Fishless Cycle Question

[Kenatl123]

Hello all ,
Glad to be here and can see this is a great resource and thanks for having me . I am new here but have been keeping fish for a long time and consider myself experienced . I am in the process of trying the fishless cycle method , but , I have 4 tanks that just will not cycle and I am at an impasse as to why . I thought I would ask here and see if anyone else has had the same problem . They are a 15 , 30 and 2 , 55 gal tanks . I used the correct ammonia and seeded them all from well established tanks . The ammonia just stays at the same level . The 2 55's have some brown algae on the glass which means there must be some nitrates present , but , the cycle has not started . This is the first time I have tried the fishless cycle method , so from what I can find on the net , I have done everything as I should have . Any help will be appreciated ,
Thanks Ken

 

[lauraf]

Hi, welcome to MFT! Sorry to hear you are having trouble with your fishless cycle. How long have you been trying with these tanks? Are you adding ammonia still? Any nitrites showing at all?
Cheers,
Laura

 

[blue_ram]

What did you use as an ammonia source? How long has the tank been cycling?

 

[Kenatl123]

Thanks for the reply lauraf and blue_ram and I am sorry for being so long in answering , but I didn't get an email notice...I checked my settings and it is set...Oh well . Back to the subject...I have been trying for about 6 weeks or so to get these tanks to cycle . I used the Ace Hardware %10 pure ammonia , it has no additives , and I have not added anymore since the first 5 ppm because the levels have not dropped . What puzzles me is that brown algae is growing . I have checked the nitrite , ammonia , and nitrate levels and only ammonia is present . And I have "seeded" all of them with gravel and filter media from well established tanks . I used to use the expendable fish method , but I would rather do it this way . Again thanks for the reply and hope to hear from you again .
Ken

 

[nanu156]

Ken if you have bio matter to "seed" the tank with you don't need to do fishless cycle you can just add fish, try to seed heavily let the filter suck it up and then add fish.

Wat test kit are you using? I ask because lately round here we have been having people get really super false reading from the strips. Do you have an API master liquid test kit? if not invest the 35 and buy one.

Have a great night

 

[achase]

I didn't realize that when you seeded a tank that it was instantly cycled. I just thought it just sped up the process. Good to know!
Is there a preferred amount of time between seeding the tank and adding fish? I'm assuming that you could also do a test to ensure that the tank is cycled by adding some ammonia and then waiting about a day and seeing if all the ammonia has "disappeared". Would I be correct in that assumption?

 

[nanu156]

ummm I guess you could, as long as you get enough gunk you can add fish that day, with out fish waste the bacteria will die. I always just get the tank temp up, gunk it up really nasty and add fish.

by real nasty i mean my goal is to have the water be so bad i can't see through it. I do this by siphoning from the posts on the UG filter or taking the sponge out of the aqua-clear and squishing the bejesus out of it in the new tank.

The goal with the cycle is to grow bacteria, if you add a large amount of bacteria to a tank well then there ya have it you don't need to grow it.

You have been sodding your law and spreading grass seed. You only need to do one or the other

 

[Kenatl123]

I have both strip and liquid high quality tests kits , new by the way , and have "calibrated" them to make sure they are as accurate as possible...lol I agree with some of what has been posted and some not . I have been using this link as a guide . It is the paper written by the pioneer of fish less cycling , Dr Cow .

Fishless Aquarium Cycle

I do not have enough "seeding" material to go nanu156's route , but according to Dr Cow , I just need some to speed up the process . I thank you all for the help , but I guess I need to study Dr Cow's writings closer and try to see where I went wrong...lol Happy fishing!!!!
Ken