Questions about Cycling

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dgebhart

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Oct 4, 2013
24
1
3
Sacramento, CA
This is my first time going through a whole cycle with a tank. In the past, I have worked with established tank gravel, so cycling was easy, but no one I know has tanks anymore.

I am working to cycle a 29 gallon tank. It has 2 filters, a Marineland Penguin 100 and a Marineland Penguin 200. They are both old filters that have not been used for a while, for about half a year, but the tank, gravel, and decor are all new.

I started cycling the tank 3 and a half weeks ago. I dosed to 3 ppm ammonia. I have been checking both ammonia and nitrite levels every day. There has been zero change. Ammonia has held steady at 3 ppm, and Nitrite at 0 ppm. Everything I read online has made it seem like this is abnormally long for cycling. Am I just rushing things?

If the answer is no, here are two things I think might be leading to a slow cycle:
1) I used 10% ammonium hydroxide, when most of the tutorials I have seen used ammonium chloride instead.
2) The biowheels are old and bacteria won't grow on them, though that doesn't explain why its not growing in the gravel...

Any advice would be helpful, my wife and kids are getting anxious to get fish in there.
 
dgebhart said:
2) The biowheels are old and bacteria won't grow on them, though that doesn't explain why its not growing in the gravel...
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Not sure about the ammonia dose, but bacteria will grow on pretty much any surface. So if the biowheels are clean then age won't have much effect on their performance.

However, did you dechlorinate your water beforehand? And what tests are you using? If strips then a liquid test is more accurate in general...
 
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Hendre said:
Not sure about the ammonia dose, but bacteria will grow on pretty much any surface. So if the biowheels are clean then age won't have much effect on their performance.

However, did you dechlorinate your water beforehand? And what tests are you using? If strips then a liquid test is more accurate in general...
Click to expand...

I did dechlorinate the water with Prime beforehand, and then added the ammonia the next day. I am using the API freshwater master test. So the liquid test.
 
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TheWolfman said:
What did you put in to start the cycle? I like to use stability but there are many different brands that do a good jo
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API Quick Start. I didn't know Stability existed at the time (my LFS was out), so I was thinking I might get some of that to try. But the way I understand fishless cycling is that you shouldn't need anything to start, the natural bacteria in the water/gravel/filter will grow over time if give the right food (ammonia).
 
dgebhart said:
API Quick Start. I didn't know Stability existed at the time (my LFS was out), so I was thinking I might get some of that to try. But the way I understand fishless cycling is that you shouldn't need anything to start, the natural bacteria in the water/gravel/filter will grow over time if give the right food (ammonia).
Click to expand...

You are correct about the fishless cycle , but the B.B. In the bottle is always a good aid to get it going. By the way too much ammonia can sterilize the aquarium and prevent the bacteria from colonizing as well. I’ve never played around with the ammonia in a bottle I usually just add some extra fish food to feed the bacteria. Your ammonia level isn’t high enough to sterilize your aquarium, you should be right around the corner from a full cycle.
 
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yup patience grasshopper, around week 4 or 5 should start reading nitrite, then the bacteria that converts that to nitrate needs to establish.

I personally just use raw jumbo prawn shrimp tail one or 2 in a bio bag dropped in the tank, and left to run.
 
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