fishless cycle help

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
C

Clammie

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Mar 31, 2010
56
0
0
United Kingdom
I just started my fishless cycle yesterday, it seems to have gone a bit wrong.
I think I need some help :D.

I added 20ml of household ammonia to the tank to get the ammonia to 5mg/l.

Day 1 showed
5mg/l ammonia
0 nitrite
0 nitrate
6/6.5 pH

Before adding the same amount of ammonia, day 2 is showing
2.4 mg/l ammonia
3.3 mg/l nitrite
110 mg/l nitrate
6/6.5 pH

Anyone know what's happened and/or how to fix this?
Could it be due to a change in water temp.?
It's a 5ft 110 US gallon tank if that helps.
 
What's the problem? You expect to see ammonia decrease and nitrite and nitrate increase. One day seems way too fast for that to happen, but maybe you're using some old filter media too.
 
you can try using seachem stability. helped me cycle my tank in about 5 days
 
i hate fishless cycling. i cant ever control myself to look at an empty tank. i always end up buyin something lol. and this was no help to your thread. well, i bumped it for ya
 
It all sounds OK. Keep it at 3 ppm and go for it.

edit; Hey Zspidel, control is an illusion.
 
What's the problem? You expect to see ammonia decrease and nitrite and nitrate increase. One day seems way too fast for that to happen, but maybe you're using some old filter media too.
Click to expand...

That's what I mean, 1 day is really fast.
I am using old media, but it's been washed with hot water, scrubbed and left to dry for over a month. I'd imagine any bacteria living on there would be dead?

It all sounds OK. Keep it at 3 ppm and go for it.
Click to expand...

Does that mean to cut the amount of ammonia down to half what I added on the first day?
 
I don't have the conversion for PPM to Mg/L handy, but I would add just enough ammonia to achieve 3 ppm every day until the Nitrite peaks and returns to zero. I try to do my testing and adding at the same time every day.
Do a W/C to reduce Nitrates to 10 ppm and you are ready for fish.
$ .02
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom