Liquid ammonia cycling progress and question(s)

[Cliff]

It will take a lot longer to grow the nitrite eating bacteria than it did to grow the ammonia eating bacteria

Just make sure you are only dosing ammonia once each day and only up to 1 to 2 ppm. At times it will hit 0ppm and that is OK as long as you are bringing it back to 1 to 2 ppm by only dosing once within a 24 hour period.

It almost sounds like you have been dosing more than once each day / 24 hour period. That would explain the second spike in nitrites.

[Cermet]

You are doing a great job dosing the ammonia - bacteria that convert nitrite compete with ammonia converting bacteria for space, so you have to wait until those guys work it out ... . That said, took my tank a little over five weeks to fully cycle. Just do water changes to get the nitrites down and continue.

Best of luck!

[Danifins]

@cliff

I did dose twice yesterday but only because both in the morning and evening it had gone back to 0 and I only dosed to about .5 each time. I was afraid the ammonia bacteria would die in less than 12 hours which is why I dosed twice.

So I dosed this morning and it was around .75, so if it's 0 when I get home from work, I shouldn't dose again till tomorrow morning?

@cermet thanks! Tomorrow is the 4 week mark, I was hoping it would be done by then but I think I made the initial mistake of putting too much ammonia to start. I hope it's done by this weekend though, if not I might have to give up an start again after I go on vacation for a week. I leave on the 19th and was hoping to have fish in my tank for a good two weeks before, both to make sure they're okay an to get my kitties used to seeing them so they don't go crazy when I'm away haha.

[Cliff]

@cliff

I did dose twice yesterday but only because both in the morning and evening it had gone back to 0 and I only dosed to about .5 each time. I was afraid the ammonia bacteria would die in less than 12 hours which is why I dosed twice.

So I dosed this morning and it was around .75, so if it's 0 when I get home from work, I shouldn't dose again till tomorrow morning?

I would only dose once each day to bring it just over 1ppm

Your bacteria can go 24 hours without a food source (ie.. ammonia) before you start to get some die off. If your bring up your ammonia to just over 1 ppm, your bacteria will not be without food long enough for it to have any negative impact. This will also allow your nitrite eat bacteria a chance to catch up to your ammonia eating bacteria.

[Danifins]

Ugh This is so frustrating!! I did water changes last night and got the nitrites down to 2-3 ppm. I did NOT dose ammonia again, and it was at 0. This morning before work I tested nitrites, and somehow it's up to or above 5ppm again!! How is that possible if there was no ammonia left to convert?! I'm so confused and frustrated... Also getting tired of doing water changes that don't seem to help :(

I had to dose ammonia again this morning, so I put enough to get between .5 and 1 ppm. Im afraid to test the nitrites when I get home, especially cause I'm having a friend over tonight and can't really do a water change. Argh!

[Cliff]

If you keep dosing ammonia only once a day to get the ammonia level between 1 and 2ppm, you won't have to worry about doing any water changes. You should not be doing any water changes if you follow the fishless cycling process so you should not have to worry about that.

It dose take a lot longer for nitrite eating bacteria to grow.

Just hang in there, you are doing fine now.

[Cermet]

Whether the nitrites rise or not, if the ammonia falls to zero, you need to feed the bacteria once a day.

If the tank has a substrate, ammonia can be trapped and stored there. Then it is released as ammonia levels drop and will (at very low levels) feed bacteria in the filter producing nitrites. As Cliff says, keep dosing 1 ppm or so once a day and wait. It will cycle.

Best of luck!

[Danifins]

Almost a week later.

I haven't done another water change as per Cliff's advice.

Every day I dose ammonia and everyday it goes down to zero.

Nitrites are STILL off the charts. Its going to be 6 weeks in two days. What gives? Why is a 36 gallon tank taking SO LONG?

[Honey Badger 1]

Stop messing with the tank. Add dechlorinated water when needed, test and add ammonia when needed. All these water changes are doing no good. I am not going to pretend I have a clue why it's taking so long but I do know when you are going through a fish-less cycle you don't need to clean anything or change out any water. If it were me, I would skip a day of dosing ammonia. 24 hours is not going to starve off the bacteria and all you are doing is feeding the nitrites so you keep getting higher and higher levels. Try a few days of dosing ammonia to 1ppm every other day instead of daily.

[Lady Hobbs]

Things were going fine. All you needed to do was to drop the dose of ammonia to half the original amount. There is nothing in the cycling threads about overdosing with ammonia, dosing twice a day and doing huge water changes. The instructions are pretty easy to follow but they do need to be followed or you run into what you have now.

Your nitrites and nitrates are sky high due to that overdosing you did for so long. Ammonia just keep right on converting because you kept right on over dosing.

You said you started cycling April 11. This is May 8. How do you figure that's 6 weeks?

Oh........Seachems Stability you asked about? Guess you missed that part, too, in the cycling thread. Says not to use it when doing a fishless cycle.