Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have an Aqueon 14g FW tank that has been cycling for 7 weeks using pure ammonia. About a week ago, I had the ammonia returning to 0 within 12-18 hours, Nitrites sky high and Nitrates at 5-10ppm. Then I added about 1/2 gallon of declorinated water to account for evaporation. I also added a large amount of decorations (plants, artificial coral, etc) to finish decorating and prepare for my fish. The problem is that since then, my cycle has stalled. The ammonia levels increased to about 3.0 ppm, probably because of the ammonium in the water I added. Now the ammonia is down to between 1-2 ppm and has stayed there for the past week. I have not added any additional ammonia. The nitrites are still sky high and the nitrates are still 5-10ppm. Did I stall my cycle by adding the decorations? I have raised the temp to 82 degrees but that hasn't helped. I have had an air pump in the tank since about the second week of cycling. Does anyone have any thoughts about what's wrong? Or is this just a matter of having patience? Thanks in advance for any thoughts!!

Hmm. I'm not exactly sure what could have caused the problem. It could be there was something on the plants that killed off some of the beneficial bacteria, or the addition of the water... however, you can add some Cycle or some other bacterial additive to help jump start things to help you out a bit. Biospira is a good bacterial additive (I've not used it, but I have heard several good things about it from different people that have used it) if you can find it in your local pet store (you can definitely find it online).
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Phishie
Site Coordinator

"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

I tested the PH and it was only 6.0, so it seems that this is what stalled the cycling. I raised it and the ammonia seems to be dropping. I'll keep my fingers crossed!

Fingers crossed.
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Phishie
Site Coordinator

"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

Ok, some good news. I bought Tetra Safe Start with Bio-Spira from my LFS. I threw it in and things seemed to speed up a bit, then stalled again. I went back to the LFS and bought Prime, a water conditioner that's supposed to detoxify nitrite/nitrate and ammonia and make it easier for the biofilter to process them. This morning my ammonia was 3.0, my nitrites 5.0 but my nitrates were through the roof at 160ppm!!! I was so excited - the Prime seems to have kick-started the cycling. I'm hoping maybe even tomorrow or the next day I might be ready for fish. I'm just so glad that the cycle is moving again. Thanks for your interest!

Awesome. Just be sure that your tank is definitely ready before you add fish because the addition of fish will make your tank have to cycle all over again. I'm glad your cycling is back on track.
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Phishie
Site Coordinator

"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

I'm psyched after it stalling for so long. Should I wait a few days after the ammonia/nitrite readings are zeroed out to make sure the cycle is stable? I'd add pure ammonia to continue to feed the biofilter in the mean time. Also, how much of the water should I change before adding the fish?

You've been so helpful!!!

I'm glad I can help.

I always choose to be safe than sorry. It's up to you to wait or not, but since you had a little bit of trouble, I would err on the side of caution.

You shouldn't change more than 20% (biweekly) of your water once your cycle is complete. It could make you have to start over if you change more than that.
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Phishie
Site Coordinator

"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

Hi there!
I just read this message after posting a question for you on the other thread. I hope my 4g water change didn't mess up the cycling.

The good news is, people generally learn from their mistakes. You did change slightly more than you should have, but I've heard of people changing more than half. So at least you didn't change half. It's best to look at the positives.
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Phishie
Site Coordinator

"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

Ok, I haven't added Prime for about 36 hours, and the bottle says it's dissipated by that time. Last night, my readings were this: ammonia: 0.5, ph 7.4, nitrites 5.0 , nitrates 80-100. I added 1ml of ammonia to feed the colonies.
This morning, here are my readings: ammonia 1.5-2.0, ph 7.6,
nitrites 5.0 and nitrates 160 . It seems that my bacteria is ok for now. I'll lay off the Prime for now, but I don't think it killed anything off. The thing is that my ammonia is not going back to zero for the last three weeks. This started after I added additional decorations to get the tank ready for fish. Before that, the ammonia was zeroing out within 12-18 hours. I can understand that I disrupted the tank with the new additions, but I washed them beforehand as directed and you would think any problems with that would have resolved by now. I was reading that sometimes it takes a month for nitrites to go down, so maybe I just need to keep waiting. Also, is it bad to put your hands in the tank? I've done that a few times to adjust decorations and I read somewhere that the water chemistry can change as a result.
You're the best with all your great advice!

That's pretty quick turn around. Gotta love bacteria. It could be that you will need to wait the 4-6 weeks again after you added the decor? I don't think it's bad to put your hands in the tank, and I wouldn't necessarily believe everything you read. Was the site you read that on reputable? I'm curious because I've never heard of that. Strange.

I'm glad I can be of assistance.
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Phishie
Site Coordinator

"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

Actually, I don't think I read it anywhere about the hands in the water. It was just that I had my arms in the aquarium for a while when I added the decorations and a few other times when I rearranged everything and I thought I'd mention it just in case!

As far as the ph, my tap water has almost no buffering capability, and I've read that the nitrification process can lower the ph. Since there aren't any fish in the tank right now, I can raise the ph with drops or temporarily increase the buffering ability with Neutral Regulator. I've heard that if the ph gets too low, say under 6.0, the cycling process can slow or even stop. That's why I'm watching the ph so closely. The problem is, once I get fish in there, I know I shouldn't try to use chemicals to change the ph because the changes can be too much for the fish. I'm hoping the cycling process is causing the drop in ph and that once the ammonia/nitrites are down that the ph will become more stable. I cycled a 2g tank with Biospira bacteria and so far, the ph hasn't fluctuated as much.
I'm going to buy some more Tetra Safe Start bacteria for the 14g and not add Prime or change the water. I'll keep you posted, and thanks for all your patience with me!

If you're not using the 2 gallon tank for anything and it's cycled fine, you can use that to help your 14 gallon tank. You know more than me on the pH issue. Yes, you should not use the chemicals unless absolutely nothing else helps once you get fish in there.

Stay positive.
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Phishie
Site Coordinator

"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

Ok, here's an update. I realized that my ph crashing so quickly is pretty unusual so I did some research on hardening the water. Epsom salts were recommended to increase the hardness, and so was crushed coral substrate, which some aquariasts use in FW tanks for this reason. So I added 1Tbs epsom salts/gallon to all three of my tanks and a small amount of crushed coral. As of this morning, all three tanks are holding a ph of 7.6 for 12 hours. None of them have had a stable ph for that long. I guess since bettas are so hardy they've been able to handle these fluctuations, but I want to maintain a steady ph by hardening the water. Even though the ideal ph is 7.0, I've read that a stable ph is better than a specific ph.
My tests this morning were as follows: ammonia: 2.0 (down since yesterday), nitrites: 5.0 (but not 5.0 like they have been and nitrates 120ppm). I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the cycling has sped up again! I'll keep you posted!

Yes, stable is better. Just remember when you do add the fish that you need to acclimate them to your tank water chemistry, which will likely be different from the water they are in. The ideal pH is different for almost every fish, so it could be that you should look for fish that would thrive in that pH range.

Keep us posted, and I'll continue to have my fingers crossed.
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Phishie
Site Coordinator

"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

Well, I added the coral rock and the tank finished cycling almost overnight!!! I was so excited. So now the ammonia is going to zero within 12 hours and I have no measurable nitrites. I added epsom salt to raise the hardness and a little baking soda to raise the pH. Now I have a new problem. My ph shot up to 8.3 this morning. I'm sure it's because of all the stuff I added. Also, I got GH and KH water hardness tests because my tap water KH is so low that my pH was crashing as a result. My GH of my tap water was normal. Now my tank has the following readings. GH: 400ppm , KH: 100ppm. The GH is sky high and the KH is within normal limits. So I took out a lot of the coral rock and tested again. The ph is down to 8.0 and the GH/KH readings are the same. I think when I do my major water change before adding fish, those numbers will go down. The ph of my tap water is very high, about 8.6. I know you're not supposed to mess with the ph, but this seems too high for tropical fish. Should I adjust it down to 7.0 before adding the fish and keep an eye on it? I know if it goes up/down slowly it won't bother the fish. Or should I just acclimate the fish to a higher ph and let it drop naturally over time? I wish I could just not worry about these parameters, but if I do nothing, my water will get too acidic and the cycling process will halt. Is this not the most complicated cycle you've ever heard of????

I always used spring water for my tanks, and I never had any pH issues. Maybe you could try that? Your cycling is definitely the longest process I've seen. You do seem to mess with your water parameters an awful lot though. Patience is important. What "major water change" are you referring to? Since you are doing a fishless cycle I would not add fish until you've got things under control.
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Phishie
Site Coordinator

"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

Great news! My ph has been stable at 7.6 for 3 days. It took a 90% water change to get the nitrates to a safe level. Now the ammonia and nitrites are at zero and the nitrates are at 5ppm. You are right, I did tinker with the water, but it ended up being the ph that was stalling the cycling. Now that the water is a little harder, it's holding steady, and the bacteria seem to be doing great. The water is perfect, so I decided to get a few fish. I bought 3 mickey mouse yellow platies and will watch them and the water for a week or two before adding any more. One of them is swimming around happily and the other two are still hiding, so I think they're a little stressed out. I hope they'll all be swimming around by morning.
Yes, this has been an adventure in cycling that I don't want to go through again. I'm glad I got it worked out with a freshwater tank, as in a few years I want to move up to saltwater. I'll keep you posted about the fish, and thanks for your continued input!