Cycling is so frustrating!!!!!!!

Mytank is on week 4, and for two weeks all readings have been just above 0. I don't know why it's just "sitting" i was hoping the cycling would be done this week. And as soon as it seemed like Diatoms was going away, i'm getting more of it again, now the rocks that have white areas on them looks like its starting to get covered in diatoms, and now i'm starting to see it in the sand. It's so frustrating. And to top it off, i haven't really seen any hithhikers or worms, no copepods have popped up yet. The only thing that seems to be going on with the tank is coralline, diatoms, and some new stuff popping out of the rocks but thats it.

I HATE CYCLING!

lol and that's me letting out my frustration right now

 

Both my cycles took less than 2 weeks. Should add a fish like a damsel, speed the process along.

 

i would like to add fish, but don't want to deal with a nasty damsel. So that's why i threw in raw shrimp, hasn't done much

 

Maybe get your water checked by an LFS? They normally test water for free. Then if your tests and their tests compare your cycling is still going. However, one of our tests (I think it was our nitrite) test always showed us that our nitrites were just over zero. Well, we saw our ammonia rise and fall, the nitrites fall to right above zero, and then our nitrates climbed to 10 or 20 and then fell off to zero after the hair algae bloom of death. Since our ammonia was zero and our nitrates were zero, naturally that meant our test kit was AWOL and our nitrites were zero. We waited for our nitrites to fall for another week (should have been a two week cycle) before we figured it. Bought another test kit for all three and it was zero across the board. Still is zero to this day.

 

How often are you testing the water? If the rock was pre-cured you might get a cycle like mine that was very small and fast. My nitrites "spiked" to .5 one day around 2-3 weeks in and after that they were gone . . . also my ammonia never went higher than .5.

~Will.

 

i have to go to the lfs for more water so i'll bring in a water sample then. and i usually test nitrate, but i tested ammonia today and that was also right above 0. I would love to see some 0's right now

 

i test like once every three to four days, or whevenver i'm bored and feel like teting. The rock was supposed to be pre-cured twice, once in fiji, and once at the old lfs *don't go there any more*. And up until last week all of my readings were sky high, so i thought precured rock was supposed to help the cyclie and make it faster, makes me question if this rock was really pre-curred

 

When my cycle was nearing the end I did a 50% water change and the next day I tested and everything was zero. The beneficial bacteria is in your rocks, not your water so you will not lose your bio filter. I am wondering if maybe you have a dead spot in your water that has ammonia and nitrite in it that is slowly leaching into your flow areas. I am no expert and have no idea if this is even possible, but in theory it sounds reasonable to me.

 

i know i still have to get a few more things for the tank before it's fish ready, and one of the things is a mod for the maxijet to create more flow, maybe when i get that, it will help. I also don't have the water to do a 50% w.c. right now, but this weekend i plan to buy 15 gallons of water, so maybe i'll actually buy 20 gallons, 15 for w.c. and 5 for top offs

 

Make sure you are topping off with RO/DI water and not saltwater. I can feel your pain. The waiting can be really hard but patience is a VERY important part of reef keeping.