Fishless cycle question

Jspigs

Jspigs

There is always more to learn
Aug 5, 2009
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Jacob
So I am fishless cycleing a 30 gallon and I am using the method where you add ammonia to the tank. The problem is I added too much ammonia. My test kit (API liquid) is reading 8ppm (I was aiming for 5ppm).

I heard that if the ammonia is too high then even the nitrifying bacteria won't be able to survive.

So my question is: is the ammonia in my tank so high that the nitrifying bacteria won't be able to survive and grow?

If it is too high would adding prime help?

Since I am fishless cycling the tank there are no fish in it.
 
Just do a water change, about 30% or so. You want the ammonia level around 5ppm because thats where the bacteria grow best. More than that and it's actually starts to poison the bacteria and slows the cycle.

But no harm done, just remove some, top up with fresh water and carry on.

A bonus of fishless cycling is, even if you get it wrong, no fish die, you can fix the problem and carry on.

Ian
 
ianab said:
Just do a water change, about 30% or so. You want the ammonia level around 5ppm because thats where the bacteria grow best. More than that and it's actually starts to poison the bacteria and slows the cycle.

But no harm done, just remove some, top up with fresh water and carry on.

A bonus of fishless cycling is, even if you get it wrong, no fish die, you can fix the problem and carry on.

Ian
Click to expand...

Bingo! Spot on here.
 
I will do a water change in the morning.

Thank you for your help.
 
Since I am doing a fishless cycle I did not feel a need to do a water change right away. Instead I kept putting it off but I still have not done that water change.

Today I tested ammonia and nitrite in that tank (using API liquid tests). Ammonia was .25-.5ppm. This surprised me because it meant that despite the initial high ammonia the bacteria survived and were converting ammonia to nitrite. I believe that some of the original seeding bacteria (in the form of colonized ceramic rings) survived.

I think these bacteria might be hardier than commonly thought.
 
Oh snap! lol i wish the bacteria i got from my LFS was that hardy then maybe my fish tank would be cycled already
 
I forgot to mention that the nitrite level was 5ppm+(test only goes up to 5ppm).
 
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