Stuck Cycle?

Gena575

Gena575

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Feb 7, 2006
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I'm currently fishy cycling a 10 gallon. The tank ran for 4 days with nothing in it but water and gravel. On 2/6 I added a bronze crypt and 2/8 I added 3 harlequin rasboras. Since then I've added another crypt, some java fern and java moss and something called a green hedge (which I don't think is true aquatic...may have to go if it starts looking bad). My readings this morning were:
Ammonia 1.0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
pH 7.2

My tap water does have chloramine and I use Prime to get rid of that. If I dose my water change bucket with the full dose for 10 gallons, there is no ammonia reading after letting it sit about 10 minutes. When I was using aqua safe I would get a .25 reading for ammonia after dosing the water change bucket.
These readings haven't changed at all this entire time. Well, the ammonia goes down to between .25 and .5 after my daily (sometimes 2x daily) water changes. I've not cleaned the filter pad at all, the only gravel vacuuming I've done has been super light surface stuff if I notice a bit of poo or food. The fish are swimming with fins erect and don't seem stressed in the least. They play in the filter out put, explore the tank, eat like piggies. I keep the temp a steady 79*. It's been 20 days, should I not be seeing nitrite?? Oh, I am using the AP master test kit and jungle dip tests. I do most of my testing with the AP, but occasionally I test again with the dip tests just because I have them and its kind of fun to test the water LOL! The results I gave were the AP results. Any ideas or suggestions? Will this cycle ever end? :huh:
 
a couple things come to mind. some products render the chloramine safe but may show a 'false' ammonia reading.
eventually you should see a 0 ammonia and most likley a spike in nitrites..the bacteria that consumes the amonia will release nitrite as a waste product. after that the nitrites will drop(0) and you will most likely see the nitrates go up..the bacteria that consume the nitrites..produce nitrate as a by product..then your water changes help control the nitrates(nitrates are also cunsumed by plants)
the cycle can take several weeks I did the fish cycle and it took over 6 weeks.
 
star_rider said:
a couple things come to mind. some products render the chloramine safe but may show a 'false' ammonia reading.
eventually you should see a 0 ammonia and most likley a spike in nitrites..the bacteria that consumes the amonia will release nitrite as a waste product. after that the nitrites will drop(0) and you will most likely see the nitrates go up..the bacteria that consume the nitrites..produce nitrate as a by product..then your water changes help control the nitrates(nitrates are also cunsumed by plants)
the cycle can take several weeks I did the fish cycle and it took over 6 weeks.
Click to expand...

I understand the how the process is supposed to proceed. It just isn't doing it...sigh. Could the Prime be causing problems? Is almost 3 weeks just not long enough for the ammonia consuming bacteria to establish? I am also seeing a bit of fuzzy looking algea growing on the bronze crypt...how does that happen? I thought that algea needed nitrate to grow?? There hasn't been any cloudy water, white or green. There is no algea trying to grow on the glass or anything else.
 
Algae can consume ammonia directly, as well.

With plants in the system, you aren't really doing a 'standard' cycle, since the plants and bacteria will both reduce ammonia, but only the bacteria will produce nitrites. I'd keep it up, since really, the fish aren't in distress, the pH is stable, and there isn't anything to worry about.
 
Sometimes the cycle can go REALLY slow. I started two 20 gal tanks at the same time and one was cycled in two or three weeks while the other took two months! And the slow one got a dose of BioSpira halfway through! If you can get some filter media from an established tank that would speed things up. I keep a few bioballs in all my filters now just so I have them on hand for that.

Also, as OG said, plants will affect your cycle. Plants will gobble up any available nitrogen--ammonia, nitrite or nitrate. In a heavily planted tank there can be virtually no visible cycle.

As for the algae, they will also like ammonia and nitrite in addition to nitrate. Anytime there are nutrients in the water not being fully used by the plants algae will exploit it. I am having a heck of a time getting my planted tank set so the plants outcompete the algae.
 
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