Cycle question

[TheAviator]

I'm about 4 weeks in on a fishless cycle. I used dr Tim's and dosed ammonia using their schedule. However, I never added any ammonia after the first dose because my nitrites are still way too high (above 5ppm). Its been like this now for about 2 weeks of the month long cycle. Just today I started seeing cloudy water which is what I assume is an algae bloom. How should I proceed from this point? Wait it out and hope the nitrites go down? Or do a water change to lower the nitrites? I am showing some nitrates so I think the process is working. And my ammonia has been zero for about 2 weeks. Just seems to have stalled here. PH is a little low at around 7.8. Water temp is 77 degrees. What's the best plan moving forward? My intuition tells me just to leave it and see what happens. But I thought I'd ask the experts.

 

[Anemone]

You should continue to add Ammonia, otherwise, the bacteria that do the Ammonia==>Nitrite thing will die off. As far as Nitrite, since you don't have any livestock, I'd wait it out - doing a water change (and reducing the Nitrite) would only prolong the time needed to establish a good Nitrite-consuming bacterial population.

You don't mention what you have in the tank as growth surfaces for your bacterial filter. Cloudy water often means a bacterial bloom that doesn't have enough appropriate surface area to grow on, rather than an aglae bloom.

Good luck, and in this hobby, patience isn't a virtue, it's a requirement!

Kevin

 

[TheAviator]

Thank you for your advice. I currently have 50lbs of dry rock and about an inch and a half of dry sand. This is all for a 80 gallon tank. I'll keep dosing ammonia and see what happens!