Fishless cycling isn't taking...

Dave I can get to Mad town only 2 hours out. I live in Wis. Rapids. As for an update on the tank I've had the hood closed but opened that puppy up to the air the last few days. I'm starting to see some readings on the nitires now so all good there. However my Ph is sky high at 8.4 the highest my test strip reads. I also went up to 5ppm ammonia is this causing the PH hike? And will a ph spike kill off my cycle? I do have ph up and down stuff to help level it out if need be. Normally my Ph is nuetral to slightly acidic with my tap water.
-Neo Sithlord
 
The PH won't hurt your cycle at that level, but If it actually gained, I'd be lloking to find out why. have you tested your Tapwater, I used to have tapwater that came out of the faucet around 8.6 set some out in a cup overnight and then test it. I don't reccomend the PH up and down stuff, I used to use aal kinds of chemicals to adjust my PH and was constantly fighting it. It is almost impossible to keep it steady using ph chemicals.
 
A lot of good information has been put out here....

I have never actually DONE a truly fishless cycle, as I have had a fish tank pretty much continually since I was 9 years old, but from what I can tell it takes quite a while to get the numbers to start moving around in there.

I agree with the idea of going to your LFS and getting a handful of gravel, some filter squeezings, whatever they might offer you that has been in an established tank, just to jumpstart the process.

Look at it this way, this is the only time you'll have to wait this long, as jumpstarted tanks don't require NEARLY this much time or effort to get the cycle started.

(And I'm sure you're referring to me with your LT reference ;) AC1 or AC2? Frostfell AC1, MT turned TD AC2, and a guild named after the town in DAoC ;) )
 
Neo Sithlord, you're doing fine. One thing I would recommend: try testing less frequently. Cycling, with or without fish, takes a while if you don't have any seed bacteria to start with. You'll go batty testing twice a day and waiting to see results. Try testing every other day, or every third day. You'll catch it when ammonia starts to drop and you have to add more, so don't worry that you'll miss something important. These bacteria are slow to grow and multiply, and they don't really care that you're itching for fish!

You mention some puzzlement about the nitrates; if you used Cycle at any point, you added nitrates to your tank. (Cycle is worthless, IMO, and merely clouds the issue when fishless cycling, as you're not seeing.)

Hang in there. Fishless cycling has the primary advantage of not causing any fish distress from gill burns, nitrite poisoning, etc., so if you find yourself getting impatient, just recognize that you're taking on some discomfort to spare your fish some pain.

Good luck and be patient!

Jim
 
Thanks all! The Nitrates were bugging me now I know where they came from. 39 days though *sigh*, guess I'm in it for the long haul. I knew I was though from the get go but still... *sigh*.

Pinball ya was refering to you there , couldn't remember your name, I'm still playing AC1 on Thistledown 4 years plus and still having fun. Did the DAoC and AC2 thing for a while as well.


I'm heading out with a list of stores in the next two days just to look arround and get out of town so hopefully I can find a good place.

One last thing though I got tired of staring at the emptyness of water and added the decorations from my first tank (10 gall. all cleaned with HOT water to avoid contamination) I had to stir up the gravel abit to seat them right and a bunch of gunk came up out of the gravel. It looked white and in chunks. I topped off the evaporation as well and cleaned off the eveporation lines with my fingers and got more of the clumps from that. Should I worry or is this something normal? mineral deposits maybe but it was slimey. It's cleared up now after running the filter for an hour or two.
-Neo Sithlord
P.S. I really do appreciate all the advise you guys give I'm just trying to be carefull and learn as much as I can before the fish come. You guys are really helping alot.
 
Maybe a fungus of some sort? I wouldn't worry too much. All sorts of little creatures inhabit our tanks, and almost all of them are benign. Many of them bloom for a while, then recede as organisms higher on the food chain establish themselves.

If your tank gets overrun with the stuff, you might consider holding off adding fish after the cycle, but my guess is that it will be gone by then.

HTH,
Jim
 
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