DRoe

Hello everyone,
Ive been doing a fishless cycle on my 2 gallon tank for 53 days now and it is not complete. When i was begining I added too much ammonia, so I did a water change to get it to 4 PPM. 13 days later nitrite starts to show up on my tests, another 13 days pass and the nirite are reading 5 ppm. 5 days after the nitrite peak the ammonia drops to 0 ppm (30days into cycle). It has almost been 30 days and the nitrite hasn't dropped and nitrate is in between 5-10 due to my water in my house. pH has stayed at 8 the entire time also. I was reading on here that maybe doing a PWC would finish up the cycle. I had to change the water 9 times (75% of the water each time) to get it back into readable nitrites (approx. 1 ppm). Why is it taking so long? anything to make it go faster? It is almost like the nitrite bacteria isn't even there for the nitrates haven't gone up at all. Should I start over? maybe there is too much ammonia bacteria and the nitrite bacteria can't get established? any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

DRoe

Lucy

Welcome to Fish Lore
Your problem isn't all that uncommon when too much ammonia is added.
Since you have 0 ammonia and some nitrates a good water change, like you did will probably get things moving. If you continue to stall do water changes to get the nitrites down.
I hope that you're still feeding the bacteria, otherwise it will die off.

Good luck

DRoe

Yep I'm still adding ammonia, thanks for the quick reply. It just seems it is getting to long. I know patience is needed for fish keeping but this is long.

Lucy

Yeah, 53 days is a long time. How much ammonia are you adding?

DRoe

adding 2 drops a day brings it to about 1 ppm, and it is a 2 gallon tank. I am also using the extra foods/superstore "no name" brand ammonia. It has no surfacants in ti and does not foam when shaken. I have no idea what % of ammonia it is though.

Lucy

Thanks, I would do water changes and get the nitrites down further and keep feeding the bacteria.
That should do it.
You already know what the cause was.

What are you going to put in your tank?

Edit: I was thinking, I don't think it's necessary to add that much ammonia. There isn't much you can fit in a 2g.
Anyway, whatever you put in it won't be producing 1ppm of ammonia per day so drop the amount you're adding way down.

DRoe

i can only put a betta and a ghost shrimp in there, really everything else is a schooling fish or is too big. do you have any suggestions? Wish i would have bought a 5 or 10 gallon instead of the 2. I just wanted to learn the basics before i upgraded to something bigger.

mr. Clown Loach

if this is your first tank you actually want to start with about a 29g because a 2g you'll have to do alot of maintenance

DRoe

yeah it is my first, I guess the bigger the easier the maintenance. other than betta and a ghost shrimp what else could i put in?

Lucy

Nothing really. Even 2g's is pretty small for a betta.
It would make a cool shrimp tank with some low light plants.

DRoe

tested the water this morning and the nitrites are back up to 5ppm in about 14 hours from 1 ppm yesterday. That tells me there is absolutly no nitrite eating bacteria in there. Also ammonia is at zero, and nitrates are at 10 due to my tap water. I had idea maybe if I didn't feed the tank and let the ammonia bacteria die off the nitrite bacteria could get a foot hold maybe?

agabr123

you don't want to completely stop adding ammonia, if that bacteria dies then you have to start all over again. what you may want to do is cut the amount that you're adding in half

DRoe

would restarting be a better idea then just waiting another two weeks to see if the nitrite ever go away?

agabr123

probably not, i'd go ahead and do a small water change (maybe 15%), and then test again in a day or two. if they haven't gone down at all, then cut the amount of ammonia you're adding in half.

DRoe

i already cut the 2 drops to 1 drop, how do i cut a drop in half? 1 drop every other day then? thanks for your help

DRoe

nothing is changing so far, I add 1 drop of ammonia every day and a half roughly and still have to do like 80-90%water changes to get the nitrite down into a readable range. Nitrate is the same or lower, i also took out a hand full of gravel and cleaned it really good and replaced it to maybe give the nitrite bacteria a place to grow. Almost to 9 weeks now, with nitrite being around for 7 of the 9.

Lucy

I don't understand why you washed the gravel. What did you wash it with?
Depending how how you did it, you could have killed off what bacteria was already there.

DRoe

washed the gravel in tank water, maybe there is to many ammonia eating bacteria and the nitrite bacteria can't get established as in there is no room for it to grow. I thought hey why not it couldn't hurt anything, I'm willing to try any and all ideas to get this finished up. I highly doubt that there is any nitrite bacteria in there for I would be getting some sort of nitrate reading by now.

DRoe

I'm getting some used gravel from someone, do i just place it in some nylon stockings and drop it in the tank? are there any steps that should be taken like a water change or something so then I don't kill all the bacteria on it? Hopefully this will finish it up.

agabr123

yep, no water change is necessary, you can just put it in the tank make sure that the nylon stockings have never been washed with any soap though!

DRoe

what if i wash them really well in the sink in bleech or ammonia? do they have to be brand new? thanks for the help

agabr123

IMO i wouldn't risk any kind of soap residue getting in the tank, if it does you'll have LOTS of clean up on your hands

DRoe

so far nothing has changed no increase in nitrates and no decrease in nitrites. It has been 9 weeks. Should I just restart? the end of this cycle is no where in sight IMO.