First Nitrite Reading, False?

[fishmommie]

again, I appreciate your frustration as you've certainly had issues with this tank.
So ... what you've done, in essence, is give up on the fishless cycle and decided to cycle with fish. My suggestion, then, would be to use something a little tougher than guppies. they aren't the hardiest fish to cycle with. Get something a little tougher and add the guppies later.
good luck.

[Goes to 11!]

Nor will two guppys produce enough ammonia to effectively cycle your tank for additional stock, That's not opinion, That's math. :-P.

It sounds as though you have been following advice on several methods, You cannot get anywhere riding two different horses.

There are lots of effective ways to cycle, Some are quicker than others but swapping between methodologies gives neither a chance to be effective if you know what I mean?

Everybody involved is trying to help, Pick one route, Follow it to the letter and let the cycle happen.

[Lady Hobbs]

Doesn't matter what someone else says because I can only give my personal opinion. You have a very small filter on a tank that has had ammonia now for 20 days. There is only so much bacteria that can grow in that small filter. A small amount of bacteria can only process a small amount of ammonia.

It has never taken me longer than 2.5 weeks to cycle any tank I've had yet. But I do not feed more ammonia than what the filters can store in bacteria.

Nitrites have nothing to do with the ammonia being processed. This is two different bacteria's you are trying to grow totally independent of each other.

[Lady Hobbs]

I've been doing all the right things with no luck

That's the whole point here. You have not been doing everything right.
The fish-less cycling thread here clearly states:

HOW MUCH AMMONIA TO ADD: Now pay attention!!!!

If your tank is a small tank, will hold only a few fish and has a small filter, then you should began your cycle with far less ammonia…..perhaps only 1-2ppms. You do not need to grow a ton of bacteria for a few small fish.

The reason this was so much stressed is because it's important and you overdosed twice out of 3 times you dosed. Many people told you in your previous threads to only dose from 1-2ppms, as well.

Nitrosomona is the bacteria you grow to reduce ammonia levels. Nitrobacter is the bacteria you grow to reduce nitrites. Two different bacteria's totally.

You have also been adding water prior to adding dechlorinator. Untreated water going through the filter will kill bacteria immediately.

For that person on that other forum to say it simply doesn't matter how much ammonia you add is full of it. That little filter can not grow enough bacteria to support a whale so I don't get where his logic is coming from there.

[CrackFox]

That's the whole point here. You have not been doing everything right.
The fish-less cycling thread here clearly states:

HOW MUCH AMMONIA TO ADD: Now pay attention!!!!

If your tank is a small tank, will hold only a few fish and has a small filter, then you should began your cycle with far less ammonia…..perhaps only 1-2ppms. You do not need to grow a ton of bacteria for a few small fish.

The reason this was so much stressed is because it's important and you overdosed twice out of 3 times you dosed. Many people told you in your previous threads to only dose from 1-2ppms, as well.

Nitrosomona is the bacteria you grow to reduce ammonia levels. Nitrobacter is the bacteria you grow to reduce nitrites. Two different bacteria's totally.

You have also been adding water prior to adding dechlorinator. Untreated water going through the filter will kill bacteria immediately.

For that person on that other forum to say it simply doesn't matter how much ammonia you add is full of it. That little filter can not grow enough bacteria to support a whale so I don't get where his logic is coming from there.

I appreciate all your advice so far. I see what you mean, I may have overloaded my filter with ammonia. I really don't think this is the case though. Even though I've looked into different methods of cycling, i've only every used the wait and drop method. At any one time the filter has had to handle no more than 2/3ppm. I did overdose but that was put right in a matter of half an hour. On a day to day basis there's probably less that 2ppm in the tank, so I don't think i've been stalling the cycle that way. Lastest update anyway

Did 90% water change as you and my friend both advised. Surprisingly the ammonia is still at 0.5ppm even though I emptied most of the water. I'm sure it'll have dropped to zero by tomorrow morning though.

so after 90% water change:

Ammonia: 0.5ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 5ppm

Not sure where the nitrate reading suddenly came from, never got one before, maybe it's the dechlorinator I added, messing with the reading, but I waited about 4 hours before testing, so who knows..nitrates are good, so I'm happy to see something change. Although, knowing my luck, they'll be gone by tomorrow

Nor will two guppys produce enough ammonia to effectively cycle your tank for additional stock, That's not opinion, That's math. :-P.

I don't know, the pet store told me to cycle with a couple of hardy fish though, so there must be some good in doing so. I know it will take a very long time if it does work, doing it that way. I've also heard good things about Tetra Safestart.

You have also been adding water prior to adding dechlorinator. Untreated water going through the filter will kill bacteria immediately.

There's no proper explanations on bottles or intruction booklets. What I will say though is that I turn the filter off completely during the water changes and the dechlorinator is added before it's switched back on, so the untreated water, technically doesn't go throught the filter.

I envy you guys and your smooth cycles!

[Lady Hobbs]

I believe I would have to agree with you here on the Tetra Safe Start and cycling with some fish. Make sure you have 0 ammonia before you do that tho. And do not start with bottom feeders. I would start with some small tetra's, like a group of glowlight tetra's if you plan to keep them.

My gut tells me you have already grown your nitrites. Have you tested your tap water for ammonia?

[CrackFox]

I believe I would have to agree with you here on the Tetra Safe Start and cycling with some fish. Make sure you have 0 ammonia before you do that tho. And do not start with bottom feeders. I would start with some small tetra's, like a group of glowlight tetra's if you plan to keep them.

My gut tells me you have already grown your nitrites. Have you tested your tap water for ammonia?

My gut is telling me that too. It may be because on the very first week of setting up the tank I used Nurafin Cycle (if you're not familar with it, it's a product a lot like Safestart/Stability) in that if claims to add bacteria and cycle the tank quickly. Maybe it had some effect and that's why the nitrites have been a no show.

I just tested my tap water for a nitrates, got a reading of 5ppm, so that's where the tank reading came from. I haven't tested for ammonia? I assumed that would be leathal in tap water. I'll do that now.

As for the fish-in method. I've been doing research and it's a shame since I really wanted some Neon Tetras and Albino Corys but they're bottom dwellers so they're out of the question for the time being.

Edit: I can confirm that my tap water contains 0 ammonia.

[Lady Hobbs]

If neons are what you want, then that's what I'd get. No point in buying fish you don't want. They are a bit more sensitive than some but as long as they go into water that contains no ammonia and you test as you should for awhile and do your water changes and use the Tetra Safe start, I see no problem. Add your cory's next month.

Do not forget to turn your temp back down to about 77. You should be able to start with a dozen neons.

[Shidohari]

my cycling problems are slightly different. I may have overdosed on my ammonia addition...for the past four days or so my NitrItes have spiked at 5.0 or more given the color of the reading.

My ammonia was .5 this morning when i tested it as well as the NitrItes. so i dosed the ammonia up to 2.0. but prior to that i may have overdosed on ammonia on one of the days. currently m tank is at 84 degrees and i had a media bag that i transfered over from my other tank to sit next to my biowheel as it went through it's cycle. tank is also planted with lots of crypto.

I also remember NitrIte bacteria grow way slower than the ammo bacteria, so i'm going to keep monitoring. Lady hobbs if you have any suggestions for my issue please feel free to comment.

Crackfox good luck with your cycling, i know when i first came to the site i found out the hard way i had alot to learn.

[CrackFox]

If neons are what you want, then that's what I'd get. No point in buying fish you don't want. They are a bit more sensitive than some but as long as they go into water that contains no ammonia and you test as you should for awhile and do your water changes and use the Tetra Safe start, I see no problem. Add your cory's next month.

Do not forget to turn your temp back down to about 77. You should be able to start with a dozen neons.

Ok, thanks for the advice! I've already turned the temperature down, finally no condensation! I'll see how It goes

@Shidohari Thank you. Good luck with your cycle!