Fishless Cycle Log - Add & Wait Method

[MarlinTiger]

Hi All,

I have a brand new 90L Aquastyle620 AquaOne tank c/w the standard filtration system and an Aqua One 150W heater. The tank set-up is as follows; a substrate of DeponitMix Professional by Dennerle covered by sand. I have 2 x pieces of Lava rock and a section of Mogani bogwood. Plants are a mixture of Bocopa Caroliniana, Vallisneria Spiralis & Cryptocoryne Balansae.

So here is where I am so far:
Tap Water Stats:
pH - 7.4
Ammonia - 0.25
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 20

Tank set-up (incl rock & bogwood)& switched on 03/01/11
N.B. Plants not added until 16/01/11

I let everything settle down for the 1st 2 days (03/01 to 05/01)and then on the 06/01 I added 5ml of Ammonia to get me up to 5ppm so I could start the cycling process.

I am testing every 24hrs.


Temp ºC pH LevelAmmonia Nitrite Nitrate
07-Jan 30.2 8.2 5+ 0.25 40-80
08-Jan 30.9 8.2 4.00 0.5 40-80
09-Jan 30.9 8.2 4.00 0.5 40-80
10-Jan 30.0 8.2 4.00 1.00 40-80
11-Jan 31.6 8.2 2.00 1.00 40-80
12-Jan 31.4 8.2 ≤2.0 2.00 40-80
13-Jan 31.4 8.2 1.0+ ≥2.0 40-80
14-Jan 31.9 8.2 1.0+ ≥2.0 40-80
15-Jan 31.6 8.2 1.0+ ≤5.0 40-80
16-Jan 31.8 8.2 1.0+ 5.00 80+
17-Jan 31.2 8.2 0.50 5.0+ 80+

Any / all comments are most welcome.

Many thanks

MT

 

[Gvilleguy]

Looks great so far. It is good you have had your first ammonia drop.

 

[MarlinTiger]

Looks great so far. It is good you have had your first ammonia drop.

Thanks for the response Gvilleguy.

I'm not sure whether I need to wait for an Ammonia reading of 0? The base level of the tap water was 0.25, so am I close engough whereby I need to add more Ammonia?

Cheers

MT

 

[Skins]

Hello again Martin,
Looks like your cycle is off to a cracking start.

,Keith.

 

[Aqua Tom]

Let it hit zero. By the looks of that it should happen in next day or so.

 

[MarlinTiger]

Thanks for the support & advice Skins and Aqua Tom.

Another question if I may if I'm considering Mollys, Guppys, Rasboras etc what would you reccommend being a sensible number? There are conflicting views and I know it is very much how long is a piece of strig type scenario, but I don't want to over populate the tank, however likewise I don't want to have the bare miniumum in there either?

Cheers MT

 

[Gvilleguy]

You will also need to consider your base pH of the tank, which is not necessarily what comes out of the tap. My pH settles from 7.2 down to 6.0, and this affects what fish I am able to stock. So after your cycle completes, keep an eye on how the pH settles out...

 

[waterdrop]

Agree with Tom, I'd wait for ammonia to drop to zero. There's no hurry on re-dosing the ammonia as a pause can create a better rhythm. Pick an "add-hour" (out of the 24 of the day) at which you hope to be as regular as possible at using as your dosing time. The regularity will help to remove some ambiguity from your results trend. You want to choose your add-hour such that the 12-hour opposite time is also a time when you might be home to perform a 12-hour test (this happens later in the fishless cycling process, often much later, when the nitrite spike phase is finished and both ammonia and nitrites are regularly dropping to zero within 24 hours.) The Dennerle substrate may be giving you some of your nitrite/nitrate readings rather than processing by any bacteria, but I don't know that for sure, so it's better not to read too much progress in to things that are happening very rapidly in the first few weeks. We generally don't feel very comfortable with fishless cycles under a month unless they've had large mature media additions to the filter box.

Rasboras are best treated as shoaling fish and kept at 6 or above, whereas livebearers are not like this and there the sex ratio becomes more of something to look at on a per species basis (we have livebearer experts on TFF.) The livebearers will appreciate a high mineral content environment (especially mollys who like it extremely hard) whereas the rasboras like a soft, acid environment. Both of these types however are broad enough to live in a community tank together as long as hardness and pH are reasonably stable.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[MarlinTiger]

Gvilleguy and Waterdrop,

Once again thank you for taking the time to read my drivel and more importantly for responding to it!

I live in an area of hard water, I have to test using the high range solution. I wouldn't want to introduce any fish into a tank causing them distress and would most probably take advice from my lfs. They seem very knowledgeable and their premises appears to be looked after and their fish well cared for. However,I also like to know for myself what will and won't work as far as a harmonious tank is concerned, this forum is superb for that kind of research, as there are lots of very passionate hobbyists frequently on-line.

Consistency is the name of the game and I will take onboard what you say by carrying out the tests at about the same time each day.

So albeit I have only just joined the forum, thanks for making me feel welcome and if I can ever repay the favours in any way, please don't hesitate to let me know.

Cheers

MT

 

[Gvilleguy]

MT - this forum really made my transition to an aquarium so much easier and pain free last summer. Lots of good, cheerful help to be found on here, which is what keeps me coming back.

 

[Aqua Tom]

Awwww, i feel all warm & fuzzy now

 

[MarlinTiger]

Hi all,

Caried out a test earier this morning which is day 12, weird results:

Tank Temp. 31.3 - Stable
pH 8.2 - Very Consistant
Ammonia Between 0 and 0.25 probably closer to 0.25 (using API Test kit) it has certainly dropped down from 0.5 yesterday, original tap water was the same colour as now
Nitrite 5.0+
Nitrate 20 - Down from 80+ yesterday - This is the area of concern

I am going to do another test later today, to ensure that I haven't messed up, but should the Nitrate readings crash that drastically?

All views welcome

MT

 

[Gvilleguy]

Good morning, MT (at least when I type this in the Eastern US!).

I wouldn't sweat the nitrate situation. For one thing, it doesn't matter yet since you don't have fish. For another, that is the one test (if you are using API) that is the easiest to mess up with all the shaking and waiting. You can test it again to see...

 

[MarlinTiger]

Gvilleguy,

Thanks for the post, I just wasn't expecting the sudden drop in Nitrate. I only added the plants 2 days ago so maybe they are making an impact.

I can't be far off adding the next dose of Ammonia, the 0.25 level is where I started with the tap water? Should I still wait until I get the 0 reading?

MT

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, all sorts of things go wrong with the nitrate tests. First off, they are considered a difficult test even by professional chemists. Secondly, the second reagent can have precipitates (unseen by you, still in bottle 2) that can stick in the bottom or neck of the reagent bottle. If this happens you have to whack the bottle hard and shake lots more than they say to get it to come out right, and of course you don't really know...lol. Thirdly, the test randomly gets thrown off when nitrites are very high in the test water sample (which of course is the case where you are now!) So just keep trying it every now and then but take it with a grain of salt.

~~waterdrop~~