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Something went majorly wrong during fishless cycling :(

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#1 ·
Hi

I got an aquarium for my mom on her birthday towards the end of january. I decided to be good and went for fishless cycling but somethings gone wrong seriously.:cry:

I did everything as was supposed to checked my ph and nitrates and nitrites and ammonia. Added the ammonia just as it was told to ( 5ppm then waited till it finished and half of that everyday).

Thing is now nitrates and nitrites just all of a sudden are of the charts.

I added a few more plants in there yesterday and it had a few in there since three days to the start of cycling.

Thanks a lot.

Anisha
 

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#2 ·
You are at the next stage of cycling. Is your ammonia down? Once ammonia goes down, your nitrites will spike. After some time, the nitrites will drop and nitrates will spike. Once your nitrates fall below 40ppm, and you get 0 readings for ammonia and nitrites, you're good to go. Cycling a tank can takes 4-8 weeks. Hang in there. By the way, your plants look great. Nice job there!
 
#4 ·
Your ammonia drops and nitrites/trates are spiking because you have bacteria working. I'll let someone else chime in before I say perhaps a partial water change might be done. But you do have the cycle working for sure. It's not something horribly wrong.
 
#7 · (Edited)
No water changes are needed when doing a fishless cycle. From the sound of it, everything is going as it should. You are in the last stage of cycling. Keep adding ammonia daily. Soon, you will also see nitrites falling back to zero, 12 hrs after the introduction of new ammonia. Once both ammonia and nitrites can drop to zero in 12 hrs, the tank is cycled.

This is when a water change is needed, before adding the fish. Nitrates will read off the chart high. You will need to change out 50-85%. What ever it takes, to get a nitrate reading under 40ppm. (the "safe zone", for fish)
Until nitrites can also fall back to zero in 12 hrs, I would not even bother with nitrate test.

Careful to add a light load of fish at first. Don't want to push it.
 
#9 ·
No water changes are needed when doing a fishless cycle. From the sound of it, everything is going as it should. You are in the last stage of cycling. Keep adding ammonia daily. Soon, you will also see nitrites falling back to zero, 12 hrs after the introduction of new ammonia. Once both ammonia and nitrites can drop to zero in 12 hrs, the tank is cycled.

This is when a water change is needed, before adding the fish. Nitrates will read off the chart high. You will need to change out 50-85%. What ever it takes, to get a nitrate reading under 40ppm. (the "safe zone", for fish)
Until nitrites can also fall back to zero in 12 hrs, I would not even bother with nitrate test.

Carefully to add a light load of fish at first. Don't want to push it.

+1
 
#8 ·
It is my PERSONAL oppinion that you can not truly finish the cycleing process without fish. In this case with your plants I am willing to bet it will take a little longer to properly cycle because your plants are using some if not most of your ammonia. That would be my guess as to why your ammonia is dropping so fast while your other levels are taking longer. I would reccomend to keep adding small amounts of ammonia until everything levels out. If you do a water change you are going to get rid of the Nitrite, and if you have less Nitrite, then it will take longer to build up enough bacteria to convert it to Nitrate.

Thats my 2 cents :)
 
#10 ·
sounds pretty normal, what i'd expect when doing an ammonia-adding-fishless cycle (like with actual ammonia). i might just cut down the amount of ammonia as it sounds like it's more than s ufficient. probably like twistersmom said a wc isn't necessary as the plants will help you out there (more plants=always a good idea imo). i also agree with cbirk not that it won't cycle but that not until those fish are added will your bb really balance out with your bioload. however, please be aware that high nitrate levels can be too much for fish and a big water change will be in order before adding any fish. (btw good for you doing a fishless cycle). you bb will stay in tact because the bb live in the filter and on surfaces in the water, not the water itself.

hope this helps : )

p.s. welcome to the forum!
 
#11 ·
Just wanted to clarify, that I didn't mean that it wouldn't cycle, just that it wouldn't truly finish. In my opinion until it is balanced it is not finished. Also I was refering to reducing the nitrite in the water would hinder the growth of bacteria that convert nitrite to nitrate, not that the bacteria it self would be removed with a water change :D

Sorry for any confusion!
 
#12 ·
Agreed with Twistersmom.

cbirk, I've cycled a good number of tanks completely fishless. It can absolutely be done and is pretty simple. It can take a while (but so can cycling with fish) but it's a heck of a lot easier than doing water changes to keep your cycling fish alive and doesn't result in dead or sick fish. Fishless is the way to go.

I don't even mess around with stuff like ammonia dosing. I just stick some frozen shrimp in a filter media bag and throw it in the tank and let it rot. Constant ammonia supply = easy cycling.

For what it's worth, I don't think you've got quite enough plants to eat up all of the ammonia you're dosing (hence the huge nitrite levels), nor do you have enough to suck up your nitrates if you're dosing ammonia regularly. You're going to need to do a big water change once ammonia and nitrite have been pegged at zero for a while in order to bring your nitrates down before adding fish.
 
#13 ·
iamntbatman,

And when you put in your fish, you don't have a small spike in anything as your biofilter adjusts to the load of live fish versus that one rotting source of ammonia?
 
#14 · (Edited)
When I did my fishless cycle on my brackish tank, (did not go the frozen shrimp route) used pure ammonia, all the fish I wanted where mail order. In order to not pay shipping twice, I decided to add all 10 fish at one time into a 55 gal tank.
Probable a good thing. I started bumping the ammonia up to 3 ppm twice a day. Enough bacteria was built up, so once the fish where added I never once got a reading for ammonia or nitrites.
 
#16 ·
my tank cycled completly on sunday. did 7ppm dose of ammonia 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite in 12 hours. tried again on monday and yesterday. just did a 80% water change and bought5 juveline tiger barbs... they seem soo happy though i think i got a pair from the tank those two just keep together swimming around each other in one side of the tank occassionaly joining the school. then goin back to thier quiet corner. i'm just soo happy now
. Can there really be forming a pair this young??

Been four hours no signs of stress even fed them a lil bit as i was not expecting them to eat anything and it was fun watching them feed.

Thanks a lot for all your advice u guys rock
 
#17 ·
Be careful with the barbs. They don't form pairs: they live as a school, almost like a pack of wolves. Usually you get one dominant male in the group and the rest of the males will often try to fight him for dominance of the group. They tend to breed as a group, with the dominant male getting breeding rights to the females in the school. In a 125g tank, you have plenty of room for a large group of them which should do a lot when it comes to cutting down on aggression issues. At least a dozen would be good, although some say that schools of 18+ are needed to really curb aggression.
 
#18 ·
+one. Would also note ,that there isn't much that swims that is quicker at snatching food from the surface with possible exception of danios. Would make it difficult for some slower mid dwellig fish to compete at feeding time.;-)
 
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