No Nitite Or Nitrate After 1 Month

I have been trying my best to be patient for my tank to cycle but it has been 1 month with no movement in nitrite or nitrate. my ammonia sits at 1 to 2. I have 1 molly I used and I have a bunch (I bought 12) snails which are reproducing like mad. I also have a lot of live plants.

My ph is 7.0. My tank is 16g biocube led.

I have test in 2 brands of tests, so its not a faulty test kit.

If the ammonia goes above 2 I do a 3 gallon water change. Any ideas on why the nitrites stage has not begun?
I am opposed to chemicals to cycle a tank because I have never had a successful tank when using them. I have always had a sudden crash.

Obviously I won't add any more fish but I thought this bioload would be enough.

 

How often are you doing a water change? I know you said you do it when the ammonia goes up but how often is that.

and is there a reason you are wanting to allow the snails to reproduce like mad?

 

Hopefully you’re at least using water conditioner for tap water during a water change and when added evaporated water to remove chlorine. Additionally, if you’re changing your filter media all at once or rinsing media in tap water, you’re killing bacteria every time you do that.

 

I'm using distilled water for the water changes and when adding water. The snails are reproducing to become puffer food. I did 2 three gallon water changes up to now. On my prior tanks I did weekly, but not doing right now because of cycle.

I have purigen and filter floss as my media. I did replace the filter floss 1 time but next time I will wash it instead. Purigen has not been touched.

 

what media are you using to actually house the beneficial bacteria? That may be the problem. Purigen and filter floss are not intended to house BB. You need some kind of biological filtration media depending on you filter type for example like ceramic disks, biowheel, biomax, etc.

 

I'm using distilled water for the water changes and when adding water. The snails are reproducing to become puffer food. I did 2 three gallon water changes up to now. On my prior tanks I did weekly, but not doing right now because of cycle.

I have purigen and filter floss as my media. I did replace the filter floss 1 time but next time I will wash it instead. Purigen has not been touched.

The distilled water is your problem. If you have to used bottled water get regular drinking water. Distilled has absolutely nothing in it. Drinking has extra minerals your tank needs. Don;t change your filter media. Rinse it in water removed from the tank during a water change but only replace it when it is literally falling apart.

 

Maybe that is my problem. I always thought the bacteria lived in the gravel, which was why you could use established tank substrate to help with a tank cycle

 

Maybe that is my problem. I always thought the bacteria lived in the gravel, which was why you could use established tank substrate to help with a tank cycle

Some lives in the gravel but most of it lives on your filter media.

Good catch Jayd976

 

only a limited amount lives in the gravel itself as its not as porous as the bio medias they make for that purpose.

 

Ok thanks guys. I will get some ceramic media on my way home today

 

Ok thanks guys. I will get some ceramic media on my way home today

The media is very important but the type of water you are using is too. Just last year I was tryinh to help a gentleman trying to cycle his tank. I finally discovered he was using distilled water. Once he stopped using it his cycle moved right along and before long it was ready for his AxatolI (sp) something like a salamander.

 

It’s not that it’s not porous enough, there’s just no water flow through the gravel. Bacteria is also light sensitive, which is another reason 99.9% is in your filter. As others here have said, you need more surface area inside your filter. Also, the distilled water is most likely causing Ph swings which is awful for bacterial growth (and fish).

 

It’s not that it’s not porous enough, there’s just no water flow through the gravel. Bacteria is also light sensitive, which is another reason 99.9% is in your filter. As others here have said, you need more surface area inside your filter. Also, the distilled water is most likely causing Ph swings which is awful for bacterial growth (and fish).

I have always thought ro/dI and distilled water was supposed to be better than plain tap water. Is this not the case? I have no problem using tap water but even in my salt tank, which I had running for over 10 years was exclusively distilled water

 

its better for us in the saltwater world as it removes all the impurities that lead to bad algae breakouts. In saltwater the minerals and everything that are removed in RO/DI or distilled water get replaced by the saltmixes to create saltwater. In freshwater you don't remineralize the water with a saltmix so in that sense its bad because you're not providing those necessary minerals. So you either have to remineralize the water somehow or used treated water.

 

People with salt tanks will frequently use ro/dI because their tap water is high in phosphates or something else, such that it's easier to create their own pure water and then remineralize it. That is, create their own water that is suitable for the tank. But even then the water has things added back in. I'm making the assumption that you did remineralize your water that you used in the salt tank. Anyway, tap water is just fine for a large number of tropicals once it's been treated for chlorine. Unless you're trying to recreate a very specific biotope there's really not many circumstances where you need ro/dI water.

 

I put the new ceramic media in the very bottom of the center bay where the media tray it. The one I put it in is constantly submerged in water. The top and middle trays are not. Can you confirm this is right

 

What type of filter is it? A little bit of water and air contact is ok and actually helps the B.B. grow rapidly. Like a bio wheel works. As long as it’s in water and remains at a minimum damp/saturated it’s fine. But typically you want your mechanical filtration on bottom, chemical filtration and then biological last. You don’t want your bio rings getting gunked up with all the detritus the filter sucks up. That’s typically why you want mechanical first.

 

What type of filter is it? A little bit of water and air contact is ok and actually helps the B.B. grow rapidly. Like a bio wheel works. As long as it’s in water and remains at a minimum damp/saturated it’s fine. But typically you want your mechanical filtration on bottom, chemical filtration and then biological last. You don’t want your bio rings getting gunked up with all the detritus the filter sucks up. That’s typically why you want mechanical first.

its not a named brand filter, its just a media tray built into the biocube aquarium. essentially in the back of the tank, there are 3 chambers, the first chamber to the left has the pump for the output, the middle chamber has the media tray, and the first chamber has the heater. the first chamber has the holes for the water to come into and the water is dropped into the media media chamber. there is a hole on the bottom of the middle media chamber which the pump sucks the water to keep it going.

you can see rough pictures here, LED BioCube | Coralife Marine & Freshwater Aquarium Supplies except my tank didnt come with the bioballs. I ordered the intank media tray because I am sick of the stock one, mine is falling apart already and it is only one month old. because it is very difficult to get in and out. essentially if you look at the middle picture on the page, you will see there is 3 levels in the middle chamber, I put the ceramic medias in the bottom section, and the purigen in the middle and filter floss on the very top, right under the water spreader
https://coralifeproducts.com/Files/Gallery/ItemLarge/6-cl15661-ledbiocube16-back.jpg

so the water is moving through it, but it is fully submerged

 

Ok it’s kindnof in reverse so yes that layout works fine.

 

ok, thanks for everyone's help on this. I will post up when I get some nitrites/nitrates.

some basic things I had misunderstood all these years, so thanks for taking the time to explain it to me. my main focus was always on salt, so I incorrectly assumed many things were the same in freshwater

 

One more question
Do you think the cycle will be fast now that I have the ceramic media or will it be like just starting now?

Meaning should I expect to see nitrites in a few days or is it still going to be weeks

 

It will probably still take some time, but may be a little faster than normal. Just try to keep the ammonia at 2ppm and see how long it takes to convert. Have you seen any spike in nitrites at all during the course of your initial cycle attempt?

 

I am not sure. I only bought the test kit after 3 weeks to see if it was ready

 

I did a test last night in hopes it would be magically ready. It wasn't. However the ammonia is slightly less. I still have no nitrates or nitrites so maybe its because I changed my filter floss. As much as I want the tank to cycle the filter floss was brown and a bit smelly. On my salt tank I would change that every couple of days

 

I did a test last night in hopes it would be magically ready. It wasn't. However the ammonia is slightly less. I still have no nitrates or nitrites so maybe its because I changed my filter floss. As much as I want the tank to cycle the filter floss was brown and a bit smelly. On my salt tank I would change that every couple of days

It is very possible that is why you are where you are right now. Most of the bacteria you are trying to colonize will live on that filter media. I've never dealt with saltwater tanks but I do know with freshwater you don't want to be replacing your filter media every couple of days or even every couple of weeks.

Once this tank is fully cycled keeping the original fiber media isn't as critical as long as you have something in the filter housing to permanently hold the bacteria such as bio-rings or noodles but until those are fully colonized your cycle (the bacteria) can easily be lost and you will be right back to square one.