# Am I overdoing ammonia on my fishless cycle?



## denmck (Mar 22, 2013)

Currently fishless cycling and here's what's been happening:

Day 1 - Following instructions from an article I read, dosed ammonia to measure 4 ppm (parameters before dosing were amm. 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 5 ppm)
Day 2 - 5 nothing changed but when visiting my LFS he said the ammonia was way too high and to do a water change to get it down to 2 ppm, so I did that.
Day 6 - 8 ammonia reading 2 ppm each day
Day 9 - ammonia dropped to 1 ppm 
Day 10 - ammonia read .50 ppm
Day 11 - ammonia 0, Nitrites 5.0 ppm, so I dosed tank back up to ammonia 2 ppm
Day 12 - ammonia 0, dosed tank back to 2 ppm in the morning, checked about 12 hours later and reading was .25 ppm
Day 13 - ammonia 0, dosed back up to 2 ppm, then that night checked again and ammonia was 0 again, so I dosed to 2 ppm again
Day 14 - ammonia 0, Nitrite still 5.0 ppm, so I dosed to 2 ppm, that night (about 12 hrs. later read 0 again so I dosed back up)
Day 15 - 18 I keep dosing ammonia twice a day because it's always 0 each morning and 0 when I get home from work, Nitrites remain at 5.0 or maybe higher (very dark purple), and Nitrates are staying at 5 ppm

Today after dosing ammonia in the morning I checked again about 7 hours later and they are back to 0. Should I continue making sure that there is at least 2 ppm of ammonia in there each day or am I doing something wrong? I'm also wondering how long it's going to take to see the Nitrites start converting to Nitrates?

Thanks in advance for your input!


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## k7gixxerguy (Jan 12, 2012)

You don't want to continue doseing multiple times in 24 hours. You will drive nitrites too high and likely stall your cycle out. The ammonia nitrifying bacteria come on a little bit quicker then the nitrite bacteria. So for example, if from start to zero ammonia the first time was say 8 days, from first reading of nitrites to them converting to nitrates may take 11-14 days. All of this tends to happen quicker if you use seeding material from an existing filter or a product such as Dr Tim's One and Only.


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## Darkrose (Feb 4, 2013)

Mine seemed to be taking forever, and I used some Special Blend (nitrifying bacteria) and it seemed to speed things up a LOT. Was going on two weeks with almost no change, and the cycle seems to be pretty much finished in a week. Due to give it a half dose tomorrow (to around 1ppm) and check it Tuesday to confirm, and should be good.

Ny nitrites were very dark red/purple for 2 or 3 days, then went to almost 0 overnight. My patience was very strained.

I was also doing a small (around 10g) water change every other day once ammonia was being converted, to help with the nitrites. Mine is a 75g tank.


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## denmck (Mar 22, 2013)

So I am overdoing it trying to "feed" the tank every time I get a reading of 0 ammonia (2 times a day). However, should I still dose it at least once a day if every morning I have a 0 reading or give it some kind of rest while the bacteria that need to consume the nitrite are trying to grow? I was worried about starving off the bacteria converting the ammonia.


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## zimmy (Aug 13, 2010)

denmck said:


> I was worried about starving off the bacteria converting the ammonia.


It would take several days, if not a week or more, before the nitrifying bacteria are starved. I wouldn't dose more than once every 2-3 days. There's nothing to be gained by dosing more often and you risk stalling your cycle by driving your nitrites too high.

There is a school of thought that suggests that if your nitrites are over 5 ppm you should do some small water changes (no more than 20%) to get the reading down. I usually aim to keep them between 2-3 ppm but you have to be careful to not overdo the waterchanges also because the tank is fragile at this point.

When I've cycled tanks in the past I stop testing the ammonia (or test a lot less frequently) once I get a 0 reading. It's the nitrites that take a long time and they become the focus during the fishless cycle.


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## b3w4r3 (Dec 14, 2012)

The fishless cycling article here says to dose ammonia every 2 to 3 days...It also says not to get hung up on how quickly, or slowly ammonia is converted at this point, as long as it is being converted in 24 hours. Best practice IMO is to dose ammonia, wait 24 hours, test ammonia, if test results are 0 do a 30% water change, then dose ammonia the following day. This will help keep nitrite in check, and lower the final nitrate reading. The bacteria won't starve in this amount of time, and you are just loading nitrite too high which can slow that part of the cycle.

More about water changes, there is no need to fear changing too much water. It won't have any negative effect on the cycle. It's more important to keep nitrite from rising off the scale. I did as stated above with 30% water changes once nitrite was being produced, it took about 16 days for ammonia to hit 0 then another 14 days for nitrite to hit 0. End result was 20ppm nitrate.


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## denmck (Mar 22, 2013)

Well it sounds like water changes need to happen and I need to put the bottle of ammonia away for a couple of days. Thanks for the feedback. I'll try to get things back on track!


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## B.Roberson (Nov 6, 2011)

all good advice. you pm'd me denmck. my cycle took 3 weeks to actually get going. so dont fret yet. im just now converting amm in 24 hrs. 14th will be a month. my 90/ 
and btw. my 1st dose amm. mar 14. 2nd i think the 20th. no drop in amm till a couple days ago. now kicking in high gear. i dosed amm this morm and just for kicks tested a bit ago and all almot converted. But i'm waiting till tomorrow night to check,wc and redose ..
and was told to WAIT till 0 amm AND 0 nitrite,no matter how long. then dose,wait 24 and test.


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## denmck (Mar 22, 2013)

I definitely understand the waiting until amm and nitrite hit 0, then getting the nitrate down to reasonable levels. Cycling my marine tanks seemed easier than this because of my use of "live" rock and "live" sand during the cycling. All I ever did was monitor my parameters, didn't have to dose anything, so this is throwing me off my game a little. :?

Patience and following the good advice here I know will work  .

Thanks everyone!


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## denmck (Mar 22, 2013)

Eureka! As of this morning (after doing about 3 water changes over this past week) my nitrites are ZERO! I actually saw them starting to go down Monday. My nitrates are between 10 and 20 ppm and my ammonia was zero as well. Because I was actually overdosing my tank with ammonia for a few days, I stopped dosing it at all for about 5 days and did water changes every other day. I dosed ammonia 4/13 and it was zero by the next morning. I didn't dose again until this morning after I took all of my readings. I'll check it tonight and tomorrow morning to see how fast it, and the nitrites that should result, are converting. So that's about 28 days from when I first started the fishless cycling for the nitrites to start converting. I have a feeling if I hadn't kept dosing the tank with ammonia as often as I did when they first started converting, it might have cycled faster. I don't know if that would have happened for sure, but I feel like I've definitely learned a lesson here.

Thanks for everyone's help!


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## Frank H (Mar 11, 2013)

Thanks for documenting. These kind of threads help me go through my cycle with confidence. Again, thanks!


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## denmck (Mar 22, 2013)

Today's update:

Ammonia .25
Nitrite .25
Nitrates 40 ppm

Yesterday I dosed my tank with ammonia to equal a little less than 2 ppm. Earlier in the cycling process that amount was being converted to zero in less than a day. So it appears things have slowed down a bit? The nitrite is definitely converting as my nitrates are going up as well. When I get home from work I'll check everything again and do a water change. Is it normal for the ammonia conversion to slow down when your getting towards the end of the cycle? I'm wondering if that is also the result of my overdosing early on and backing off for several days.


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## denmck (Mar 22, 2013)

Okay, in rereading articles on fishless cycling I am over analyzing! That's typically what I do about everything, LOL, but there was no need to check my readings this morning, I could have easily waited until this evening. Now that I checked them again amm, and nitrite are both zero and my nitrates are 40 - 80 ppm as expected. I'm going to do a 30% water change and see how that affects the nitrates. I think I can consider myself basically done with the cycling, just need to do the water changes to get the nitrates down.


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## B.Roberson (Nov 6, 2011)

yep. you are over analyzing . but your good. im on day 36 and still cant convert nitrite in 24 hours. amm yes, but nitrite no. so your right on track. 
keep on keeping on... its all good


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## denmck (Mar 22, 2013)

As of this morning my parameters are Amm zero, Nitrites zero, Nitrates 10 ppm so today I'm gonna stock my tank! Thanks for everyone's help with keeping me on track.


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