fishless cycle mess up?

[mtdewlover]

So I'm fishless cycling a 55 gallon tank. I had some difficulty and need some advice here. I added pure amonia from a hardware store to raise the amonia up to about 5 - 5.5 ppm. To raise it to that level it took 5mL. So I then added 5mL every day. I started last Sunday. My nitrites today are at .5 and amonia is at 6.

I'm guessing first I added too much amonia. And I'm guessing now that nitrite levels are readable I should cut the amonia I'm adding in half. Then I keep adding ammonia untill I add my fishies. But before I add them, I should do a 50% water change. Is all of this right? I'm slightly confused.

Thanks for your help!

 

[rich]

nah your doin great, the nitrites have just begun to make there appearance. just keep dosing the ammonia until you get the nitrites to shoot up real high (spike), at which the ammonia will begin to fall ( marks the end of its spike). then cut the ammonia dose in half and in X amount of days the nitrites will start to come down ( X=long as hell some times, my 30 took 2 weeks for the nitrite to finally drop off) and the nitrates to come up. do water changes to bring the nitrate under control, or if you have plants they will hopefully consumed nitrates to use as food. only when the ammonia and nitrite are 0 and the nitrate is sub 10ppm should you add fish.

but again all is well with what you are seeing on your tests.

 

[Lukara]

Just a clarification...

I read on the net that you're supposed to initially add whatever amount of ammonia to get you to the 5ppm mark and then add that amount daily until your nitrite spikes. I also read in another place that you're supposed to add whatever amount of ammonia to get you to the 5ppm mark and then keep it at 5ppm (you don't have to add ammonia daily, just add enough to keep it at 5ppm) until the nitrite spikes. Which is correct?

I don't mean to hijack this thread, I just thought since the topic is the same...

Thanks.

 

[RTR]

You are supposed to maintain the titer of ammonia, not continue adding the same amount every day. Continued addition of the same original amount daily when it is all not being oxidized in 24 hours means that levels will go well past the suggested titers. Very high ammonia levels may have poorly-defined toxic effects on the bacteria (both types), and the processing of those elevated levels uses up so much buffering that the pH can crash, which will slow or stop bacterial development.

HTH

 

[Lukara]

Okay thanks RTR, that's what I thought and what I've been doing. I wanted a clarification because some articles contradict eachother.

As this is my first time doing a fishless cycle I'm happy to hear that so far I'm doing it right.

Thanks again.

 

[rich]

yeah after a bit of thought just keeping at theammonia at 5ppm is much better than the keep dosing till huge nitrite spike then cutting it. could be why it took so long for my nitrite to drop. to much ammonia food.

 

[mtdewlover]

confused

Ok now I am really confused. I read that you add enough ammonia to get the level up to 5ppms. Then when the nitrites are measureable you cut your amonia dosing in half untill you reach zero ppms. Is this right?

 

[RTR]

MDL - that is correct, once nitrites are read on tests, you cut back the ammonia dosage. But it really is the ammonia titer in the tank that you cut, don't rely on dosage alone for control, use test results.