getting annoyed of ammonia!

djmodifyd

djmodifyd

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Jan 26, 2006
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Bondurant, IA
www.djmodifyd.com
Ok, as some of you know, im in the process of cycleing my tank

Its been a little over 2 weeks, and these numbers havn't moved!

ph. 8
ammonia 4
nitrate: 0 (this was at 30, now at 0)
nitrite: 0 (was at .5.....)
kh: 12
gh: 9

i have done 2 water changes on it in this 2 weeks...which i should have, or should not have done...but i did anyway, lol

the nitrate/ite has gone to 0, which is good. but the ammnia has not BUDGED from 4! not up, not down, no where.

my tap water tests 0 for ammonia.

WHAT do i do!?
just wait longer.

i am not adding ammonia to my tank, and it is a fishless cycle.

:rant2:

thanks
alex
 
then how are getting Ammonia? did u use bio-spira or what method are you using? becuase u have to keep feeding the bacteria or else it starves to death and no move biofilter????

Also if it is a fishless cycle, really no reason to do water changes at all, since nothing is being harmed from the damage that the ammonia and nitrites do to the fishies :)
 
Pufferpoison said:
then how are getting Ammonia? did u use bio-spira or what method are you using? becuase u have to keep feeding the bacteria or else it starves to death and no move biofilter????

Also if it is a fishless cycle, really no reason to do water changes at all, since nothing is being harmed from the damage that the ammonia and nitrites do to the fishies :)
Click to expand...
Actually, you do need to do water changes during a fishless cycle if your KH drops to 3 or lower.

His is fine and he's monitoring it, but water changes are important if you don't have a large buffer to work with.

djmodifyd,

When was the last time you added any ammonia and how much did you add?

You may want to consider getting a new test kit. IMO yours has to be out to lunch. There is no way there can be ammonia in your tank unless there is a source for it. No fish, no plants, no ammonia in the tap water, no ammonia dosing, no way :)

Roan
 
There's no need to do water changes during a fishless cycle. In some cases it can even be counter-productive. If the KH drops too low, add baking soda... it's easy.
 
Do high nitrates (like 160+ppm) not deter the bacteria from growing? I would think if its toxic for fish it might be toxic for the bacteria..? Thats why I've been doing water changes.
 
I'm confused. How are you doing a fishless cycle without adding ammonia? Were you planning on adding a source of ammonia? Are any components of your set up used (for example, used gravel that might still have food/mulm in it)? What kind of conditioner did you use?
 
The ammonia is getting in there somehow... Are you reusing a setup? Maybe somethign died in the substrate? For the time being keeping it at 4 is good for the cycle but in the long run you need to know where the ammonia is coming from. That is pretty confusing.
 
i was going to add ammonia, until it jumped up on its own

It was reused, but it never had an ammonia problem before.

i did a 75% water change and really dug into the gravel. everytime i gravel vac now, nothing comes out of the gravel. i can't find dirt anywhere.

could my lace rock be doing something with it? they have a bit of white fuzz growing on them.

and i'm using amquel water conditioner
 
So it could be the used set up...something in there is giving you ammonia. You could try breaking it down and giving it a thorough cleaning and start from fresh.

As well, Amquel may be a problem during fishless cycling. It is possible that, since it "neutralizes" ammonia, that it is not making the ammonia properly available for the biofilter. Additionally, I believe the ammonia alert card does not determine between ammonia and ammonium and will give you a false reading.

According to the Fishless cycling articles I've seen, it's best to use a simple conditioner. You can switch to a product like Amquel or Prime for properly treating chloramines when the fishless cycle process is done and you're ready to add fish...otherwise, it's unecessary to "neutralize" ammonia since it's not affecting any fish.
 
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