Tank won’t start to cycle

10 gallon planted tank with a sponge filter. Fishless cycle. Tank temperature is 74. I condition with Prime.

I dosed my fishless tank up to 2ppm of ammonia using Dr Tims Ammonia.
It’s been 5 days. Parameters have stayed at
2ppm ammonia
0 nitrite
0 nitrate
Ph was upwards of 7.5 but has dropped to 7.2 over the days.
Does it just take a while to show nitrites?

I’ve also been dosing daily with stability and fritz turbo start, about half a cap each into the sponge.

What am I doing wrong?

 

10 gallon planted tank with a sponge filter. Fishless cycle. Tank temperature is 74. I condition with Prime.

I dosed my fishless tank up to 2ppm of ammonia using Dr Tims Ammonia.
It’s been 5 days. Parameters have stayed at
2ppm ammonia
0 nitrite
0 nitrate
Ph was upwards of 7.5 but has dropped to 7.2 over the days.
Does it just take a while to show nitrites?

I’ve also been dosing daily with stability and fritz turbo start, about half a cap each into the sponge.

What am I doing wrong?

You are doing nothing wrong. Cycling a tank takes an average of 4 weeks even with a bacteria starter. It will probably be 7 to 10 days at minimum, before you start seeing an appreciable drop in ammonia.

 

Bottled bacteria is supposed to help jump start a cycle but it seems even when adding it it still takes time for the cycle to start moving forward for some folks. All I can recommend at this point is just give it more time.

 

5 days is nothing. Keep in mind these are bacteria you're trying to cultivate.. often from one single cell or a very small group of cells.

Give it a month. If it hasn't cycled after that, then you can question whether or not it's going to happen without interference.

As a secondary note.. bottle bacteria really doesn't do much of anything.

If you want a rush cycle, get some filter media from a long-seasoned tank and put it in yours. That'll cycle it faster. But again, five days is nothing.

Also, stop adding chemicals. They're not going to help. Just let the tank be.

 

You are doing nothing wrong. Cycling a tank takes an average of 4 weeks even with a bacteria starter. It will probably be 7 to 10 days at minimum, before you start seeing an appreciable drop in ammonia.

Ok, thank you. I previ

5 days is nothing. Keep in mind these are bacteria you're trying to cultivate.. often from one single cell or a very small group of cells.

Give it a month. If it hasn't cycled after that, then you can question whether or not it's going to happen without interference.

As a secondary note.. bottle bacteria really doesn't do much of anything.

If you want a rush cycle, get some filter media from a long-seasoned tank and put it in yours. That'll cycle it faster. But again, five days is nothing.

Also, stop adding chemicals. They're not going to help. Just let the tank be.

Thanks, I guess I just got lucky the first time then. Within 24 hours I had nitrites showing so I figured it would be the same second time around.
Unfortunately I killed all the bb with antibiotics, and basically stripped the tank down and restarted because of a mystery parasite no one could really name. So I have no filter media to add. I will just have to be patient.

Should I do a water change to get rid of the ammonia and just fish in cycle my betta if it’s going to take a month? He’s in a 3gal unfiltered hospital tank right now. I change out 50% water every other day but if I’m gonna be doing that anyway I might as well just put him in the tank, right? he recovered from his other issue. He has mild fin rot but a larger water volume would probably be better then, right?


I was using bottled water in the hospital tank since my tap has .5 ammonia naturally when I treat with prime and his fins responded to the bottled, but I can’t afford to use bottled on a 10 gal.

 

Prime can’t be used for the first 24 hours after adding bottled bacteria as it will destroy it. After 24 hours you can use it but need to use another dechlorinator until then.

 

Ok, thank you. I previ


Thanks, I guess I just got lucky the first time then. Within 24 hours I had nitrites showing so I figured it would be the same second time around.
Unfortunately I killed all the bb with antibiotics, and basically stripped the tank down and restarted because of a mystery parasite no one could really name. So I have no filter media to add. I will just have to be patient.

Should I do a water change to get rid of the ammonia and just fish in cycle my betta if it’s going to take a month? He’s in a 3gal unfiltered hospital tank right now. I change out 50% water every other day but if I’m gonna be doing that anyway I might as well just put him in the tank, right? he recovered from his other issue. He has mild fin rot but a larger water volume would probably be better then, right?


I was using bottled water in the hospital tank since my tap has .5 ammonia naturally when I treat with prime and his fins responded to the bottled, but I can’t afford to use bottled on a 10 gal.

Since neither tank is cycled I would move him to the bigger one and just keep on top of the water changes. Prime will protect your little guy from the low amount of ammonia in your tap water.

 

Prime can’t be used for the first 24 hours after adding bottled bacteria as it will destroy it. After 24 hours you can use it but need to use another dechlorinator until then.

Oh wow, thanks for the info!

 

I have done 3 cycles. 1 fishless and 2 fish in. From my experience bottled bacteria only really made the fish in speed up. I added fish and tss+ in fish in amd never seen nitrites and minimal amounts of ammonia. In 2-3 weeks I was done and cycled. Then on fishless I used bottled ammonia and dosed to 2ppm. Waited 10 days like you and got nothing. Being impatient I added tss+ again. Within days ammonia started to drop but this time I had a high nitrite spike. This time it took me 6 weeks start to finish. Almost 4 weeks of nitrite spike. My conclusion is that when u dose high ammonia at once the bottled bacteria will struggle to process the ammonia. Fish in since it's a small amount of ammonia through a day the bottled bacteria will keep up much faster. This is just my experience

 

Prime can’t be used for the first 24 hours after adding bottled bacteria as it will destroy it. After 24 hours you can use it but need to use another dechlorinator until then.

Oh wow, thanks for the info!

Some folks say it will, some say it won't. It is difficult to get a definitive answer. As long as you keep the ammonia and nitrites when they show up down below one and do a water change if they get above that number Prime will protect your little guy and your tank will cycle (grow enough bacteria to process his bio-load) whether you add bottled bacteria or not.

 

Some folks say it will, some say it won't. It is difficult to get a definitive answer. As long as you keep the ammonia and nitrites when they show up down below one and do a water change if they get above that number Prime will protect your little guy and your tank will cycle (grow enough bacteria to process his bio-load) whether you add bottled bacteria or not.

It actually says on one of the bottles ( can’t remember if it’s the Prime or the Safe Start) not to use it. There’s also an old post on here where Lucy contacted the company who advised to not use it. I used it in the early days but just seed mine now so I have no hands on proof.

 

I did use fritz before and by the end of the week (after a month of high nitrites mind you) it was cycled, and I used prime with every water change. Stability was what took it over the edge though, overnight everything hit zero and it was a glorious day

I have done 3 cycles. 1 fishless and 2 fish in. From my experience bottled bacteria only really made the fish in speed up. I added fish and tss+ in fish in amd never seen nitrites and minimal amounts of ammonia. In 2-3 weeks I was done and cycled. Then on fishless I used bottled ammonia and dosed to 2ppm. Waited 10 days like you and got nothing. Being impatient I added tss+ again. Within days ammonia started to drop but this time I had a high nitrite spike. This time it took me 6 weeks start to finish. Almost 4 weeks of nitrite spike. My conclusion is that when u dose high ammonia at once the bottled bacteria will struggle to process the ammonia. Fish in since it's a small amount of ammonia through a day the bottled bacteria will keep up much faster. This is just my experience

this makes a lot of sense. With the old setup I had been ghost feeding for 2 weeks so it likely was a much lower ammonia concentration. It was just so messy, and was a pain to rinse out of the substrate and I worry it made some undesirables breed and then explode later on.

 

Ok, thank you. I previ


Thanks, I guess I just got lucky the first time then. Within 24 hours I had nitrites showing so I figured it would be the same second time around.
Unfortunately I killed all the bb with antibiotics, and basically stripped the tank down and restarted because of a mystery parasite no one could really name. So I have no filter media to add. I will just have to be patient.

Should I do a water change to get rid of the ammonia and just fish in cycle my betta if it’s going to take a month? He’s in a 3gal unfiltered hospital tank right now. I change out 50% water every other day but if I’m gonna be doing that anyway I might as well just put him in the tank, right? he recovered from his other issue. He has mild fin rot but a larger water volume would probably be better then, right?


I was using bottled water in the hospital tank since my tap has .5 ammonia naturally when I treat with prime and his fins responded to the bottled, but I can’t afford to use bottled on a 10 gal.

Personally, I wouldn't do it. You can cycle any tank faster with ammonia. In a 3 gallon bare tank it's easy to keep everything at 0 with minimal work. In a cycling tank with a fish in it-much more time, effort, testing, water changes to keep it safe for the fish. It typically will take longer to cycle a tank with fish in it than without simply because you don't have the control or the freedom to tweak parameters to keep bacteria happy....just my two pennies lol!

 

I've found the below 2 articles very helpful in cycling my tanks, fish in and fishless:
Cycle Your New Aquarium The EASY Way (Beginner Friendly!)
Emergency: Performing a Fish-in Cycle The RIGHT Way

 

I've found the below 2 articles very helpful in cycling my tanks, fish in and fishless:
Cycle Your New Aquarium The EASY Way (Beginner Friendly!)
Emergency: Performing a Fish-in Cycle The RIGHT Way

Great resource articles! Thanks for sharing!

 

Just a tip, before I had multiple tanks/ a sump to pull bio media from, I asked my LFS if I could purchase some bio media from one of their tanks ( I know they medicate and have a good relationship with them, so I was comfortable doing this...aka not from a large pet store chain ). Plopped the sponge filter they gave me right out of one of their display tanks and basically had a "instant" cycle so to speak. Kind of saves you the "wait" of several weeks for the cycle to take place.

 

Just a tip, before I had multiple tanks/ a sump to pull bio media from, I asked my LFS if I could purchase some bio media from one of their tanks ( I know they medicate and have a good relationship with them, so I was comfortable doing this...aka not from a large pet store chain ). Plopped the sponge filter they gave me right out of one of their display tanks and basically had a "instant" cycle so to speak. Kind of saves you the "wait" of several weeks for the cycle to take place.

My LFS seems pretty good but the owner sold me fritz turbotstart and told me it should cycle the tank in 24 hours so I immediately did not trust him lol.

still testing at 2, 0, 0 today. The tank has clouded a little and pH is creeping down; so I’m hoping a bacterial bloom has started. I added a few bits of ceramic media to the sponge filter output.

 

Ok, thank you. I previ


Thanks, I guess I just got lucky the first time then. Within 24 hours I had nitrites showing so I figured it would be the same second time around.
Unfortunately I killed all the bb with antibiotics, and basically stripped the tank down and restarted because of a mystery parasite no one could really name. So I have no filter media to add. I will just have to be patient.

Should I do a water change to get rid of the ammonia and just fish in cycle my betta if it’s going to take a month? He’s in a 3gal unfiltered hospital tank right now. I change out 50% water every other day but if I’m gonna be doing that anyway I might as well just put him in the tank, right? he recovered from his other issue. He has mild fin rot but a larger water volume would probably be better then, right?


I was using bottled water in the hospital tank since my tap has .5 ammonia naturally when I treat with prime and his fins responded to the bottled, but I can’t afford to use bottled on a 10 gal.

From what I’ve read, when you have to add medications. It is recommended to remove your filter media to avoid killing your BB. I don’t have experience with meds, but I’ve been doing a lot of research.