Yet another cycling question

[musky48in]

I set up a tank three weeks ago and am doing a fishless cycle using pure ammonia. My ammonia have stayed at 5ppm for the entire time without even a little drop. Is this normal? I thought by now I would see some drop in ammonia and then I would add more ammonia to the water to bring it up back to 5ppm. But I can go five days without adding anything and the levels still stay way up. Should I be seeing anything yet? The water did start to become cloudy a couple of days ago; not sure if that means anything.

 

[OrionGirl]

Not normal--easiest thing first, have your test results confirmed by an LFS.

 

[aquariumfishguy]

I'm not sure I'd count on the 'advice' and care of the LFS, but I would be doing regular tests on this aquarium. Make sure you dont add too much ammonia at once and keep feeding it as described on many websites. You can even do a search on this fish forum to find LOADS of info on cycling.

Sometimes it does take longer to cycle ones tank than it does for anothers. I'm not saying this is normal, nor am I saying its abnormal but I am suggesting you do more research and try to hang in their. If you do things right, the tank WILL cycle eventually. At least you dont have fish right now, eh?

 

[musky48in]

Nope. No fish yet? That really bites looking at the tank for three weeks now with nothing swimming around in it.

I have read everything that I know of and I can't figure out why I am getting the results that I am. Guess that I will do another water change and hope for the best.

 

[Neo Sithlord]

If the water is getting cloudy that should be a bactiria bloom and a good thing. So long as it's white or brown if I remember right others here can clear that up for you I'm sure. I've been cycling my first tank for over a month now with out any thing to jump start it. I'm loosing ammonia but unfortunately my nitrites aren't lowering. Without anything to jump the cycle it just takes a really really really long time to do a fishless. Hopefully you can find someone to give you something out of their tank to give you a boost.
-Neo Sithlord

 

[happychem]

Just to clarify, have you added any bacteria to the tank, like from an old filter sponge or mulm from an old tank? If not, you're going to have to wait for the tiny colonis existing on your substrate and filter material to slowly grow and take over competing colonies.

What temperature is your tank being held at? This probably isn't the problem, but let's just rule it out right away.

 

[OrionGirl]

Cloudiness may be from bacteria, but this is not the beneficial bacteria that process the nitrogen. Nitrofication bacteria attach themselves to the substrate, filter media, glass--they don't just float around freely in the water column.

The beneficial bacteria are actually introduced with the water, not the substrate or filter media. It will take longer to establish colonies without a 'seed' colony from established media, but it will happen. If the ammonia hasn't dropped in 3 weeks, either the test kit is faulty, the water is distilled/deionized, or some other parameter is out of range for bacteria to survive. Having the test results confirmed is the easiest, and will allow us to work on identifying other possibilities.

 

[musky48in]

Great News!!!

I finally got the ammonia to go down and now I am getting readings of nirites. Won't be too long before I start to add the Cichlids.

 

[aquariumfishguy]

SEE!! Told you to hang in there and keep doing things "by the book".

Make sure your ammonia & nitrite levels are at 0 (zero) before adding fish.

 

[musky48in]

I just had to wait one more day. I feel so much better. It is finnaly moving up and down the way that it should be and I am also seeing the nitrites go up. any idea of how long before it balences out? I am egar to add fish and am really sick of seeing an empty tank.