Problems with cycling

S

shockwave191

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Aug 24, 2006
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I have been fishless cycling my tank for 49 days (1 month and 19 days). Today the Nitrites finally dropped to 0ppm and the Nitrates are around 40-80ppm. However, ammonia is still at 1 ppm. Two questions: Frist, how do I handle the 1 ppm of ammonia? (Is the tank really cycled?) Second, in the process of dealing with the ammonia, how can I keep from killing off my good bacteria? I know I need to do at least a 50% water change but, have not yet.

5 gal tank from Wally World
Temp is 80
Tank has aeration
Using API liquid test kit. (Not out of date)
Tape water is about .25 ppm

Any suggestions please
Thanks
 
Have you been dosing with ammonia?
What did your ammonia and nitrite levels peak at?
When did those peaks happen?
(Just to clarify) Are you saying your tap water is .25 ppm ammonia?
 
Yes, I have been dosing. Originally I dosed the tank to 8 by mistake and did a water change to bring it down to around 4-5 ppm. I have pretty much maintianed the 4-5 level until the nitrites appeared. Then I have tried to keep it around 1 or 2 ppm level. If the tank sat for any length of time at 1 or 2 I did add a small amount of ammonia on occasion.

The Nitrites actually peaked a few times. On days 14- 18 it peaked to either 1, 5, or above. It is hard to get an exact match between the tubes and color chart. Then it peaked again at days 46-48. This is not ideal but, being I had some levels of ammonia and nitrites I did not worrry about it.

Yes, my tap water is around .25 ppm right out of the faucet.

Oh and PH is around 7.6 to 7.8

Hopefully this answers your questions and can bring light to whats going on.

Thanks
 
Cycling small tanks with ammonia is really hard. I would have suggested just use old fiter media. You need to dose to 2-3 ppm every day in order to keep the cycle running. Maybe try putting some real plants in to help with cycling....
Other than that, I dont have any more suggestions for you
 
Here's my thought (may be controversial, so take with grain of salt):

[Assuming your nitrates started low] they are now pretty high. Only colonies of both beneficial bacteria could get them there, so you must have some amount of both. The fluctuations you see may just be the colony sizes growing / shrinking depending on your levels at time of testing.

So, I would suggest (this is the controversial part):

1. Large water change (80-90%)
2. Immediate test, levels should be NH3=.25, NO2=0, NO3=<20
--> based on your ammonia-laden tap water
3. Test at 4 hour intervals, would expect that after 1-3 tests your levels would be NH3=0, NO2=0, NO3=<something reasonable>
4. Add a small amount of your stocking (assuming you get to NH3=0, NO2=0)
5. Monitor carefully over 3-4 days
6. If no NH3 or NO2 detected, then add additional stock

Of course, with a 5 gal tank I'm assuming your stocking plan is small anyway -- what is it BTW?

So now, this plan aside, it seems that ammonia in the tap for a 5 gal tank is going to be quite a challenge. You may want to check with others about how to handle that...

Cheers!
 
Thank you for all the replies.

As far as stocking; the only thing I can really stock it with is a betta and/or adf. That tank is really too small to do anyting with.

I'll try the water change and see what happens. The only other thought is to do the water change and dose with 1 ppm of ammonia and see if it drops over night. But if it does not then is the tank really cycled, especially with my tap water at .25 ppm. Hmmm.

Shockwave191
 
Again thank you all for the replies. Joel your idea worked. I performed about a 60-70% water change. This brought ammonia down to .25 which then dissappaited to 0. Nitrites were 0 and Nitrates were still around 40. I then dosed the tank with ammonia to around .25 to 1 and went to sleep. In the morning the ammonia was 0. So tank was cycled or at least cycled enough for my bio load. I currently have one female betta swimming around. I think she is happy. And yes, your right fishless cycling a small tank is difficult.

Again thanks
Shockwave191
 
Having a bit of ammonia in tap is pretty common, because of the use of chloramine.
 
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