[jczernia]

It’s been 6 weeks now and my tank still reads high Ammonia 4.0ppm.
The first 2 days I did 100% water change with tap water 3 day 100% distilled water remineralized and add ton of floaters and moss old filter media that did not help. I went and bought Nutrafin cycle that did not help so I bought BioDigest week later I am showing Ammonia 4ppm all this time I was doing 20-30% water changes.
What is wrong what am ‘I missing?

 

[Mrturritos]

Patience

 

[sbarbee54]

Mine cycled in 4 but I waited 9 weeks


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[aznrice247]

Don't even bother with bottled up bacteria. You can't rush cylcing, otherwise it will bite you back in the butt. Just wait. Keep a current in the water.

 

[jczernia]

Thanks for the encouraging massages. I through at this every think I can think of and still ammonia is winning. I have my shrimp waiting in a bare bottom tank waiting.
I would like to see it come down some. I hear ton of people use BioDigest to help cycle the tank.

 

[aznartist34]

With aquasoil it's not about cycling. It's about when the it will stop leeching amonia. If you search the forums, there is a guide to setting up a tank with aquasoil and shows how you should do water changes for the initial cycling period.

 

[inthepacific]

i think it was like for the first week do water changes everyday then 2nd week every other and 3rd every 3rd day. or something. so i guess start doing them everyday for the next week. i had the same problem with it and got a little impatient. i think during the second week i got ammonia to 0 and then nitrites lowered the 3rd but i got impatient and added safestart once i saw that it was low enough and it was cycled. i also added more media that trick with the shower basket with the suction cups to dampen the flow GL also dont add any bacterias that arent nitrospiras because they wont do anything for the cycle and dont add the bacteria if the levels are over 1-2 ppm

 

[Django]

I had heard from someone no water changes until cycled, then water changes (50%) to get the nitrates down. I also heard that some commercial substrates leach ammonia.

If you put in a lot of stem plants, they will consume the ammonia. Make sure you have enough circulation in the tank and adequate lighting. I like to see well-defined shadows on the substrate, but with the floaters you may not see that. Floaters are very good for CO2, possibly ammonia removal.

I had some luck with API Quick Start. I would use it again, particularly since you've used R/O water - no bacteria in there. It seems to me you're doing too much with the tank. I think you're supposed to just let it sit and test it. However, you may have a special case with your substrate. Sorry I can't give you a more conclusive answer. It seems weird to me, but in the final analysis, I would follow the directions for the substrate. You might check their site for more information. Sorry if I'm a little scattered.

Steven

 

[EKLiu]

I do 100% (or as close as I can get) daily for 2 weeks when I am setting up a new tank with Aquasoil. Otherwise nitrates will stay really high.

 

[Django]

I do 100% (or as close as I can get) daily for 2 weeks when I am setting up a new tank with Aquasoil. Otherwise nitrates will stay really high.

I would disadvise 100% water changes - mabe 50% or at the outside 75%. Otherwise it can disturb the bacteria. I would plant stem plants- they will take down the ammonia and thereby reduce the nitrate. Meanwhile the nitrifying bacteria will develop.

Steven

 

[AnotherHobby]

I set mine up, planted it immediately, and did 50% water changes according to the usual schedule (every day 1st week, every 2 days 2nd week, every 3 days 3rd week, etc). I seeded in mature media in the 3rd week and turned up the temp and was fully cycled by the 4th week. Could have cycled faster by adding the mature media earlier.

Even if you cycle it quickly (can consume all ammonia and nitrite) it'll still leach ammonia and send your nitrates high for quite a while. I added fish in the 4th week, but had to do 50% water chances 2x a week for quite a while to keep nitrates down even though there was no ammonia or nitrite.

 

[Newman]

i didnt do any water changes on mine while cycling it and i think it took me over 1 month. it does stop eventually, just wait.

 

[dhgyello04]

Would it be better to just leave it alone and test for ammonia and nitrates in the 4th, 5th, and 6th week? If a person is not in a hurry and doesn’t rush the process do we still need to do all the water changes? I have my CBS in a bucket with a clip on light, clip on fan, sponge filter, and lots of moss. They seem to be doing fine. Can I just let the tank cycle without any water changes and just add a ton of floating water sprite and wisteria to help with the ammonia and nitrates?

 

[plamski]

50 % RO every day for 2 weeks. Without remineralizing - to save some money. Then do TDS on desire level.

 

[randyl]

I also set up 3 smaller tanks with new Amazonia mid December. Two 10G and one Fluval Flora (7.9G). One 10G with about 3" of substrate covering the entire bottom, it's still leaching, I didn't use any old filter media in that tank. The Flora is the same, with less substrate about 2". Both tanks are still high in ammonia about 4 ppm. The other 10G I have a small divider about 3", I only fill the smaller side about 1/3 of the tank length. For this one I added matured filter media, and it had very close to 0 ammonia in about 2 weeks.

I'll still be patient though, not planning to add shrimps for another 3 weeks at least.

 

[Betta Maniac]

It's about the water changes to leach out that ammonia. Even with massive water changes though, it does take weeks and weeks. It took about 6 weeks to cycle my new tank (and that was with fully seeded media for the filter).

 

[jczernia]

The first 2 weeks I did massive water changes the first 2 days I did 100% tap water 3rd day I did 100 distilled water and after that I did every 5 days 50% distilled TDS 150 gH 5 changes. I don’t want to make too many big water changes that will deplete the buffering capabilities of the substrate and that would defeat the purpose of using Ada Amazonia weeks.

 

[randyl]

It's about the water changes to leach out that ammonia. Even with massive water changes though, it does take weeks and weeks. It took about 6 weeks to cycle my new tank (and that was with fully seeded media for the filter).

I've played a lot with matured filters and new tanks for cycling. I find that when setting up a new low ph tank, it speeds up the cycle much better if you take a matured filter from similar ph.

I tried taking an entire canister filter that's matured in PH8 and put it in a cycling tank of PH 5.5 with ammonia of 2ppm. In 2 days there's no more ammonia but then a few days later ammonia comes back (leached from new substrate). I think the bacteria actually died with PH shock after a few days. However, with this new Amazonia tank, I used 50% of the filter media from another tank with PH 5.x, and it did speed up things a bit and no ammonia returning after a few days. This is not scientific again because I only played for 5 or 6 filters with different combination, so it could all be just coincidental.

 

[jczernia]

Unfortunately my other tanks have higher pH so I can’t do that and that is why I use nitrifying bacteria.

 

[Assassynation]

My FLUVAL Edge 6 gal is in at the 3 month mark