CYCLE SOS

[EX7EY]

Getting a bit tense with cycle now and i'm being told different things so would really appreciate some help!
Today is day 22, I've been following the guide on here, to the letter. The tank has had dose two last week and I've been testing every other day as per the guide. I tested last night and ammonia was around 0.25 with nitrites coming in around 4.
Now, based on the guide I shouldn't test again until friday, and then again on Sunday, and I'm hoping for back to back 0 ammonia reads from those tests so I can start giving the snack dose and wait for the cycle to complete.
My question is, I think that ammonia will probably hit 0 ppm today, but Im potentially not going to be adding anymore until Sunday (assuming Friday & sunday tests show 0 ppm) and Im wondering if this will be detrimental to the bacteria I am building up in the tank??
People on another site are telling me to dose ammonia daily and Im starting to get confused and anxious as my tank is currently a breeding haven for snails and it's getting out of control!
Please advise - thanks!

 

[Colin_T]

once you have a nitrite reading and the ammonia hits 0, add a lower dose of ammonia every day or two just to keep some ammonia in the water for the bacteria. Not sure what they recommend here but add enough ammonia to get the level to about 0.25 - 0.5ppm. You just need a little bit of ammonia to keep feeding the first lot of beneficial bacteria. It's a bit like feeding the fish each day to produce ammonia.

Then once the nitrite levels drop to 0, stop adding ammonia, do a 75-90% water change to dilute nitrates, leave the tank for 24hours then add fish.

--------------------------
When you do go to buy your fish, observe the fish in the tanks and look for any unusual signs or behaviour. If any fish are rubbing against objects in the tank, sitting under the surface gasping, or just breathing heavily in general, avoid all the fish in that tank.
If any fish have clamped fins, their tail is drooping, or have white or grey patches/ film, or white spots on their bodies or fins, do not buy any fish from that tank.
If there are any dead fish in the tank, do not buy any fish from that tank.

If in doubt, keep it out of your tank.

 

[Essjay]

Please ignore the other sites and don't add ammonia every day, just follow TwoTankAmin's method to the letter. The older way of fishless cycling required adding ammonia every time it dropped to zero but this made so much nitrite it stalled the cycle. The method on here was written so that, if followed, nitrite can never get high enough to stall the cycle. The bacteria can do without food for several days without harm.


Read Post #8 here http://www.fishforums.net/threads/clarification-on-the-fishless-cycle.420045/

 

[EX7EY]

Thanks for your replies.

So, I've just tested again and I'm getting what looks like 0.25 ammonia but It could be closer to 0.

0 nitrites

20 nitrates

According to the guide on here I should wait now until Sunday and test again, if I get 0 ammonia and 0 nitrites I then snack dose ammonia.

Am I correct in saying this is what my next step should be?

Thanks again

 

[Colin_T]

If your ammonia went up and came down to 0, and the nitrite went up to 4 and came back down to 0, and you have a nitrate reading, then it sounds like the filters have cycled.

Do a 75% water change, wait 24 hours and get some fish

 

[EX7EY]

So far my tank has had two full doses of ammonia but it looks cycled to me now. I mean there's no ammonia to covert to nitrite and not nitrate to convert to nitrate, so essentially nothing is happening right now.

But the guide suggests snack dosing on Sunday??

I'm tempted to dose ammonia back to 3ppm and test again in 24 hours.

Good idea?

 

[Essjay]

Where are you exactly in TwoTankAmin's method? Which step number in the method as summarised below?

1) Added 3 ppm ammonia to start the cycle.
2 )Test every third day until ammonia is below 0.75 ppm and nitrite over 2 ppm.
3) Add another 3 ppm dose of ammonia and start testing every second day.
4) When you've had zero ammonia and zero ammonia again two days later, you then add a 1 ppm dose of ammonia. The nitrite reading does not matter at this stage.
Continue testing every second day
5) Eventually you will reach a day where ammonia is less than 0.25 ppm and nitrite is less than 1 ppm. When you reach this stage, add a 3 ppm dose of ammonia. Now test every 24 hours.
6) If both ammonia and nitrite are zero , the tank is cycled But....
7) if ammonia and/or nitrite are not zero, continue testing every 24 hours until ammonia is below 0.25 ppm and nitrite is below 1.0 ppm, then add a 3 ppm dose of ammonia and continue testing every 24 hours.
8) Repeat #7 until you have 2 zeros 24 hours after adding a 3 ppm dose of ammonia.

 

[EX7EY]

I'm at stage 4. I'm waiting to dose the 1/3 ammonia. Today is the first day I've had a 0 / 0.25 reading off ammonia, so I'm waiting for my second day of that until I dose.....BUT nitrite is now reading 0 as well. Are you saying the nitrite reading at this stage is irrelevant and I should wait until I test again on Sunday before I dose anymore ammonia, assuming that it reads 0 again?

Cheers

 

[Essjay]

Hmmm, at this stage my cycle was over 5 ppm nitrite - that is, the colour on the nitrite tester was the highest on the chart so 5 or somewhere above 5. That's why you add just 1 ppm ammonia so as not to make a lot more nitrite.

Did you use any mature media, or do you have any live plants in the tank? Mature media can speed things up so that the cycle doesn't follow the same pattern as a cycle without mature media. Plants take up ammonia as fertiliser and they do not make nitrite like the ammonia eating bacteria so plants mean the cycle doesn't follow its usual path.

If you are using API testers, it is a known quirk of the nitrite tester that a very high level of nitrite can give a colour similar to the zero colour. Just to eliminate this possibility, you could try filling the tube to a fifth with tank water then adding tap water to the mark and testing that. If you still get zero, good. If it was a false zero before, you should now get a colour somewhere on the chart - though you can't get an accurate reading form this very inaccurate dilution.

If this test shows zero nitrite still, I think I'd be tempted to add a 3 ppm dose of ammonia and test after 24 hours just to see what happens. Especially if you do have mature media or live plants.

 

[EX7EY]

Thanks for that.

I do have live plants but the filter was brand new no mature media.

I did the nitrite test again this time with the tap water and again it returned a 0 reading.

I don't really understand the biology of the cycle fully but in my small mind, if there is no ammonia present and no nitrite then I don't see any benefits in waiting another 48 hours before testing again and adding the 'snack dose'.

I think I'll dose ammonia to 3 ppm and test again tomorrow

 

[seangee]

Do you have a lot of plants? Or fast growing plants? If so these will be doing some (or even most) of the work of the filter. We tend to get hung up about the state of the filter (by which I mean the box filled with media that we call a filter). The important thing is to ensure that the system as a whole is capable of removing the waste created by the bio load. If you have enough plants to remove the ammonia your filter technically is probably not cycled, but you should be good to add fish. So if you can add 3ppm of ammonia and have zero readings within 24 hours you should be good to go (as long as you are confident about the readings).

 

[EX7EY]

Well, disappointed.

After dosing to 3ppm ammonia, 36 hours later my readings are around 1.5 ammonia and 0.75 nitrite. Feel a bit lost in the middle of this cycle now!

 

[EX7EY]

Getting really annoyed now.

Ammonia dropped to about 0.5 again 48 hours ago, so I dosed ammonia back to 3ppm in the tank. Tested daily and ammonia has slowly dropped to around 1ppm after 48 hours. Nitrite reading is just constantly zero and I just don't get it.

Getting sick of this now, fish may end up in the tank this weekend, cycled or not!

 

[Colin_T]

3ppm of ammonia is quite high so the fact the filters are reducing it to low level (0.5) in 48 hours means something is working in the filter department.

Are you getting a nitrate reading?
If you are not getting a nitrite reading, but you are getting a nitrate reading in addition to the ammonia levels dropping, then it sounds like the filters have established.

 

[EX7EY]

3ppm of ammonia is quite high so the fact the filters are reducing it to low level (0.5) in 48 hours means something is working in the filter department.

Are you getting a nitrate reading?
If you are not getting a nitrite reading, but you are getting a nitrate reading in addition to the ammonia levels dropping, then it sounds like the filters have established.

Hi, thanks for your input

Yes nitrate reading is sky high. I tested yesterday and ammonia was around 2ppm with a 0.5 nitrite reading.

The tank is definitely processing the ammonia, just not as fast as is suggested in the guide located on this forum.