confused by cycle

[Ditka]

I have had water running through my filters for 20 days.
To start I set up a 10g rubbermade bin and dosed to 5ppm ammonia. had that going for a little over a week while getting tank set to go. Friday the 5th i filled tank with water and aragonite substrate(tank will be for brackish puffers which need high ph) and dosed with Dr. Tims One and Only. I dosed Ammonia to 2ppm every day after that and have had varying nitrite and nitrate readings. the nitrite has been high for a while but shouldn't the nitrate come up too?
i have a 29g tank

Here are my current readings(have not dosed with ammonia yet today):
Ammonia: .50 to 1.0 ppm
Nitrate: 10ppm
Nitrite: 2 to 5ppm
no Ph reading today, but it has been consistently between 7.8 and 8.2

I guess i can't figure out why i am not cycled yet given the addition of dr. tim's.

i am curious if i may have low kh but no local pet stores have kh tests. should i dose with baking soda even without testing, would it do any harm?

The ammonia i am using is ACE Hardware's Janitorial Ammonia and contains 10% Ammonia Hydroxide.

any advice is appreciated. i have had a lfs order fish and plan to pick them up tomorrow! AHH!!!!!!!

[J-P]

To start I set up a 10g rubbermade bin and dosed to 5ppm ammonia.

the porusness of the plastic may be throwing you off... I never tried cycling a plastic bin before, but typlically if it is not "food grade" it can retain chems that you don't want

[Ditka]

i am not in a plastic bin anymore. that was only for the first week. Are you saying that the bin may have leached chemicals into my water that are still there?

[J-P]

i am not in a plastic bin anymore. that was only for the first week. Are you saying that the bin may have leached chemicals into my water that are still there?

I am no authority but it is possible. Please wait a bit until some of the higher ups can confirm.

[LilGreenPuffer]

5ppm ammonia was probably too much to start off. With this product, you should just add fish right away.

[Ditka]

fiddlesticks...
good to know for the future i suppose.

What can i do to remedy my problems as of now?

[By_a_coo]

Can the LFS keep your fish until your tank is really cycled? I guess you are not far away of it now.

Isn't there any difference between 2-5ppm in your scale chart? NitrItes take some days to decrease to zero.

[Ditka]

actually i am not very close to my local fish store, it is about an hour away. I guess it is a stretch to call that local... I will see what i can do about them holding the fish for me.

I am using the API liquid test kit, the reason that i said 2-5 ppm was it was sort of in between, I would say that the Nitrite reading is closer to 2 ppm.

[RTR]

Re plastic bins: Never ever use any plastic not coded as food-safe for anything concerning your tanks. They may be toxic, they can and do absorb and release chemicals routinely. The fish you save will thank you..

I agree 5 ppm is too high on ammonia. When the process was under development, the 3 ppm figure included a margin of safety already. The higher 5 pm level can suppress the nitrite oxidizing bugs - which extends the cycle time.

Why do you think your KH may be low? You cannot guestimate that. You either test or yoo have no idea. If you are FW cycling, 7.8-8.2 sounds perfectly reasonable to me, but the pH does not matter,it is just an indicator. The measured KH/alkalinity does matter. A pH of 8.0 +/-0.2 does not indicate low KH to me.

HTH

[Ditka]

ok, i am probably just being anxious. first time starting a fish tank...

i read forum's about "stuck cycles" and couldn't help but my lump mine into that category. call it impatience.

i guess i will just wait it out until ammonia and nitrites hit zero.

[bigfatfish]

ok, i am probably just being anxious. first time starting a fish tank...

i read forum's about "stuck cycles" and couldn't help but my lump mine into that category. call it impatience.

i guess i will just wait it out until ammonia and nitrites hit zero.

My fishless cycle took 28 days - so just stick with it!

[By_a_coo]

Ditka, just wait a little more since it is your first time in doing that.

Don't worry, my first fishless cycling almost took 40 days! (I'm not meaning yours will take that too).

[RTR]

"Fishless" cycling was intended to be a 3-week or less process, but that presupposes that everything is done just right. It is fairly easy to "slip" with excesses or too little metabolite - and that not only increases the time span, it can multiply it if the nitrite-eaters are knocked down too far. These bugs are among the slower-growing bacteria. Only doubling approximately once daily can build massive numbers, but it takes time if the inoculation is small or the second set of bugs starves down to tiny numbers. That case is fairly standard "hung" or "stuck" cycle. Most of the time it is the direct result of excessive ammonia levels for too many days. Cycling with fish has the same issues.

HTH