Fishless Cycle Mistake

hurricanejedi

hurricanejedi

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Apr 4, 2005
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Just a quick question. My first attempt at dosing ammonia was horrendous because I didn't read my test kits instructions very well and missed that I had to wait 5 minutes to take the reading :duh: . So I put way way way to much in. So the next day I did like 5 60% water changes (enough so the water didn't go below my filter intake but almost to that point). Well now I can't quite tell but I think the ammonia is between 6 and 8ppm. Is this horribly painful to the bacteria? Or is it just like living in a lot of food... I was quite tired of doing water changes last night but I guess I could do a couple more tonight if people thought it would be helpful to get it down further. But if its not going to harm anything I'd just as soon leave it alone.
 
I've read that one of the main reasons that it takes, on average, several weeks for the nitrite eating bacteria to grow is because all the ammonia eating bacteria have taken up the best areas for them to attach to.

If you overdose on the ammonia, you may get stuck with seemlingly never ending nitrite spike because the other kind of bacteria can't find enough good places to attach to.

There was an article that I read on this very subject. But it was long ago and I can't remember where I read it. Maybe the Krib.
 
Why do so many water changes? Try doing one large one (90%), and then start fresh...add enough ammonia to get maximum 5ppm. A medicine dropper is useful for accurate dosing.
 
mishi8 said:
Why do so many water changes? Try doing one large one (90%), and then start fresh...add enough ammonia to get maximum 5ppm. A medicine dropper is useful for accurate dosing.
Click to expand...
Well I guess I was afraid of turning the filter off. Will I have to suck on the tube again if I turn it off? I thought i was bad to turn them off or something.... If not then I will turn it off and that will make my life easier doing one big water change.
 
Depending on the type of filter you're using, you may need to prime it again. Still way easier to do that than to keep doing multiple water changes. :)
 
If you are in the beggining stages of the cycle I honestly wouldn't worry a whole lot. there are no bacteria yet, and you will have to have nitrites before there will be any Nitrospira to consume them. Since ammonia will have to drop for nitrites to be produced, your solution is to let the ammonia drop on it's own and then don't dose it back up that high.
If you are adding bacteria starter cultures of any kind, or if you are mid way through the cycle then you would definately want to drop the level to protect your nitrite eaters.
That being said Water changes will harm nothing, and turning off the filter long enough for a large volume change will harm nothing either.
Dave
 
daveedka said:
If you are in the beggining stages of the cycle I honestly wouldn't worry a whole lot. there are no bacteria yet, and you will have to have nitrites before there will be any Nitrospira to consume them. Since ammonia will have to drop for nitrites to be produced, your solution is to let the ammonia drop on it's own and then don't dose it back up that high.
If you are adding bacteria starter cultures of any kind, or if you are mid way through the cycle then you would definately want to drop the level to protect your nitrite eaters.
Click to expand...
Thats sort of what I thought. I'm only a couple days in and by the time the bacteria start growing it will drop back to what I would have had to dose back up to. However... I'm adding a bunch of filter gunk and gravel over the next 2 days (friends with tanks). So I might still do the water change.
 
In my fishless cycle, I added a huge ammount of ammonia too, but enough to jack up ammonia to 5 ppm (not quite as high as you had it). It took my tank 2 months to cycle...then it started leaking, which meant I had to get a new tank anyway, but near the end, nitrites were down to about .5, and nitrate was 250+ ppm. As people have said, too much ammonia kind of stalls the cycle.
 
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