Ok so relating to my other thread about my water tests.. i'm now in day 23 of my re-cycle. I just tested the water with ammonia between 2 and 3 ppm (liquid test kit). No nitrites or nitrates yet. My ph is very low at 6, which is why my angels are doing fine at the moment, the acidity is rendering my ammonia less harmful. Question is when should i begin seeing nitrites already, I'm only in a re-cycle. I've only done 2 water changes in these 23 days (the first of the two water changes i reported on in my other thread). I have plenty of fake plants, a ugf, wood, and two filters (one with biowheel and filter and the other with filter). Plenty of places for beneficials to grow... but whats takin so long, i would understand with a new system, but this isnt one, just a re-cycle. Any thoughts?
sponge - I can't really speak to Fresh water cycleing, but I had to re-cycle my salt tank recently {just ordered fish as a matter of fact} but I digress, lol I had coral substrate and it was a detritus trap {i mean BAD!!} and had lost all the fish in a matter of hours, bad day,lol .... so i pulled everything out of the tank, cleaned it, put 40 lbs of live sand in there, put all the live rock back in and filled it - -I got one little almost unreadable nitrite bump, never had any amonia or nitrate movement....my guess is all the original matierial had already cycled and was still stable..... I even put 2 decent sized pieces of shrimp in there and let them "rot" thinking it would cause a cycle spike ...nothing....so you very well could be cycled already and stable ........how often are you testing? if you are going 3-4 days you could have missed it.........just my thoughts and expieriences on the matter ....be safe, Boss
Something is not right here. I don't even understand this for a new system much less a re-cycle.
The ammonia spike should be relatively quick - usually a week. The nitrite spike is usually the one that takes 3-4 weeks and accounts for the majority of the cycling process. I would agree that perhaps you missed the spikes altogether and just have some ammonia concentration from too mch waste, but there is no presence of nitrates in your water. In a cycled tank (assuming it is not heavily planted), you should always see some level of nitrates.
Very odd indeed. Sorry I am not more help. I have never heard of nitrites taking 23 days to show up. I'll snoop around the internet and see what I can find out. How many fish do you have in this tank and what is the size of the aquarium? I was going to say that maybe you just aren't producing enough ammonia to get a good bacteria colony going, but the 2-3 ppm seems to cross that off the list. Very interesting.
Well, sorry, but I can't find anything that fits your description. I did find several people who had your same problem, but theirs was a result of not having enough fish in the tank. Your ammonia concentration seems to indicate this is not your problem.
As far as water changes go, do as many as you like during the cycling process. It is a common misconception that you should perform minimal water changes during the cycling process. In actuality, there are hardly any bacteria in the water. As long as you don't vacuum your substrate, water changes are a good way to make sure the ammonia and nitrite concentrations stay low while not removing very much of the bacteria you need.
Sorry again - maybe someone will come along that has experienced this problem before. Good luck.
thanks miami, yeah i currently have two angelfish and a pleco... but these last 23 days i have had 2 angelfish and 2 bala sharks... one died a week ago, and the other shark i returned today because he wasnt able to get any food with my bully angels in the tank. Its a 20 gallon tank. Very peculiar which is why i posted on it. The first time i cycled it didnt take this long if i remember correctly.
If i water change, this will lower my ammonia and lag the process of converting ammonia to nitrite no? I heard you need a great deal of ammonia before the beneficial bacteria can transform it into nitrite. That is why i held off doing water change and let the ammonia get to this high level.
Also, i have my water heavily oxygenated right now.
It may affect it a little in that you are not giving your bacteria quite as much to "eat", but it doesn't affect the time too much. When I cycle, I do enough water changes to keep the ammonia concentration below 1 ppm and it still goes through the ammonia spike in 1-1.5 weeks. I try to control the spike as much as possible when there are fish in there.
wierd... i have so many places for beneficial bacteria to grow too.... im gonna take another test right now just to be 100% sure... ill report it in like 20 minutes.... ill take all readings.
How old is your testing equipment? Also, be sure to follow the directions exactly. I am not trying to insult you at all, but I did see one post where a guy wasn't getting a reading (his was nitrates) and it was because he wasn't shaking the bottle enough. Just throwing things out there since I am stumped at the moment.
im about to shake twice as hard for twice as long... and no, im not insulted at all... sometimes some people need a good slap in the face... i wish someone had slapped me in the face before i washed my biowheel under the tap knowing what would happen!! then i wouldnt be in a re-cycle!! lololol... reading coming in 3 minutes...
nitrates 5 ppm... woohoo miami your slap should have come earlier!!! god i feel like a moron... i knew something wasnt clickin... glad i redid my test... now i gotta do a water change... poor fish... thanks dude for the wake up call
yes i was not shaking the bottle or the tube long enough nor hard enough... i didn't think i had to go balistic on it. My kit is about a month old, so its fresh. I'm sure i was cycled, but was wondering why tests were coming out odd for nitrates. Anyway, about to do water change, my poor angels have been swimming in filth.
