Andy M Fishless Cycle

I'm not sure. I've read of people who have stalled cycles where the pH has not dropped, like you, and water changes seem to be the answer - but whether these stalled cycles are a one-off or repeats I don't know. But if it does happen again, you know what to do next time.

I suppose it could have been the nitrite level, and that's now lower. Perhaps 

Is that a definite 0.25 or the colour that could well be zero in disguise?

You were having problems deciding if your ammonia was 0.25 or zero then:

Day 4

Tried my tank water against some bottled water and got same colour for both so must be a zero for ammonia

I would assume it's now zero and add some ammonia.

Unfortunately, it does change colour over time. And certainly with nitrite, the longer you leave it before washing, the more deposit there is left on the glass. I discovered if I washed up straight away, the tube came clean with just water. On the occassions I left it maybe a couple of hours before washing up, when I dried the nitrite tube after washing, there was blue on the paper hanky. The same may happen with ammonia, yellow being harder to see than blue.

Day 11

Ammonia at 1 ppm

Nitrite 5?

Did you add ammonia yesterday, and this is the 24 hour reading? If yes, did you add ammonia to give 1ppm or more?

I did yes, only been doing 24 hour readings, just put my usual 0.5 ml in yesterday

I could do but if i'm constantly doing water changes I may as well do a fish in cycle hadn't I?

Not bothered testing with it being very hard water

If your ammonia has dropped, good. Especially as it's only 12-ish hours since you added the last dose. Stick to the usual dose of ammonia until your nitrite has dropped. If you increase the amount you add now, you'll just get a much higher level of nitrite. This is why the current thinking is to add a low dose until the nitrite eaters start to grow, then increase it when there are enough nitrite eaters to cope with the lower dose.
If you have some Nutrafin Cycle, you may as well use it, it won't do any harm. It is unlikley to help with the nitrite eaters but it may help with the ammonia eaters. It is difficult to make these bottled bacteria with nitrite eaters that are still viable when it reaches your tank. Ammonia eaters are more likely to survive in the bottle.
As for a water change, I'd do as big as you can manage. But don't add any ammonia or Cycle till your usual time. Nutrafin Cycle - some of these products contain ammonia but I don't know if this is one of them. (They work by getting you to do a fishless cycle without realising that's what you are doing). It might be worth adding a dose, then testing for ammonia to check before adding any from your ammonia bottle.

If you have a combi boiler, using hot tap water is the easiest way to get the water warm. It's when you have a header tank in the attic feeding water to a hot water cyclinder that there is the potential for problems. It's not copper getting in the water as most people think, it's whatever is lurking in the header tank. Dead rats etc are not unknown. That's why I heat water in a kettle for my water changes - we've had several wasps' nests in the attic and the header tank usually has dead wasps in afterwards, possibly wasps covered with insecticide. That was the main downside to all the water changes I did during my cycle. It took 1.5 litres boiling water (one kettleful) plus 3.5 litres icy cold tapwater in a bucket to get a temp of 30^o. As I was doing 95% water changes, that was 5 kettles' worth of boiling water to make 25 litres.

Sorry, not really awake till at least 10 o'clock. Forgot you weren't adding ammonia yesterday

Wait until this evening and see what your ammonia is. Add the Cycle then.



I've had fish for something like 17 years. I've learned things bit by bit over those years, first from library books then the internet. You are having the whole lot thrown at you in one big load. It's a lot to take in all at once.