If a fish and a half weighs a pound and a half...

If you're doing a fishless cycle, you don't need to do any water changes. It wont hurt anything (except reducing the amount of food for the bacteria you're trying to grow)but it's not necessary. I'd just let it go and let the bacteria bring down your ammonia level to 3ppm.
 
So is it possible that my Ammonia is so high that it's killing all the bacteria? I've done 50% water changes and tested hours later, it never goes below 5ppm. Or do I just have to wait it out?
 
What sort of test kit are you using?

Also, could you describe the power filter?
 
Sounds like one of those Mini-Bow kits.
Keep things running and eventually the ammonia will drop. I'm thinking if 5ppm is the maximum that kit reads, you may have been way over the top of the chart and its still working its way back down.

The first stage of beneficial bacteria are nitrosomonas, which convert the ammonia to nitrite. So the ammonia levels can't kill these guys. Eventually they will catch up.
(If you have used any chemicals like Ammo-Lock, your test readings could be off.)
 
Galaxie said:
Sounds like one of those Mini-Bow kits.
Keep things running and eventually the ammonia will drop. I'm thinking if 5ppm is the maximum that kit reads, you may have been way over the top of the chart and its still working its way back down.

The first stage of beneficial bacteria are nitrosomonas, which convert the ammonia to nitrite. So the ammonia levels can't kill these guys. Eventually they will catch up.
(If you have used any chemicals like Ammo-Lock, your test readings could be off.)
Click to expand...

No haven't put any chemicals in the tank at all. The kit goes up to 7ppm, but it seems pretty constant at about 5 (doesn't help that i'm colorblind and have to bring someone over to read it for me each time). The tank does have a nitrite reading of about .3, so i'd imagine it's working. Thanks again for the help.
 
Just an update.

For the last 3 days i bring the ammonia up to 3-4ppm, 24 hours later it's about .25-.5ppm
Nitrites are > 1ppm

Another weird odd find, my PH has dropped below 6.0? Any idea why that is or what that means?


So, what does anyone make from this? Does it sound like i'm in the nitrite part of the cycle?

Thank you!
 
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I think you're getting there!! I also think (if I remember correctly) that sometimes the ph crashes during cycling. Hopefully someone can help you out with that, I'm not really sure what it means !~
 
What's the KH? Without adequate KH--3 ppm at least--the biological processes will reduce the buffer and drop the pH. If it goes too low, it can inhibit the ammonia consuming bacteria, stalling out the cycle.

I found this posted by Orion girl in another thread with a similar question... You might want to start a new thread about this and see if you get more responses that way, hopefully someone can tell you if it is an issue or not
 
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