40 Gallon Tank Halfway through fishless cycle and need advice thanks all.

Im halfway fishless cycle. I need advice to do next.
My ph somewhere between 7.2 to 7.6 ( added couple teaspoons bring ph up. And finally added life rock frag zone. Within 24 hrs my amonia drop to 0.
Amonia dropped to 0. And bring back up to 2. Ppm
Nitrite 5. Ppm ( nitrite still there )
Nitrate 5 ppm ( so does nitrate)
Should I do 50 % water change or just wait ?
Thanks all

 

If it were me, I would do a 50% water change, then redose ammonia back up to 2ppm. Some people claim that once nitrites get to 5ppm or above, it has stalled their cycle.

 

Im halfway fishless cycle. I need advice to do next.
My ph somewhere between 7.2 to 7.6 ( added couple teaspoons bring ph up. And finally added life rock frag zone. Within 24 hrs my amonia drop to 0.
Amonia dropped to 0. And bring back up to 2. Ppm
Nitrite 5. Ppm ( nitrite still there )
Nitrate 5 ppm ( so does nitrate)
Should I do 50 % water change or just wait ?
Thanks all

So right now your ammonia oxidation rate is perfectly fine, yay!

However nitrite is still high, and if you keep on dosing ammonia, it'll just prolong the nitrite spike unnecessarily. You should stop dosing ammonia - that's for sure, and only re-dose when both ammonia and nitrite reaches zero. In fact, you should always ONLY re-dose ammonia in such situation.

As for a water change - it depends on how high nitrite is. From personal experience, nitrite needs to be probably higher than 40ppm before it may stall the cycle. You can do a serial dilution test to estimate what your nitrite is, and yeah if it is super high you can and should do a water change. Despite my personal experience, I'd say maybe around 20ppm nitrite is enough to do a water change, just to be sure and not waste time.

Though if you do do a water change, I'd suggest a 100% water change. 50% is already large and a hassle, so might as well do a 100% one to really zero out nitrite as much as possible.

 

Thank you Azedenkae for replying.
Im monitor closely, so many living bacteria and little snails crawling all over the wall. Its so crazy and interesting looking at it.

 

You don't have to dose ammonia every day.
If you are dosing ammonia every day then your nitrite is alot higher than 5ppm.
I've seen this lead folks to believe that their cycle is stalled when in reality their nitrite is just super high.

Here's a good rule to follow: the purpose of running a test is so that you can measure the results. So dont let your levels get so high that you can't accurately measure your test results.

I promise you that even if you only dose your ammonia 1 time per week...you will still see it all convert within 24 hours now that your ammonia oxidation is where it needs to be.

By not dosing the ammonia so often you will be able to keep a better check on your nitrite level.

Never be scared to change water. If you change the water you will dilute your nitrite level down to the point where you can measure it.

I would rather test and measure 1-1.5ppm of nitrite and be absolutely sure of my nitrite level than to test for nitrite and see the test return 5ppm and be unsure of how high it really is.

 

Thank you Bwood22 for replying.

" By not dosing the ammonia so often you will be able to keep a better check on your nitrite level. " <<< i like the idea.

I did 50 % water changed yesterday around 1830.
added amonia to bring to 4 ppm + pinch fish food

This morning test results at 10 am
amonia. 0.5 ppm
nitrite. 5.0 ppm
Nitrate. 10 ppm

Continue feeding a little fish food to feed bacteria ?
Dont dose anymore amonia, is my nitrite will go down naturally? Or do another water change ?

Thanks for your help.

 

added amonia to bring to 4 ppm + pinch fish food

This morning test results at 10 am
amonia. 0.5 ppm
nitrite. 5.0 ppm
Nitrate. 10 ppm

Continue feeding a little fish food to feed bacteria ?
Dont dose anymore amonia, is my nitrite will go down naturally? Or do another water change ?

Don't add any fish food. That defeats the purpose of using ammonia.

Just wait until both ammonia and nitrite reach zero.

 

If you're doing a fishless cycle with ammonia, just use the liquid ammonia as Azedenkae said. The reason why is that you can start with a good idea of how much ammonia you started with before it was converted. The best way to do the cycle is to dose 2 ppm ammonia, wait till everything converts to 0, and then do it again. Keep doing that until the process takes 24 hours. After that, you're pretty much done.

 

Yeah I agree. 4ppm of ammonia is unnecessary overkill in most tanks.
That much ammonia will lead to ultra high nitrite levels, we don't need that.
2ppm is way more than enough, even in larger tanks.

Think about the bioload....if you are ever in a position that something has produced 2-4ppm of ammonia in your tank all at once....yeah, you won't ever be in that position unless you are severely overstocked or something is dead in the aquarium.

2ppm is more than enough.

 

Don't add any fish food. That defeats the purpose of using ammonia.

Just wait until both ammonia and nitrite reach zero.

Thanks so much for replying Azedenkae.

Can I turn on the led lights ? Some plants don't look great. Even for 6 hrs. Is led light effect living bac
So exciting and nervous. Really happy to see those tiny creatures crawling all over the place.

 

Thanks so much for replying Azedenkae.

Can I turn on the led lights ? Some plants don't look great. Even for 6 hrs. Is led light effect living bac
So exciting and nervous. Really happy to see those tiny creatures crawling all over the place.

You can turn on the lights. There is evidence that light can inhibit nitrifiers, but anyways it is not a big deal, as most of them should grow in your biomedia in your filter anyways - which I presume is pretty sheltered from the light. So either way most likely not an issue.

 

Hi
I feed just 1 ppm amonia last night 11pm.
Amonia 0.25 ppm
Nitrite 0.5 ppm
nitrate 0

And result today at 13:45.
Ph 7.2 - 7.6
Amonia 0 ppm
Nitrite. 0 ppm
Nitrate. 0 ppm
I still see alots live bacteria and snails crawling on the wall.
What does it means ?

Thanks all

 

how did your nitrate go to zero?

Doesnt' make sense.


No idea what you are doing, but in all reality, you would dose the ammonia and wait for it to turn into nitrites..... continue waiting......until the nitrites all turn into nitrates.

then you re-add ammonia and see if it goes through the full cycle to nitrates and how long that takes.
give it more time and try again until it converts all the way through in 24 hours.
Whatever you are doing by continually adding ammonia, it's wrong.
I have no idea what your readings mean anymore because I have no idea how much ammonia you put in, how much you took out, how much the tank is turning to nitrates, or how much water changing is doing.

if your ammonia isn't becoming nitrate, it's not disappearing. it had to go somewhere.
No idea why you keep adding ammonia ever couple hours. it doesn't make nitrite converting bacteria grow any faster, it just grows more ammonia converting bacteria.

you dont' see bacteria without a microscope, it's likely isopods or something like that, got them the same way you got the snails, from the plants. At this point, you now have a "fish in cycle" it's not a fish, it's snails and small organisms but they are creating their own ammonia for your bacteria colony to consume, your plants are creating ammonia for your bacteria to consume. You honestly and really don't need to keep adding ammonia over and over and over again.

I will say this you should put some food in there if you have snails and stuff now living in there. nothing crazy, they are tiny. but something for them to eat, they can't eat ammonia.

 

Hi and thanks for reply
Is it because I did a 80 % water changed last night ?
My nitrate just gone ...

 

You definitely have nitrate in the tank.
You need to follow the directions on the test.
You have to shake Nitrate Bottle #2 realy hard for 30 seconds to mix it up really good before you squeeze out the drops.

Try it again.

 

I just did ...it still shows 0 ppm Nitrate.
Is it because I did a big water change and pressured of pouring water and stirred everything up ?
I knew it still in the cannister filter maybe needs more time to show ?
Thank you for replying my post.

 

The 80% water change could have lowered your nitrate to an indictable level. Keep feeding the tank with ammonia and see if you start to get a nitrite or nitrate reading in the next couple of days.

 

The 80% water change could have lowered your nitrate to an indictable level. Keep feeding the tank with ammonia and see if you start to get a nitrite or nitrate reading in the next couple of days.

I dosed up to 4ppm apm on friday and test again in 1 hr
Amonia 1.5 ppm
Nitrite 0.25 ppm
Nitrate 0

Then test again at 11 pm
Amonia 0.75
Nitrite 1.0
Nitrate 0 - 1 ppm ?? little darker than yellow

Sat 28th 11 am
Amonia 0
nitrite. 0
Nitrate > 0

Added add 4 ppm amonia
Test amonia 1.0
Nitrite 2.0
Nitrate 0.1 - 0.2

At 22:40
Amonia 0.25
Nitrite. 2.0
Nitrate 1 - 2 ppm

Just added 1ppm amonia
And will test tomorrow morning.

What do you think ?

Thanks for replying and have a great weekend.

 

What kind of ammonia are you using?
How much of that ammonia are you using to get to 4ppm (drops, millilitres, teaspoons, etc).
Do you have any plants?