So I decided to go all Mother Teresa on my aquarium and give fishless cycling a shot. I added up to 5ppm pure ammonia about 10 days ago, and overnight it would slowly drop, and I kept it at 5ppm over a few days until I noticed a sudden nitrite spike two days ago. Now however, my ammonia does not seem to be dropping bellow 5ppm (after 3 days of not adding any) and the nitrite spike is not diminishing as it should in a cycling tank... Perhaps I overshot both levels to the point of corrupting the bacteria colonies or something? Thoughts? Suggestions? How about a gigantic water change and adding a small amount of ammonia, see if I can re-trigger the nitrite spike?
Fishless Cycling Question
- Thread starter Hoontar
- Start date
you can try that...but I think your should just leave it. it often takes weeks to see any change on a large scale (which is why I test weekly and not daily when cycling my tanks)
the ammonia and nitrites would in theory decline to 0.
what you should've done once you saw the ammonia dropping almost daily, is just add a few drops daily, not a whole load to make it shoot up to 5ppm. this may now take longer, but it will pass, just keep monitoring and don't add until you see ammonia drop down to 1ppm or something. then keep adding ammonia few drops daily
the ammonia and nitrites would in theory decline to 0.
what you should've done once you saw the ammonia dropping almost daily, is just add a few drops daily, not a whole load to make it shoot up to 5ppm. this may now take longer, but it will pass, just keep monitoring and don't add until you see ammonia drop down to 1ppm or something. then keep adding ammonia few drops daily
Sounds to me like you're right on track. It takes a long time for that nitrite spike to go away...you just have to be patient and/or find somewhere to get some bacteria seeded from. Keep checking the ammonia and when you see it low add some more but don't add too much. Check the nitrite maybe every other day or every third day...you will see it almost disappear overnight. If you start seeing a lot of nitrate you know it is on its way down If your nitrites and nitrates seem to both get stuck high, do a big water change, let things settle for at least a few hours and then check your levels and add ammonia if necessary. I'm guessing that maybe there is more ammonia in there than you think if you added very much to begin with...it is an easy test to misread. I wouldn't add any new ammonia unless you get a 0 reading (or pretty darn close to it). You just want to make sure that there is some ammonia in there every day either because it is there and measurable, or because you added some within 24 hours. This simulates having fish in there. Ideally it will start disappearing very quickly, but as long as you have enough bacteria to take care of a detectable amount of ammonia in the tank you should be fine.
You can help things along by making sure the temperature is nice and warm (around 80 is great), if you have some good oxygen content (ie lots of splashing from the filter output) and if you could find something to put some bacteria in there...like filter squeezings from a local store or a friend's tank.
Keep checking the ammonia and when you see it low add some more but don't add too much. Check the nitrite maybe every other day or every third day...you will see it almost disappear overnight. If you start seeing a lot of nitrate you know it is on its way down If your nitrites and nitrates seem to both get stuck high, do a big water change, let things settle for at least a few hours and then check your levels and add ammonia if necessary. I'm guessing that maybe there is more ammonia in there than you think if you added very much to begin with...it is an easy test to misread. I wouldn't add any new ammonia unless you get a 0 reading (or pretty darn close to it). You just want to make sure that there is some ammonia in there every day either because it is there and measurable, or because you added some within 24 hours. This simulates having fish in there. Ideally it will start disappearing very quickly, but as long as you have enough bacteria to take care of a detectable amount of ammonia in the tank you should be fine.You can help things along by making sure the temperature is nice and warm (around 80 is great), if you have some good oxygen content (ie lots of splashing from the filter output) and if you could find something to put some bacteria in there...like filter squeezings from a local store or a friend's tank.
