Alright, I have a 29 gallon that has been fishless cycling since August 16th. Nitrites showed up about 2 weeks ago or so, and so I was adding ammonia to ensure the level stayed around 5ppm. For a couple days the tank cycled ammonia surprisingly quick, around 2ppm a day (approximation). Now it seems the tank has stopped cycling through any ammonia. The tank has stayed at 5ppm for about a week without the addition of ammonia. Nitrites and Nitrates are both off the charts. Is this supposed to happen after the initial nitrite spike or not?
Help with my cycle...
- Thread starter herefishyfishy
- Start date
One of my tanks did the same thing. I was advised to do a partial water change. I change 5 gallons of water without touching the gravel and it did the trick. It still took another week for the tank to complete its cycle.
After your ammonia level starts dropping to 0, only add enoug ammonia to bring it to 2 ppm. You will still have more than an efficient bacteria colony to handle your fish load.
Dorothy
After your ammonia level starts dropping to 0, only add enoug ammonia to bring it to 2 ppm. You will still have more than an efficient bacteria colony to handle your fish load.
Dorothy
No I am not adding any as of now. I would only add enough to bring the level back to 5ppm, but once the level stopped decreasing, I did not add anymore.
I will try to partial water change and see what happens.
I will try to partial water change and see what happens.
If you do a partial water change, that should restore micronutrients and hardness in the water and your cycle shoudl continue as before. You can go ahead and do a 75% if you want, since there are no fish to stress. be sure to dechlorinate and roughly match temps though.
If your water is hard enough, the water change will do, if not it won't be enough. It's time to buy a KH kit if you don't have one. Kh is consummed very rapidly during a fishless cycle, if the Kh is consummed, the ph drops below the livable level for you ammonia eaters. The cycle will stall clear out if this isn't corrected very quickly. Add baking soda about a tablespoon in a 29. and test PH and Kh before adding if you can. It may be too late, or you may be OK. If it's been too long you will be starting over, but I would at least try.
Dave
Dave
Alright well I did about a 60% water change and treated the water before it went into the tank. It dropped ammonia to about 2.0 so I have left it for the time being. I will check again tonite/tomorrow to see if ammonia has dropped. If not, well I guess I'm starting over.
Give it a little time. Also check for the presence of nitrites. After about 2 days, both nitrites and NitrAtes were present in my tank and the ammonia started being processed in less than 24 hrs. After about a week the ammonia was being consumed in less then 8 hours with no nitrites present, but my NitrAtes were off the charts. I kept adding ammonia for 2 days after this with the same results. Did a 90% water change and added fish later that day.
If your nitrites and NitrAtes starts showing back up in the next couple of days, don't start over. It won't be long before your cycle will be over.
Dorothy
If your nitrites and NitrAtes starts showing back up in the next couple of days, don't start over. It won't be long before your cycle will be over.
Dorothy