No Ammonia Change After Using BB (Day 4)

Last Thursday I filled and began cycling my new 29 gallon tank. The tank is designed for an axolotl, and since they prefer colder water and are predatory, I chose to do a fishless cycle. Axolotls also produce a lot of waste as well, so I didn't want to overburden my tank. My two filters are an Aquaclear 70 and a large sponge filter. I also have an airline running through my tank for oxygenation. I also use chloramine treatment when any water is added because my tap water is 1 ppm.

On Thursday (Day 1): I fed the tank several algae wafers and fish food as well as some Seachem Stability to begin the cycle.

On Friday (Day 2): I added more Stability (as recommended on the package).

On Saturday (Day 3): So far no ammonia, so I dosed the tank up to 8 ppm using household ammonia (no additives). I then added 8 oz of FritzZyme 7.

On Sunday (Day 4): I did a 50% water change to bring ammonia down to 4 ppm and added another 8 oz of FritzZyme 7.

On Monday (Day 5): Gathered some media from a cycled cartridge filter (from a low-load tank) and did another 30% water change. Ammonia sitting around 3 ppm. Nitrite around 0.25 ppm. Added more Stable and FritzZyme.

On Tuesday (Day 6): Added more Stable and FritzZyme.

Tank water: 29 gallons
Ammonia: 3 ppm
Nitrite: 0.25 ppm
Nitrate: 0 ppm
pH: 7.6


I'm not quite sure where to go from here. I've already dosed the tank with one bottle of FritzZyme 7. Perhaps I'm not being patient enough, but I expected the media and the BB to work much faster. I'm worried I did something wrong by using pure ammonia to start the cycle.

 

1) It takes many weeks for the beneficial bacteria to fully form on the filter, less than a week will not cycle your tank.
2) 8ppm seems high to dose the tank to, keep it around 3-4ppm
3) Eventually Nitrites will climb, then Nitrates. Eventually you'll get down to 0ppm ammonia, 0ppm Nitrite, and 10-20 Nitrates. But it takes a while, patience is a virtue while cycling

 

Fish food needs to decompose before it becomes a source of ammonia, so that likely hasn't even happened yet. But since you added straight ammonia you're now on track.

I agree with Cad that 8ppm is high, you only want 2-4 tops. 8 will take longer to pass through the cycle. If it's truly still 8 I'd do a 50% or so water change to drop it down. Also, if the water is cold consider running a heater to 75-78 just during the cycle period to speed things up. Then just be patient. You're looking at 3-6 weeks. Like the song says, The waiting is the hardest part.

 

Fish food needs to decompose before it becomes a source of ammonia, so that likely hasn't even happened yet. But since you added straight ammonia you're now on track.

I agree with Cad that 8ppm is high, you only want 2-4 tops. 8 will take longer to pass through the cycle. If it's truly still 8 I'd do a 50% or so water change to drop it down. Also, if the water is cold consider running a heater to 75-78 just during the cycle period to speed things up. Then just be patient. You're looking at 3-6 weeks. Like the song says, The waiting is the hardest part.

I did the water change to lower it down to 4 after reading about exactly what you said (taking a long time to cycle).
I have the temperature currently around 74.

I'm just more disappointed that the BB didn't take effect. I guess I delved too deep into the "cycled media and BB will insta-cycle".

 

I did the water change to lower it down to 4 after reading about exactly what you said (taking a long time to cycle).
I have the temperature currently around 74.

I'm just more disappointed that the BB didn't take effect. I guess I delved too deep into the "cycled media and BB will insta-cycle".

It does have an effect, and your tank will cycle quicker from having used it. But it still takes a while to fully build up on the filter. If you have cycled media from another tank, that works a lot quicker and can be instant if it's enough for the bioload on the tank. Since you did use some media from another tank, you may cycle rather quickly. But since it was a low bioload tank it'll still take a little bit. It likely won't take 8-12 weeks like it does if you aren't using cycled media, but if you keep ammonia at 2-4 until you have Nitrates, you'll get there!

 

to avoid too much ammonia at once and stalling cycling, it's recommended, you cycle to 2 ppm, and then once it's doing what you want to (2ppm ammonia processed in 24 hours to nitrates), then you increase it to 4ppm, and wait for it it catch up for the additional doubling, then again to get to the 8ppm.

if a bacteria colony is of size to handle 2ppm, then if you then increased it to 4ppm, it will quickly double to handle the 4, and when it's sized to handle the 4ppm, you can double, and the colony will size up to handle the 8. double the ammonia, and doubles the colony at pace with each other.

As it stands, your bacteria, which isn't established, has a hopeless mountain of ammonia to deal with, and they won't deal with it, they will never get off the ground because it's just too crowded with ammonia. it has to be done in steps, where the ammonia is doubling along with the colony size, but it has to start at a reasonable level or it's just polluting the water instead of growing bacteria.

there might be a shortcut to cycling a tank, but we would be talking about 2-3 weeks instead of 1-2 months,

not 2-3 days. nothing happens in such a short time because 1 bacteria has to become 2, 2 has to become 4, 4 has to become 8 and this continues into the millions. the end of cycling is faster than the beginning by a lot, but I don't think you will ever get there with much more above 2-4ppm ammonia at the beginning, it's just pollution after that and not conducive to nitrifying bacteria reproduction.

Axolotl tank cycling takes generally 6-8 weeks to accomplish. maybe you can do it in a month with a bacteria booster, but it takes as long as it takes for the colony to establish and multiply and thrive.

the fact remains you are looking for a bacteria colony that will handle 4-6-8ppm ammonia, that's a really large colony and takes time to build, booster or not.

if you know someone else with an axolotl and they have a cycled filter sponge for theirs and willing to share, it can likely support your axolotl almost immediately if yours is like sized or smaller.

 

to avoid too much ammonia at once and stalling cycling, it's recommended, you cycle to 2 ppm, and then once it's doing what you want to (2ppm ammonia processed in 24 hours to nitrates), then you increase it to 4ppm, and wait for it it catch up for the additional doubling, then again to get to the 8ppm.

if a bacteria colony is of size to handle 2ppm, then if you then increased it to 4ppm, it will quickly double to handle the 4, and when it's sized to handle the 4ppm, you can double, and the colony will size up to handle the 8. double the ammonia, and doubles the colony at pace with each other.

As it stands, your bacteria, which isn't established, has a hopeless mountain of ammonia to deal with, and they won't deal with it, they will never get off the ground because it's just too crowded with ammonia. it has to be done in steps, where the ammonia is doubling along with the colony size, but it has to start at a reasonable level or it's just polluting the water instead of growing bacteria.

there might be a shortcut to cycling a tank, but we would be talking about 2-3 weeks instead of 1-2 months,

not 2-3 days. nothing happens in such a short time because 1 bacteria has to become 2, 2 has to become 4, 4 has to become 8 and this continues into the millions. the end of cycling is faster than the beginning by a lot, but I don't think you will ever get there with much more above 2-4ppm ammonia at the beginning, it's just pollution after that and not conducive to nitrifying bacteria reproduction.

Axolotl tank cycling takes generally 6-8 weeks to accomplish. maybe you can do it in a month with a bacteria booster, but it takes as long as it takes for the colony to establish and multiply and thrive.

the fact remains you are looking for a bacteria colony that will handle 4-6-8ppm ammonia, that's a really large colony and takes time to build, booster or not.

if you know someone else with an axolotl and they have a cycled filter sponge for theirs and willing to share, it can likely support your axolotl almost immediately if yours is like sized or smaller.

So even at 4 ppm a 50% change might be helpful then to give a smaller mountain to climb. Unfortunately my friend doesn't have an axolotl, but the filters from his canister might be a good start at least.

 

So even at 4 ppm a 50% change might be helpful then to give a smaller mountain to climb. Unfortunately my friend doesn't have an axolotl, but the filters from his canister might be a good start at least.

Yes, any media from an established aquarium will help, and is better than the bottled stuff.

 

So even at 4 ppm a 50% change might be helpful then to give a smaller mountain to climb. Unfortunately my friend doesn't have an axolotl, but the filters from his canister might be a good start at least.

if it's fish, it's likely going to be 2ppm in 24 hours or less, but yes, it's a good starting point, and you don't need all of his filter, just some of the biological sponge material to jump start off of, then finish cycling from there to the ppm per day you are looking for. get some of it from him, put it in your filter. dose like 2ppm ammonia, and see what it does in 24 hours of running. what it clears up is what it's capable of doing, then you'd just double what it can handle in ammonia and size up that colony from there and let it catch up to the new doubled level, then double it again until it's where you want it. might cut it down to two weeks or so like that, and you are getting nitrifier and decayer bacteria from that. it's a good jump start.

 

if it's fish, it's likely going to be 2ppm in 24 hours or less, but yes, it's a good starting point, and you don't need all of his filter, just some of the biological sponge material to jump start off of, then finish cycling from there to the ppm per day you are looking for. get some of it from him, put it in your filter. dose like 2ppm ammonia, and see what it does in 24 hours of running. what it clears up is what it's capable of doing, then you'd just double what it can handle in ammonia and size up that colony from there and let it catch up to the new doubled level, then double it again until it's where you want it. might cut it down to two weeks or so like that, and you are getting nitrifier and decayer bacteria from that. it's a good jump start.

I appreciate this. I figured if I started at 4 ppm I'd get a 4 ppm colony right away. Guess I was wrong.

 

Personally I wouldn't use any BB or other kind of product other than dechlorinator.

 

Figure on it taking six weeks to cycle your tank. If you are lucky, it might be done in four weeks. Generally, it will take at least two weeks to see a response in the ammonia test. One week is not sufficient. Be patient; it will get there eventually.

 

Did a 50% change to drop the ammonia to just around 2 ppm. Hopefully this speeds things up.

 

Did a 50% change to drop the ammonia to just around 2 ppm. Hopefully this speeds things up.

It should