Taking forever to cycle my pond! Advice??

[jaytech33]

So I have been trying to cycle my 600 gal pond for 3 weeks now. I have cycled two tanks in the past with no problems.

The pond is 600 gallons, DIY wet/dry sump. I had no luck finding pure ammonia anywhere so I am going with the fish food/ raw shrimp method which has worked for me in the past.

Ammonia has been at 2.0 for the entire three weeks. Never up, never down. No nitrites. When I first started I used Seachem Prime. Followed all the instructions and went through 2-3 bottles. Last week I seeded the filter with some sponge, gravel, and bio media from an established tank.

I have seen the nitates test around 5 yesterday, today zero. This has happened a few times over the past three weeks. Water temp is at 78, PH 7.2

Will my cycle take so long because of the large amount of water? I can't see why I would need to raise ammonia over 2.0. I know a cycle can take more than three weeks but between the Stability and seed material I expected to see some type of positive results.

Any insight or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I really need to move my RTC to the pond!

 

[Otto_VonBacon]

I hear pure ammonia can get them started. Just be careful you get pure ammonia and not one with chemical additives.

 

[JakeH]

Its tough to cycle with no bioload. As soon as your BB get started, they run out of food (ammonia). I say throw the RTC in & be ready to do WC's.

 

[jaytech33]

But with a constant load of 2.0 they should be thriving. I test every day, no way I missed the nitrite cycle!

 

[yogurt_21]

I always sponsor any tanks or ponds with the filters from others. in th case of my pond I took the pea sized gravel from my 55g tank that was 2-3" deep and placed in into a 5g black round planter inside my ponds main filter. instant cycle.