Doggiebag's First Fishless Cycle - Juwel Rekord 600

[waterdrop]

Is there any way for the water to bypass the sponges? Do they fit tightly?

 

[doggiebag]

yes, they are all pushed together as tight as the basket will allow, there may be a small gap between the two large sponges of maybe 5mm, they are stacked up end to end instead of stacked on top of each other like on the bigger juwel tanks.

Tested this one tonight at 13.5 hours it was between 0.25 and 0.50, I would say about 0.35-0.40......

forgot to answer your other query, yes its the API liquid kit I use.

 

[OldMan47]

If you are getting some bypass flow in that 5mm, you might stuff a bit of filter floss into the space so that the water must go through something,even if its just the floss, to get back into the tank.

 

[doggiebag]

thanks for all this help guys........

okay, the way it was set up before was, water in.....goes through filter floss, then coarse sponge, then gap, then fine sponge, then up past heater and through pump.....
the filter floss has been in since day 1, it is now day 70 and it looked pretty brown and was due to be changed. Was scared to do it before in case my cycle slowed, now I don't care, nothing to lose as its stuck . So I added new floss, but between the sponges, filling the gap. The sponges are so clean, makes me wonder if any bacteria are even in there or if it was all in the floss at the start, Im sure there are some though lol....

okay, so now it goes like this......water in, goes through coarse sponge, then floss (no gap now), then fine sponge then up past heater and through pump.......

each piece of sponge is around 4" x 4" x 2"...........here is a link to the filter system on juwel, mine is the bottom picture, where the sponges are on their sides, you can see the gap between the sponges in that too, but mine is now filled with floss and no floss at top........[URL="http/www.juwel-aquarium.de/en/filter_full.htm"]http/www.juwel-aquarium.de/en/filter_full.htm[/URL] btw.....I have never used the nitrate removing sponge, I swapped it for the normal juwel coarse sponge instead

I am expecting a spike in stats now, but I had nothing to lose, so am prepared to go back a bit in order to establish a better filter bacteria colony.
still considering moving fish across with their old sponge in new filter, but will wait to see what happens first,

 

[waterdrop]

ok, sounding better...

~~waterdrop~~

 

[doggiebag]

just did the 12 hour test, the ammonia is at 0 still so I haven't knocked the bacteria too much, thankfully. The nitrate was at 1.0, so that has risen a teeny bit, but Im not worried. I have been wanting to move the floss in the filter for a while and change the order, so you guys just pushed me to do something that was nagging at me anyway, so Im glad I did it, even if it takes a week to get back to where I was. Thankfully it was not as bad as I was expecting at 12 hours, I thought the ammonia may spike but ti seems very stable so that at least is something positive lol

 

[doggiebag]

still reading 1.0 nitrite at 12 hours today................................

 

[doggiebag]

Day 68: 16/10/09:
AM TEST: ammonia 0, nitrite 0 added 4 ppm ammonia
PM TEST: ammonia 0, nitrite 0.40 (at 13.5 hours, not 12)

Day 69: 17/10/09:
AM TEST: ammonia 0, nitrite 0 added 4 ppm ammonia
PM TEST: ammonia 0, nitrite 1.0

Day 70: 18/10/09: removed old filter floss and stuffed new floss in gap between sponges.
AM TEST: ammonia 0, nitrite 0 added 4 ppm ammonia
PM TEST: ammonia 0, nitrite 1.0

Day 71: 19/10/09:
AM TEST: ammonia 0, nitrite 0 added 4 ppm ammonia
PM TEST: ammonia 0, nitrite 1.0

Day 72: 20/10/09:
AM TEST: ammonia 0, nitrite 0 added 4 ppm ammonia
PM TEST: ammonia 0, nitrite 0.50-0.75

tested tonight and its back to 1.0 again, plus the other tank has risen a teeny bit too. I want to scream, this fishless cycling lark is driving me mad, it is taking sooooooooooooooooooooo long, this tank shows no sign of coming to an end.

 

[doggiebag]

getting desperate so dumped in the last teeny 12ml of safestart I had lying around, dumped it directly on filter in the teeniest glimmer of desperate hope it may help the nitrite bas grow lol, see, its sending me mad now lol

 

[doggiebag]

I wonder..............would I be able to add my wcmm (8) to the 63 litre and then add all the sponge from their current filter? (this filter has been going for 6 months and it rock solid) if I stuffed it is the gap, or placed on the top of the filter then surely it would help the new filter over the blip as I would be adding all the sponge from a filter that can cope with the 8 fish?? I don't reckon 8 minnows produce 4-5ppm of ammonia a day anyway?

 

[waterdrop]

Moving over very mature media will usually do the job, although with any mature media move its always important to understand that nothing is guaranteed, as members have reported that sometimes the transfer seems to cause colonies "not to take" or to "pause" for a number of days, various kinds of disturbances. It should never be considered a sure thing I don't think, although usually it will go well.

If your results are telling you you're near the end of the fishless cycle on a 63L/16G using 5ppm dosing, then that means the colonies should be close to ready to handle about 16 inches of fish body size and that your 8 wcmms probably would not present a challange to the filter.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[doggiebag]

well I may hold off for a bit anyway.................strangely enough, after dumping in the leftover safestart into the filter, 24 hours later my 12 hour reading was DOUBLE ZEROS, the first in weeks as you know how long this has stalled..........I was so shocked!!!!! Anyway, will see what it does on tonights test, I am fully expecting it to go back to 1.0, but we shall see..........odd that it timed its 0 reading 24 hours after adding the safestart, there must be something in there to boost it lol
Anyway, at least there was a shimmer of hope, even if it was for only one night, fingers crossed it holds same tonight, but this tanks cycle has been so odd and I hold no real hope that its done lol

 

[doggiebag]

ah well, excitement over, as suspected tonights reading was back at 1.0..............I've really had it with this one. I can't see it ever being finished. It has been reading the same for weeks now, even after a waterchange a mild filter clean........

 

[doggiebag]

then tonight it was 0.25, it just can't make up its mind....

 

[doggiebag]

okay, I moved my 4 apple snails to the hex tank and then used the sponge from their fully cycled tank to fill the gap in my juwel tank filter, moving the floss to the top......I am hoping this boost of mature media/bacteria will be enough to get this one finished.........the media would have gone to waste anyway as I was breaking down their old tank, so thought it was a no lose situation. After all 4 apple snails can produce quite a bit of waste, when I was cycling their old tank the readings got higher there than in the minnow tank, so I am hoping they had a nice big colony in the sponges......plus they adore their new tank, been exploring all morning lol