ammonia above 4 for 4 weeks! help

turkeyofthesea

turkeyofthesea

AC Members
Nov 25, 2008
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denver, co
hi all, i'm doing a fishless cycle on a 10g with ada amazonia substrate and power sand. it's planted heavily with swords, anacharis, and java fern with a piece of driftwood. my levels of ammonia have been above 4 since i began, and i have never had to add ammonia (i'm guessing because of aquasoil) but levels won't drop! i had no nitrites until today and they are only at .25. i have full spectrum 15 watt 12 hours on a day. i have been using stress zyme once a week and today i broke down and did a 25% water change with treated water and more stress zyme (first water change). i started seeing planaria in my tank this week and have read this is normal. But i wonder what the heck i should do if anything about the ammonia levels i want to do this right. please any advice would be greatly appreciated to this newbie!
 
Whats the ammonia reading on your tap....and are you using a liquid test kit?
 
liquid test kit- and 5 weeks into cycle

it is a liquid test kit, i don't know the brand name off the top of my head. but one week later and my ph has spiked from 6.2 to 7.8, my ammonia is still a 4 and my nitrites are still .25. (my normal untreated tap water reads a ph of 7.2, no ammonia, no nitrite.)... thanks for the help!!!
 
Like they said its normal... PH spikes from acidity in a cycle... sounds normal to me...

Good old roller coaster ride ... I would probably stop adding anything and just let it cycle...

Though 4 weeks in a 10 gallon seems long with freshwater..... Ammonia is comming from decomposition...so what exactly is decomposing?

Also PH should be tested at the end of photo periods regardless if marine or fresh tanks... that's when you get a proper reading.

its possible you tested in the morning before lights on and had low ph then tested mid day to near end of photo period and had higher readings? If that is the case you are misreading due to testing at the wrong times.

Still... I am still kind of stumped on why your cycle is taking so long. Also the addition of plants may have some decay? How are they looking?

Is it ok to plant a tank that isn't cycled yet?
 
It is acceptable to HEAVILY plant a cycling tank.
If you have enough plants, they will directly utilize the ammonia in the water column, giving you a biologically stable un-cycled tank.

The only problem with this is if you remove any plants, or prune them too much, you can have an ammonia spike that will kill any fish or inverts, but not the plants.
 
is there anything in the tank???? fish,inverts???? what exalty have you added to the tank in the last few weeks???? (chemicals,fish food for cycling???)
 
the plants are taking over in the tank (especially the anacharis), i think the java ferns are actually sprouting babies from the undersides of the leaves down (brown long strands that don't appear to resemble any algae i've found online, but seem to match the description of reproduction). all the plants look really good, so i can't believe they are decomposing.

i hadn't considered (or knew) about the importance of when i test for things- i will make sure to test at end of photo from now on. thanks for that tidbit!

is it best to just let the water level drop, add water, or do a water change at this point??
 
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