Help needed with fishless cycle.

[alik]

Hi all,

I am currently trying to cycle my 30ltr tank without fish. This is my third day feeding the tank with flakes... my ammonia level tests 1.5mg/l (the max result on the test is 5.0mg/l).

I'm not quite sure what i'm waiting for... is it for the ammonia levels to reach 5.0mg/l and the nitrite to reach the maximum on the test kit before I stop feeding the tank? The tank has also got quite smelly the last two days since the addition of the food, I assume because it's rotting - is this normal?

Thanks,
Ali

 

[seastaar88]

check the stickies on cycling. it would also be helpful to look at Iggy's recipe for getting through a fishless by adding ammonia. (faster than doing flakes.)

 

[FishyTT]

I second the above suggestion. I just finish cycling my 72g tank and follow Iggy's recipe to the letter:

http://www.myfishtank.net/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=13406

It took me 4 weeks to cycle my tank from scratch. Just make sure you get a clear ammonia bottle from the grocery store or from the hardware store.

 

[FroggyFox]

If you stick with the way you're doing it, you are continuing to add enough flake every day to keep your ammonia level up above 0. After awhile you wont be able to do that so you need to measure how much flake you're putting in right now to get the level up a bit. Then you wait for the nitrites to spike and drop to 0...and once your ammonia and nitrite have spiked and dropped to 0 and your tank is producing nitrates...you're finished.

Personally I would also suggest you switch over to using ammonia instead of flakes...because you'll probably get some algae issues due to the flakes pretty soon and it'll be a mess to clean out when you're all through...not to mention gunking up your filter media etc.