Question: 5 weeks of cycling

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waterbabys

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Stevie
Hi can someone help me, I have been cycling my tank now for near 5 weeks and I don’t think anything is happen the Ammonia level is about 4.0
Nitrite 10
Nitrate 0
General hardness 16
Carbonate hardness 6
PH 7.6
Chlorine 0 but it has been like this for a couple of weeks
What should I be doing?
 
Have you been doing any water changes? What are you using as your ammonia source and how often have you added it (if not a live animal)?
 
I have no other tank or any friends with an established tank,

the only thing that has change in 5 weeks is the ammonia levels, is that right?
 
What are you using for your ammonia source and how often are you adding it?
 
My newt is not in the tank so i have not done any water changes, i used frozen bloodworms as an ammonia source i put a whole cube in 5 days ago.
 
Okay, you put in a lot for ammonia. It doesn't take very much. I would advise a 20% water change and check it again in 24 hrs. How big is your tank?

Was this the first time you added a cube in 5 weeks?
 
The tank is 23½” x 12” and 6” of water.
I have put an ammonia source in 3 times but before only used half a cube.
 
Okay, you can stop adding the ammonia, you're overloading on the ammonia. Do a 20% water change just to help out. If you can, vacuum out that last dose of blood worms. Don't clean the entire tank, just see if you can find the cube remainder, if not, don't sweat it. Your ammonia levels should start dropping after this. Your nitrite levels will stay up for a bit, but then should drop off and you will see an increase in nitrates.

If you don't see any changes in about a week, check back in. Cycling is a pain in the a$$! We've all been there. Take care. ;)
 
at last levels have changed Nitrite 50
Nitrate 1
General hardness 16
Carbonate hardness 6
PH 7.2
is this good?
 
will do thanks

is the cycling nearly finnished? will it be ok to put my newt back in the tank now?
 
no, you will have to wait until the ammonia and nitrites are zero and your nitrates are climbing, nitrite is almost as poisonous as ammonia (in higher amounts), the only safe chemical is the nitrates which are harmless and feed your plants (if you have nay).

only once your nitrites are 0 can the newt go back in the water.
 
help please i'm an idiot i wrote it wrong the Nitrite is at 1 and the Nitrate at 50
General hardness 16
Carbonate hardness 6
PH 7.2
Ammonia 0.25

what should i be doing now?
 
Ammonia and nitrite need to be 0. You put ammonia in the tank; nitrites effectively grow and eat the ammonia; therefore you have a tank of nitrites; nitrates grow and eat the nitrite...you need the nitrates to get rid of ammonia fish/animals produce. I imagine it like a little pac man going along eating the white dots and tehn the nitrates are effectively the nitrates lol.

I'm following this method.....

"Add and Wait" Method

This is the method I have used to cycle 5 tanks (from 2.5 to 75 gallon) and it has worked perfectly. I think it is the simplest and requires the least amount of work. First add your ammonia to raise the level to 4 to 5 ppm (see ammonia calculator here at bottom of page). Now you simply wait on the ammonia to drop back to around 1 ppm. Spend the time researching the fish you like and see if they are compatible with each other, with your tap pH, tank size, etc.

Test daily to see what the ammonia reading is. There is no use to test for anything else. Nitrite and nitrate won't be present until some ammonia has processed. Ammonia will raise your pH so no use to test it either. Once you see a drop in the ammonia, test for nitrite. There should be some present. When the ammonia drops back to about near zero (usually takes about a week), add enough to raise it back to about 3 to 4 ppm and begin testing the nitrite daily.

Every time the ammonia drops back to zero, raise it back up to 3 to 4 ppm and continue to check nitrites. The nitrite reading will go off the chart. NOTE FOR API TEST KIT USERS: When you add the drops, if they immediately turn purple in the bottom of the tube, your nitrites are off the chart high. You do not need to shake the tube and wait 5 minutes. If you do, the color will turn green as the nitrites are so high that there isn't a color to measure them with. Once the ammonia is dropping from around 4 ppm back to zero in 12 hours or less you have sufficient bacteria to handle the ammonia your fish load produces. Continue to add ammonia daily as you must feed the bacteria that have formed or they will begin to die off.

The nitrite spike will generally take about twice as long to drop to zero as did the ammonia spike. The reason for this is two-fold. First, the nitrite processing bacteria just develop slower than those that process ammonia. Second, you are adding more nitrite daily (every time you add ammonia, it is transformed into nitrite raising the level a little more) as opposed to the ammonia, which you only add once at the start and then waited on it to drop to zero. During this time, you should occasionally test for nitrate too. The presence of nitrate means that nitrite is being processed, completing the nitrogen cycle. The nitrate level will also go off the chart but you will take care of that with a large water change later. It will seem like forever before the nitrite finally falls back to zero but eventually, almost overnight, it will drop and you can celebrate. You are almost there. Once the bacteria are able to process 4 or 5 ppm of ammonia back to zero ammonia and nitrite in about 10 to 12 hours. You are officially cycled. You can continue this for a few days just to make sure it isn't a one time thing and of course, you need to continue to add ammonia up until the day before you get your fish.

At this point, your tank will probably look terrible with brown algae everywhere and probably cloudy water. As I mentioned, the nitrate reading will also be off the chart. Nitrates can only be removed with water changes. Do a large water change, 75 to 90 percent, turn the heat down to the level the fish you have decided on will need, and you are ready to add your fish. You can safely add your full fish load as your tank will have enough bacteria built up to handle any waste they can produce.

 
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