Ammonia Cycle Taking So Long!

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Pazzoman

Piranha
MFK Member
Apr 5, 2009
3,005
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New York
Hey Everybody...im usually pateint especially when it somethimg like cycling a tank as its my first time doing it. Well long story short i added 5 mp of ammonia (dr.tims amonia chloride) on November 15... About a week to 2 weeks it was brought to the 1 range allwoing me to add more ammonia...according to directions im suppose to see a break down of ammonia from 4-5 to 0 in less then 10 hours at some point.... However it is now December 11 aftwr numerous sets of adding ammonia due to the lack of breakdown time...i lost patience an decided to write this to see of thier are any problems. Here are some tank specs:

72 Gallon Tank With 33 Gallon Sump
-filter sock and 5 gallons of pond matrix (lots of matrix)
-water at 85 degrees farenheit
-( 2) 24 inch bubble wands....one in tank and one in sump near pond matrix
- have tank decor
- i use prime when adding water to tank
- I do have the highest level of nitrite...however still stuck on ammonia

Any ideas? The only possible reasons i could think of is eighter prime is causing a problem or maybe the 5 gallons of matrix is too much (higly doubt it)

Please Help! Anyone thinks a month is too long for ammonia cycle? Currently its at 2-3 and I plan on waiting till it hits zero to add the drops...instead of at one.

Maybe hard to understand but i will clarify better if needed thanks a million!!


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Guess patience it is...heard great things on plants however if i place plants now It will most likely eat the bad stuff but it wont build a great colony of bacteria on the media it self...however plants will defintly be ised when the stages are done and its just nitrates


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I would not wait. This is lame.

Quitting putting ammonia and any other chemicals into the tank.
Put Seachem Stability bacteria into the tank.
http://www.seachem.com/Products/product_pages/Stability.html
http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2753903


Put an Ammonia Alert monitor in the tank:
http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=11147371&lmdn=SHOP+FOR&f=PAD/psNotAvailInUS/No

When the ammonia hits zero, throw fish in.


The problem is you're starting with a miniscule bacteria count, and you expect it to multiply to billions.
Why not start with a bottle of millions like Seachem Stability, or bacteria laden substrate like CaribSea Instant Aquarium, or other used bacteria laden substrates, used bacteria laden filters?
You're expecting bacteria to multiply to billions from thin air. That takes a long time.
 
Pazzoman said:
Guess patience it is...heard great things on plants however if i place plants now It will most likely eat the bad stuff but it wont build a great colony of bacteria on the media it self...however plants will defintly be ised when the stages are done and its just nitrates


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Click to expand...
I guess you don't realize that the plants are loaded with beneficial bacteria.
 
Funny part is I did place seachem stability following the directions for the first two weeks...as it finished during the duration. I just didnt put it in the thread because I tried putting what is being done now. Never thought about the idea of aquatic plants...any in particular?


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