IIIHawKIII

ok. my 41 G is fishless cycling.

i'm on day 19 and am just barely gettin any nitrites. maybe .25.

this is kinda ok right? what is weird is that on the 8th of this month i only had 1.0 ammo. coming from about 6 when i started on the 31 of march.

then i dosed it again with half as much ammo, and it is still pretty high, about 4, and the nitrites are barely there.

so how did the ammo get processed at the end of the first week, now i'm kinda stalled on ammo processing, but hardly have any nitrites?

just kinda tryin to get a grasp on it. not trying to rush anything, just monitoring it and wondering how it's going.

using API liquid tests. temp is around 84 i think. i forget. i know it is above 80.

Llama

That's pretty weird actually.

Do you happen to have any live plants in the tank?

IIIHawKIII

nope. just some driftwood. but it had been dried out for a year or more the guy said. but i had boiled it and soaked it for a week or more. then put it in the tank.

i dunno why the ammo dropped. i was tempted to leave it, but then i didn't want a bacteria die off. so i half dosed it again. i did have some "smoke" stuff on the glass, which i read is the BB growing, the ammo eating kind.

but now it's kinda disappearing. dunno. guess i'll just wait it out. wish it would speed it up. people know i got the tank and are like, "can we come see it?" and i have to tell them i still don't have any fish.

Shawnie

do you have a nitrate reading? ive read alot of threads with the ammonia method and most of the time an ammonia overdose, or high ammonia readings with ammonia , seems to almost skip or keep the nitrites very low and stagnent.......SDS (I think)has explained why that is before but i cant seem to find where...

IIIHawKIII

YES! I DO!

it's at 10.

......i was bein all patient and just testing the ammo and Ites on occasion to see where i was. but apparently i'm good to go?!?!

maybe i'll do like a 50 percent WC and test and see where my levels are. and if they are down where they should be, then i'll drop in enough ammo to get a reading then see how fast it processes it.

that ish is BANOODLES!

IIIHawKIII

any suggestions?

Lucy

If you're cycling with ammonia, once you have a nitrite reading I'm pretty sure you cut the amount of ammonia you're adding in 1/2 til the cycle is complete.

pepetj

I think I follow you. You seem to be using the add-and-wait method. Add ammonia solution once it fells below 2ppm, so your bacteria don't starve. Also this seems to be a cold water tank. Are you cycling without a heater? If so, your fishless cycle should last longer in comparison with warmer tanks.

Do you have nitrates readings in your tap water?

It seems that you may have overdosed your tank somewhere down the line, which -some have reported- stalls the cycle for a while. Of course I'm just guessing here.

If I were you, I would do a 50% water change (or more if needed, read along) and go for a modified version of the "add daily" method:

After 50% WC, wait for 20 minutes and measure for Ammonia. If it's below 2ppm, try to raise it to 3ppm but avoid crossing the 6ppm upper limit (it's OK if you increase to 4 or even 5pm). If it's above 3ppm change a bit more water until you get close to that target and adjust if needed be.

Wait 12 hours and measure again. This way you would gauge if Ammonia is being processed.

Once you confirm this (say Ammonia is at or below 2ppm and it was at say 3 or 4ppm 12 hours ago) measure for nitrites. You'll know you have a nitrite spike when the reagents turn red without waiting time for the color to show. In a cold tank, the nitrite spike might take some time.

At that point be careful not to overdose Ammonia as you keep feeding your tank. Just keep adding Ammonia to brake the 2ppm "floor" without braking the 5ppm ceiling (in measures made 20 minutes -or a bit more- after adding it to your tank). In short time, you are going to get readings of Ammonia of zero in 12 hours (once your tank is fully cycled readings will be constantly at zero). When you observe this is happening, wait for nitrites to fade down. The nitrite spike usually takes a bit more time than the ammonia spike, nitrates we take care with water changes.

One more thing, false positives in Ammonia are likely to happen if your water is treated by the City with chloramines if you measure right after adding the water conditioner with a Nessler reagent test (such as API Ammonia test and most others).

Pepe
Santo Domingo

IIIHawKIII

in my first post i state that it is at 84 degrees. also that i had ammo being processed 9 days into it. and also stated that i cut my ammo dosage in half. kiddos! just kidding around.

but seriously, i've got SOME Ates in the tank, cause my tap water is about a 6/7 but i'm gettin a clear reading of 10.

and i did a 50% WC last night. gettin ready to test it again. tested earlier at 2.0 on ammo i think.

i'll test and update on here.

IIIHawKIII

well, i'm still at 2 to 4 ammo. Ites still at .25

thumper

give it a little more time i did a fish in cycle not smart but my water has trates in it and it took a little while for the ites to do anything like even hit .25 so it will get there at least you were smart and can let the levels go and not worry about hurting fish!