7 days and nothing

[fishlessintx]

Well, I'm on day 7 and ammonia still at 4, no nitrites and no nitrates. Testing with liquid drops and nothing. All I have is brown algae or something everywhere on tank, gravel, planets, fake "cabin", everything. I assume its okay to have nothing at this point?

[Lady Hobbs]

Generally it takes maybe 4 or 5 days but 7 is longer than normal. Did you use dechlorinator in your water, have your heater turned up and the filter running?

[fishlessintx]

I use an in home walter filtration system so typically don't put anyting in it but I did add Prime the other day when starting this tank. I also put a new AC20 filter system on and my temp is about 74.

[fishlessintx]

I just went back and checked and I started the tank 7 days ago but it took me two days to get the new filter, get the ammonia down to 4 doing a bunch of water changes etcso I guess its only been going for 5 days. Seems like forever.

[Honey Badger 1]

you're gonna want to turn that heater up a tiny bit. nitrifying bacteria grows best at temps between 77F - 86F.

[fishlessintx]

Okay, thank you. I just turned it up a bit. Will move to keep it in that range

[fishlessintx]

Okay, the temp is 82 today. Still nothing. Ammonia at 4, 0 nitrites, 0 nitrates. I did put in a water conditioner last night (when I turned up the tank) but other than that I haven't touched a thing.

The tank with all its brown yuck everywhere looks absolutely disgusting.

I did look at the filter (AC20) without the carbon filter so just the sponge and the bio max and they look good and clean....I guess that's bad though at this point :)

I just don't get it. Maybe something I put in the tank when it had fish is causing me problems??? Ick medication? Prime? Special Blend (microbe-lift)?

Any other advise or should I just keep waiting? How long should I wait before doing something?

[CassieLEO]

Ich medication? Are there sick fish in the tank? Or was there sick fish a while ago?
Is there the brown slime in your tank? Whats feeding the diatoms? Im confused...

[fishlessintx]

Answers:
1. My fish had Ick before they all died.
2. Yes, there is brown cr*p all over everything. Not sure what it is.
3. I'm sorry but I don't know what 'diatomes' are.

Not sure if you remember my original post, but I got a tank, added three fish and all was fine...added more fish...fine...saw my filter was dirty so replaced it which started me cycling...and downhill it went eventually killing all my fish.

So, I decided to start over with a fishless cycle. I added ammonia but my ammonia went WAY TO HIGH so I changed out about 60% of the water to get it to 4. Almost a week later and it's still at 4, and 0 of everything else.

[CassieLEO]

Diatoms are a form of Algae, that looks like "Brown crap" and it will eventually go away once your cycle is done. It will take a little bit though so it will take some more cleaning...