# Day 24 : Still no ammonia!



## [bt] (Mar 3, 2005)

Hello there.

As I have posted before, I am cycling my 35l freshwater tank 'fishless', with some bogwood, a few Crytocoryne Wendtii, about an inch and a half of gravel and a layer of smooth black pebbles over the top.

I've taken reading daily since starting the tank and have so far seen my pH drop nicely to around 6.8-7.2 (due to my rainwater and bogwood efforts) and my KH reduce thanks to the rainwater.
The problem is, I've been waiting for the ammonia to peak - but it hasn't. Not a sausage. After 10 days of nothing I added some brine shrimp - still nothing. Even one of my crypts rotted and I still have nothing.
I've carried out water changes of about 1/3 every 6 or 7 days too, adding the anti-chlorine chemicals.

Today, 24 days after starting the tank, I have very high Nitrate levels!
Have I missed something?!! - I measured my ammonia with the correct test kits and followed the instructions scrupulously, but did I just not get a result?

SO, by my reckoning, in about 10 days or so I should be okay to add fish, as long as my Nitrate levels have dropped sufficiently. Anyone agree? Or is there something majorly wrong with my tank?


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## MyraVan (Jan 19, 2005)

If you aren't seeing any ammonia levels in your tank, you are not building up those nitrifying bacteria, and so you are not cycling the tank. Your tank will only start cycling when you add a serious, sustained source of ammonia. I don't think a few brine shrimp is enough. 

You might be thinking that you don't see any ammonia readings because your tank is already cycled, that all the ammonia is being converted to nitrite and then nitrate. I don't think this is very likely, because you have been putting in so little stuff to produce ammonia, and if you had some good bacteria growth at some point, I think they would have died off by now.

The high nitrate levels might also indicate that your tank is cycled, but you said in a previous post that your rainwater has high nitrate levels, so I'm not sure this is a reliable guide.



> SO, by my reckoning, in about 10 days or so I should be okay to add fish, as long as my Nitrate levels have dropped sufficiently. Anyone agree? Or is there something majorly wrong with my tank?


There's absolutely nothing wrong with your tank, it's just that (as far as I can tell) it's not cycling, because you haven't put enough ammonia in. If you continue on with what you're doing, and add those fish after 10 days, your tank will go through its cycle then. If you're serious about this fishless cycle thing, go out and buy some ammonia, and do the fishless cycle properly, as described here:
http://www.tropicalfishcentre.co.uk/Fishlesscycle.htm

Depending on how tough the fish you're planning on putting in are, you could skip the fishless cycling thing by adding the fish now, along with lots of floating plants (hownwort, water sprite, or duckweed) to absorb excess ammonia while the bacteria are growing. This won't work for really sensitive fish though (like neon tetras).


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## [bt] (Mar 3, 2005)

Right. Next stop, ammonia shop.

Thanks MyraVan. Clear advice.

Maybe my tank will have to go another 36 days before it's cycled!!


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