 days at 4 ppm ammonia, with no measurable decrease in ammonia, and with no measurable nitrites.

I can believe that this is normal, and I am starting with no seeding at all, so I expected it to take a while... but the last time I had a tank set up, I did a traditional cycle with fish, again with no seeding. That time, within 2-3 days the water became quite cloudy and then cleared up on its own. I was told this was a "bacterial bloom" as the biological filter was becoming established.

This time, after 5 days, I've seen no bacterial bloom... so I'm just wondering why not. Any ideas? Also, is there any standard timeline on how long it should take for nitrites to show up with no seeding?

Thanks!

The cloudiness common to new or disturbed tanks is bacterial, but it is not the bacteria that establish and process ammonia. These beneficial bacteria adhere to a surface--the filter media most heavily, due to the water turnover bringing in nutrients and oxygen, but they cover pretty much all surfaces in a tank. The bacteria that cloud the water aren't bad, though, they are just another normal part of the micro fauna common to a healthy tank that is temporarily out of balance between it's food supply and it's predators.

No--there is not a standard timeline, because there are a number of variables that we can't measure that impact the bactiera growth.

OrionGirl, you rock -- you seem to know everything. Thanks for your help!

Also, don't forget to check your Ph and KH. A crash in those caused my cycle to stall. Everything sounds pretty much normal though. Hang in there.

Just an update from me: yesterday (day 8) I finally had my first trace reading of nitrite. The water in the test kit turned just barely from its normal color. Today (day 9) I finally have my first appreciable nitrite, at 0.25 ppm, so now I know I wasn't imagining the color change yesterday.

This has been starting with a thoroughly disinfected (read: dead) tank, and with no seeding. Er, well, I did add a small piece of pizza crust at the beginning (which I removed after a few days), since I read at the Skeptical Aquarist that a crumbled oatmeal cookie might work as well as Cycle. Of course, I have no idea if the pizza crust helped or not.

I have a 29 gallon tank with two Whisper 30 filters, so there's lots of aeration. I read in an article linked from the Skeptical Aquarist that the ideal temp for the bacteria is 86-95*F (30-35*C), so I've kept the temp at around 88*F. I've kept my ammonia reading between 2 and 4 ppm.

I guess I can't complain about getting a nitrite reading after 9 days, with minimal/no seeding... so for the rest of you trying fishless, keep at it... it works!

you're kidding about the pizza crust right?