I started a fishless tank cycle on my 40 gal about 4.5 weeks ago and the nitrite and nitrates have been stuck at:

nI: over 10ppm.
nA: 40ppm

could this mean that there is trouble colonizing the 2nd group of benificial bac? if so could it help to put some filter media from my established tank into this new tank to help speed up the process? thank you for any suggestions!

Putting in used filter media from an established tank speeds the process very well. I did a fishless cycle using used filters and feeding the tank pure ammonia. It was cycled in 9 days.

What is your pH and KH? Nitrifying bacterias like slightly alkaline water and they consume carbonate in the nitrifying process. You also need good aeration and warmish water.

Captk, Welcome home.. how was your holidays? Hope you have a great trip. My filter is still not up to pace as I have added some new media to it. I still have trouble with ammonia at about 1ppm. I have removed 2 gf from the main tank to reduce ammonia buildup. I now have 6 medium size gf and hopefully the ammonia level can come down.

Thanks, ranchu_man, the holidays was great. We were lucky with the weather and the kids had a lot of fun.

Cool! The fishes survived ok without ya!?

Ok so I started cycling the tank in December!!! it is now Feburary... and the nitrites and nitrates have not changed!!!? i put old filter media in there a week ago... still no change. There is still a small amount of tracable amonia, the temp is about 76F and I cant figure out what else to do. This evening i did a 50 percent water change to lower the levels...i am getting impatient. And the nitrates and nitrites are still the same! how could this be??? need help... please any advice is greatly appreciated! people are wondering why i am running an empty aquarium for 2 months!!!

I've never done fishless cycling but when I cycled with the fish in the tank - my cycle took a bit over 10weeks to cycle-the nitrite part was the worst & it took FOREVER! (I couldn't get it below 2.0 no matter what I did)

Hopefully someone with ecperience will come along soon!

Good Luck!!

Jenn

wow! it is insane how long it takes to cycle a tank sometimes. How long should I wait until I do another water change...how much should i do? or should i even do another water change? also... should i add more ammonia? should i just go to the store and get a feeder fish for cycling...then feed the poor guy to the oscars when im done? so confused!

Hi Cassandra,

I think we need a recap. What is your actual ammonia, nitrIte, nitrAte and pH readings. What about KH. How often do you add ammonia and what happens to the readings after you added the ammonia?