55 gallon taking longer than it should to cycle?

[Bellie816]

Hi everyone -

Ok I'm trying to figure out if my 55 gallon is supposed to be moving along more by now. I've had it up and running since February 4th... doing a fishless cycle. I added a portion of my bio filter from my 10 gallon to the filter in the 55 gallon. Also added some liquid bacteria weekly (just the cheap stuff so prolly didn't do anything).

So this would be approximately 5 1/2 weeks now. My nitrites *just* started appearing last week. Currently at .50... on the climb up, not the climb down. It's been almost a week and the only change was .25 to .50. My ammonia is right at about 3 ppm. It has not moved from that number in a week or two. I am keeping the tank at 80 degrees.

So any suggestions? Words of wisdom? My 10 gallon moved much more quickly than this... it was cycled in about 4 weeks fishless and I started from scratch without any bacteria.

Maybe I'm just being impatient again....

[Cliff]

Give it some more time.

I've also heard of poeple have a stalled cycle due to using the liquid bacteria additives. Maybe try to continue the cycle without them. Might help

[Bellie816]

I'm wondering if I may have stalled my cycle. Two weeks ago I went out of town for the weekend and I added ammonia before I left to make sure there was enough. Well I ended up putting it at or above 8 ppm so maybe that is what stalled it. It has dropped back to 3 ppm now but still has not dropped to zero once yet.

[Cliff]

I'm wondering if I may have stalled my cycle. Two weeks ago I went out of town for the weekend and I added ammonia before I left to make sure there was enough. Well I ended up putting it at or above 8 ppm so maybe that is what stalled it. It has dropped back to 3 ppm now but still has not dropped to zero once yet.

That could be it. I read some posts here where that has happened. If that's the case, the cycle will just need a little more time to complete.