New cycle/ammonia levels

[uihawk9868]

I added household ammonia to my fishless 20 g. freshwater long on 4/26/15. I dosed it up to 4 ppm, which I have been told by some is too much for a 20 gallon. I added a heater on about 5/1/15 and set it to 82 -83 degrees. My question is this, my ammonia levels have remained steady at 4 ppm (API Master Kit) since the beginning 4/26/15. Anything I should be doing differ different, or just wait it out for the ammonia to fall ?

[Slaphppy7]

You'll have to wait it out...do you have an air stone running?...it could help with O2 levels in the warmer water

[uihawk9868]

No, I don't-yet.

[Slaphppy7]

It may help...warmer water tends to hold less O2...the bubbles agitating the surface will help with gas exchange and O2 levels

BB needs oxygen to live and grow...

[mommy1]

What is the pH in the tank? 4ppm is not to high in a 20g but it will take a bit longer. When the ammonia drops to 0 it would be better if you redosed up to only 1ppm.

[uihawk9868]

My pH is 7.4.

[Boundava]

I think the heat will help with the cycling. I had mine at 84 when I cycled the 20L and 10 and it took a week to see 0 ammonia.

Have AC HOB filters on both tanks and no airstones. About 5 days into the cycle I added some BB media from a established filter, about 1/4 to each tank in a media bag-not in the filter, just in the tank. A bit over a week later I had 0 nitrites too.

[mommy1]

I think the heat will help with the cycling. I had mine at 84 when I cycled the 20L and 10 and it took a week to see 0 ammonia.

Have AC HOB filters on both tanks and no airstones. About 5 days into the cycle I added some BB media from a established filter, about 1/4 to each tank in a media bag-not in the filter, just in the tank. A bit over a week later I had 0 nitrites too.

The heat will definitely help, but I think you should attribute the quick cycle to the seeded filter media and not so much the heat. As long as the temperature is 70F or higher the bacteria will grow, the warmer the temperature the faster the bacteria will grow.

[Boundava]

Sorry, confused...I thought that's what I had said??:questionmarks:

I think the heat will help with the cycling. I had mine at 84 when I cycled the 20L and 10 and it took a week to see 0 ammonia.

Looking back through my journal it took 8 days to get 0 ammonia (from the 6th to the 14th), and I didn't add the media until the 10th day(the 16th). So the media made the second half cycle faster, but not the first half affecting the ammonia. Cycled 100% within 15 days.

Apologies if it seemed that I said that heat will make you cycle quickly like I did. I also had plants in the tanks and used the instant sea products that are supposed to have bacteria in them (sure smelled like they did) so any of those could have sped up the cycle.

[wgoldfarb]

Like others have said, just wait it out. However, since nobody else has asked, I will, just to rule out the obvious. When you added water to the tank, you did dechlorinate, right?

Also, how is the tank filtered?

[Slaphppy7]

+1, good basics we haven't covered yet.

[mommy1]

The tank has been cycling only a week. It generally takes 2-3 weeks to cycle a tank with ammonia when no seeded media is used. It's not uncommon for ammonia to take a while to start dropping, but once it starts, it usually drops pretty quickly. I think at this point it is still a bit early to start worrying.

[uihawk9868]

I had originally removed some water to not cause the tank to overflow when i added substrate (i was adding substrate to an already full of water bare- bottom tank). Yes, I added what I believe was Prime and then immediately realized what a dumb thing I just did by doing that. So, I hurried around and dumped a little ammonia in the tank and now I'm back up at 4 ppm.

[mommy1]

Prime won't stall/hurt the cycle. Oh , you're talking about taking some water out lol. Well, give it a bit more time and the ammonia will start to drop.

[wgoldfarb]

As mommy said, it takes time for the cycle to start. If you have dechlorinated water (which you do, since you used prime), some ammonia in the water, and a running filter, your cycle will start soon :-)