Fishless cycling Question

[Tyler718]

Readings start going backwards during Fishless cycling Question

This is the third time I have done fishless, but I have a 150 gal that I have been fishless cycling for 19 days. I think I ran into a problem.

My ammonia spiked and so did my nitrItes (5 ppm)over the last 1 1/2 days. When nitrItes started showing I added more ammonia every night when I tested the water.

Early last night I re-seeded my filters by adding more media from filters on 2 well established tanks last night. I put the media into a Fluval 404 & a Filstar XP3.

I tested the water a little while ago. The ammonia is at 2.0 ppm, nitrItes are 0 ppm, & nitrAtes are at 60 ppm. The ammonia levels where 0.25 ppm every evening when I tested. The nitrItes where at 5 ppm. I have did no water changes and the temp is 82.

So the question is what caused my ammonia levels to got back to 2 ppm and my NitrItes to go back to 0 ppm? Am I okay or did something bad happen? I need somebody to put my mind at ease!

 

[jafo]

Reseeding the filters. If your using the method that says to continue to add ammonia each day to acheive the 5ppm of ammonia, keep doing that until both ammonia and nitrites read 0 24 hrs after dosing and it will be cycled.

 

[Tyler718]

I just retested my water (24hrs later) and the levels are still the same. Did I do something to kill the bacteria colonies? I don't know how I could have. All I did was put seeded media in the filters. Can a test kit go bad almost over night.

 

[jafo]

Did you change the filter media you were using with "new" or just add more? If you actually exchanged it, that could be the reason for those test results. I have added media from established tanks before that showed major drops in ammonia and nitrite the next day.

Test kits can go bad but I'm not really sure how fast they go south. I've not heard of ammonia and nitrite spiking at the same time but if you had been already using seeded filter media that is very possible.

I'd add enough ammonia to get the reading back up to 5 ppm and then test again 24 hrs later. If the tests again show 2 ppm, keep doing the same thing as that would indicate your bacterial colonies have grown enough to "use up" 3 ppm per day.

 

[carpguy]

The 5ppm dosages are an awful lot of ammonia. Maybe the filter media coming from a mature tank, with mature substrate, just had a smaller bacterial population than media that was loaded up from the fishless cycle…

If that's the case, I'd think they'd adjust fairly quickly.

 

[Rocketman]

Have you taken statistics? I don't mean this in a sarcastic way at all, but in all sincerness (still cant spell.) Anyway, that would tell you that you should test the water in at least two places, preferably more. Then average it out.

 

[Tyler718]

1)I just added more media to what I already had.

2) I add ammonia every evening to keep the ammonia at 3ppm.

So it sounds like I should be fine. I'll test again tonight when I get home from work.

 

[jafo]

I also use a daily dosage method and it works (cycling 5th tank now) but I kept the ammonia at 5 ppm. For me, the ammonia hit 5 ppm in 3 days. When nitrites hit 5 ppm, you cut the dosage in half. You don't add as much ammonia compared to the other methods but it's easier to keep the levels consistant.