Fishless cycle problems. Advice welcome.

[irishspy]

Hi all,

As I mentioned in my tank-diary thread, this is the first time I've tried fishless cycling.

Well, I think I screwed it up.

Water went into the tank last Sunday. On Monday, I added 20 drops of Dr. Tim's Ammonkium Chloride, per the bottle's instructions. I also added two capfuls of Seachem Stability, hoping to jumpstart the creation of the bio filter.

Tuesday I began measurements. Here's the data:

2/23: Ammonia 0.5; Nitrite 0.25; Nitrate N/A
2/24: Ammonia 1.0; Nitrite 1.0; Nitrate 5
2/25: Ammonia 1.0; Nitrite 5.0; Nitrate 5
2/26: Ammonia 0.25; Nitrite 5.0; Nitrate 5
2/27: Ammonia 0.00; Nitrite 5.0; Nitrate 10
2/28: Ammonia 0.25; Nitrite 1.0; Nitrate 5

On the 24th I added 20 more drops of ammonia and a capful of Stability. On the 25th, concerned at the Nitrite spike, I cut the ammonia to ten drops and added another capful of Stability.

On the 26th, with the Nitrites not moving, I stopped adding ammonia, did a 20% water change, and added a capful of Stability.

On the 27th, I did a 40% water change. That brought about the results measure today. (I think the .25 ammonia is caused by the Prime I used to dechlorinate the water in the bucket. I've heard it can cause false positives.)

I'm confused by the ammonia rising only to 1.0, but the nitrites going through the roof. A function of the bacteria introduced by Stability, only to have them killed by the nitrite spike? But, since I kept adding Stability (including after each water change), why didn't the nitrates go up much?

I should mention that these measurements are approximate. I used the API Master kit, but telling the differences between the color shades was sometimes tough, especially by lamplight. Each test was made roughly 24 hours after the prior one.

So, that's where we stand. I'd be grateful for any advice folks can give and if anyone can explain the data. At this point, I assume I killed the cycle. What should I do to restart it?

Thanks much!

 

[tanker]

1) I would ONLY measure ammonia (forget the Nitrate and Nitrites) till it reaches zero.
2) Once it is at zero, I would add ammonia to 1ppm or 2ppm and wait till it goes to zero.
3) It MUST go to zero in 24hrs. before even thinking about the others.
4) Once ammonia goes to zero in 24hrs, I would start measuring for Nitrite.

So, it would go Add ammonia and measure, then measure again next day. If zero, add ammonia again, and do same. If after ammonia is zero in 24hrs then start measuring Nitrites and wait for it to go to zero, but you must still add ammonia every 2-3 days.

Nitrite readings skew Nitrate readings.

 

[irishspy]

Okay, thanks for the advice.

So, with ammonia setting at near-zero right now, I should add enough to get to 1-2 ppm and then measure it until it hits zero?

 

[tanker]

Okay, thanks for the advice.

So, with ammonia setting at near-zero right now, I should add enough to get to 1-2 ppm and then measure it until it hits zero?

Yes, and then add ammonia again.

 

[FreshyFresh]

Yep, totally agree with tanker.

If you get carried away with the ammonia adds, your nitrite spike will be so high it won't read with the API kit. In fact, I will read zero. I've been down that road before when fishless cycling a 29g and 10g at the same time. It took several large water changes on each tank to reduce nitrites to a point the cycle would continue.. and then it took right off to nitrates only.

FWIW, nitrites took WEEKS to happen for me. A month minimum. I'd rather have a root canal than go through it again.

 

[irishspy]

If you get carried away with the ammonia adds, your nitrite spike will be so high it won't read with the API kit.

I bet that's what I did. Thanks, folks, I'll restart the cycle tonight.

 

[irishspy]

So tonight I measured ammonia and nitrites: both zero, some something had eaten the remaining nitrites. I added ammonium chloride and tested ammonia 1 hour later: a solid "1".

Next test in three days.

 

[Big Bass]

You know, as crazy as it might sound, i have never knowingly cycled a tank in my over 30 years of fish keeping. I use well water, that is outta the tap and 7.4 , add a ton of live plants, let it run for a day to clear up any cloudiness (Maybe) and toss in my fish, snails, inverts, whatever, and have never had an issue.
Knock-On-Wood

 

[irishspy]

That is a wonderful picture of you.

 

[irishspy]

After getting a reading of "1" the last night, I added enough ammonia to bring the reading to "2". I said I'd wait to test, but...

...I couldn't resist "peeking."

Ammonia has gone from 2 last night to somewhere between .25 and .5 tonight, less than 24 hours later. Something is eating the ammonia.

Also managed to break one of those API test tubes. Dang, those things are fragile.