Thanks Miss Wiggle, its definatly moving although I just test my water hardness for the first time and its rather hard for the fish I want, Cardinals, other Tetra's, Dwarf Cichlids so I need to figure out a way to lower the hardness. Anyway here is todays results:

Day 17 (Tuesday 29th April)

Tested Ammonia at 8.20am
Ammonia: Between 1.00ppm
NitrIte: 1.00ppm
PH: 7.2

Tested Ammonia at 6.30pm
Ammonia: 0.00ppm
NitrIte: 0.50ppm
PH: 7.2

I have raised Ammonia back to 2.00ppm and it looks like ammonia is processing in around 24 hours now!

I did do a 10% or so water change also as the Algea in the tank was everywhere so I wiped it all off where possible and sucked it up!

Sounds good Stormy!

It seems to be going ok. Tomorrow at 8.20 am will show if its processing in 12 hours or so.

Im just waiting for the nitrIte spike. I had a nitrIte spike right at the start where it was off the chart but it has not spike recently and isnt dropping to zero. Is this the norm? I'm hoping to see some movement by the weekend so I can start planning what fish to stock in earnest

Day 18 (Wednesday 30th April)

Tested Ammonia at 8.20am
Ammonia: Between 0.50ppm
NitrIte: 1.00ppm
PH: 7.2

Tested Ammonia at 6.45pm
Ammonia: 0.00ppm
NitrIte: 0.20ppm
PH: 7.2

I have raised Ammonia back to 2.00ppm and it looks like ammonia is processing in under 24 hours now! Still no NitrIte spike though! Should I be raising ammonia to 4ppm? Any advice ladies and gents?

This post has been edited by stormy78: Apr 30 2008, 07:46 PM

The fact that your A-bacs are processing ammonia in under 24hours by Day 18 is good. Now comes the greater patience period. Expect the Nitrite to spike up to 5.0+. Expect it to keep showing you that spike for a long time, most often a longer time than it took to get the ammonia to drop. Now that ammonia is dropping it is definately not the time to raise ammonia back to 4ppm. Soon nitrites will spike and you will be dealing with too much of them. Just don't miss a day of adding back to the 2ppm you are doing. Keep testing every day and recording your log records clearly. Other than that big spike, don't worry about little ups and downs in nitrites, the measurements will wander around, it doesn't mean anything until the big spiking.

~~waterdrop~~

This post has been edited by waterdrop: Apr 30 2008, 09:16 PM

Cheers waterdrop. Fingers crossed tomorrow ay 8.20am will see a 0ppm reading for Ammonia which means it processed in 12 hours!

Day 19 (Thursday 1st May)

Tested Ammonia at 8.20am
Ammonia: Between 0.25ppm
NitrIte: 0.50ppm
PH: 7.2

Tested Ammonia at 6.30pm
Ammonia: 0.00ppm
NitrIte: 0.00ppm
PH: 7.2

I have raised Ammonia back to inbetween 2.00ppm and 4.00ppm it looks like I added a bit too much ammonia.

Don't worry about it. Sounds like ammonia still trying to drop faster and faster and you haven't see the nitrite spike yet, so being higher than 2ppm shouldn't matter much (overshooting 4ppm could get bad of course but you didn't do that.

I was on the phone, lost count of how many squirts from my small dropper and quickly tested the water. It only seem marginally darker than 2ppm

Nothing to worry about, Stormy. It won't have any negative effect.

Your cycle is coming along just fine. Be patient, my friend!

Just wanted to say Stormy to take heart...your nitrite spike should be coming soon! You're only a few days behind me in your cycling (Your day 19 is my day 24) and I got my nitrite spike around day 21. Of course that doesnt mean yours will be the exact same but it should be coming! And heck your processing ammonia quicker than I am :::cheeky grin:::

Thanks for the encouragement LionessN3cubs! One of the things I have done that I have not posted on here is add more filter media! I'm using the Juwel filter that came with the tank and this comes with the blue bio media, a white pad to catch the larger debris and a carbon block. On Monday I rinsed the carbon media out in old tank water and soaked the new piece of blue bio media in the water with it. I then added this piece of media along with another piece of blue media back into the filter. I'm guessing this may have helped as it give the bacteria more of an area to populate! I certainly started to notice the Ammonia dropping faster within a few days of adding the new media.

Day 20 (Friday 2nd May)

Tested Ammonia at 8.20am
Ammonia: Between 1.00ppm
NitrIte: 1.00ppm
PH: 7.2

Tested Ammonia at 6.30pm
Ammonia: 0.00ppm
NitrIte: 0.25ppm
PH: 7.2

I have raised Ammonia back to 2.00ppm

This post has been edited by stormy78: May 3 2008, 09:38 PM

Day 21 (Saturday 3rd May)

Tested Ammonia at 9.00am
Ammonia: Between 0.00ppm
NitrIte: 1.00ppm
PH: 7.2

I raised Ammonia back to 2.00ppm

Tested Ammonia at 5.00pm
Ammonia: 1.00ppm
NitrIte: 2.00ppm
PH: 7.2

Tested Ammonia at 10.00pm
Ammonia: 0.25ppm
NitrIte: 2.00ppm
PH: 7.2

I have raised Ammonia back to 2.00ppm

Day 22 (Sunday 4th May)

Tested Ammonia at 10.00am
Ammonia: Between 0.25ppm
NitrIte: 1.00ppm
PH: 7.2

Tested Ammonia at 12.00pm
Ammonia: 0.00ppm
NitrIte: 1.00ppm
PH: 7.2

I raised Ammonia back to between 2.00 and 4.00 ppm

Tested Ammonia at 10.30pm
Ammonia: 1.00ppm
NitrIte: 2.00ppm
PH: 7.2

This post has been edited by stormy78: May 4 2008, 09:50 PM

Looking good Stormy.

It looks like you're almost there with the A-Bacs, and the fact that nitrite isn't rising much but lots of ammonia is being processed indicates that your N-Bacs must be taking hold too.

Stick at it, its going well.

BTT

Gotta like how his pH holds, don't you BTT?

The joys of hard English water, Waterdrop!

Its funny that you mention that because I have done this mornings tests and the PH has dropped to 6.8!!! The A-bacs seem to be taking there time now in processing the ammonia, going from 12/14 hours to 24 hours and I 'think' my nitrIte has spiked. The API tests show a deep purple after 5 mins. I have rechecked the tap water here and it is now showing as 7.5. It looks like something organic was rotting in the pipes to lower th PH early on?!?! The water around here is fairly hard and has a higer PH in general.