Fishywishie Is A Noob - A Guide How Not To Cycle A Tank

[FishyWishie]

Any suggestions on the likely time frame for nitrite to drop from 17 hours to 12 hours ? Im just curious

 

[FishyWishie]

Dear Santa,

I've been good this year and all i want for xmas is my nitrites to process in 12 hours rather than there currrent 17 if you could arrange this in the next week or two id be eternally grateful and you don't need to buy me anything else.

All my love

FishyWishie

 

[PDSimon]

 

[FishyWishie]

Nitrites seem stuck @ around 16 hours

At the 12 hour test PH had dropped a little so ive added Bi-carb again and Nitrates have hit 160

Is it time to do a water change to help the cycle along? If so how much % wise and should i try and do it as soon as the nitrites are processed for the day ?

 

[PDSimon]

Yeah try to do it when all the nitrites have been processed. A 90% waterchange with a substrate syphon is normally advised

Don't forget the bicarb and conditioner

p.s I can't quite remember why there is a take 2, what was it that happened? I have an awful memory

 

[FishyWishie]

I put an additional internal filter in and the cycle stalled for about a week or so + i think the easycarbo bottle leaked into the tank overdosing it a bit

 

[PDSimon]

Strange, usually increased circulation and oxygenation of the water throughout fishless cycling helps optimise the conditions. How strange they can be

 

[FishyWishie]

90% Water change performed with the dechlorinator added a little at a time into each bucket total dechlor approx 1.5 x for tank volume.

10ml ammonia dosed along with the usual tpn+ and easycarbo.

Temp is a lil high atm 34 deg but its cooling nicely back to the temp setting of 30 deg.

Heres hoping this helps



With regards to he additional filter the media was meant to be mature but in retrospect looked like it hadnt been cleaned since it was bought maybe something in/on it screwed the cycle who knows.

 

[FishyWishie]

Not much to report on the cycling front (nitrites still taking approx 17 hours so I thought I would share 2 of the POSSIBLE stock lists ive knocked up there are more One thing i did think is on the 2nd one is having Catish and Khuli to much bottom feeders for 1 tank?

 

[OldMan47]

OK, I am not in the UK. What is TPN+? Is it trace nutrients or is it the big 3 nutrients? (N, P and K) If it is a nitrogen source, you are fighting any benefit the plants might have given you in removing nitrates.

 

[FishyWishie]

http/www.thegreenmachineonline.com/products/aquatics/liquid-fertilisers/tropica-plant-nutrition-liquid-250ml-0

 

[OldMan47]

Thanks for the link FishyWishie.
It looks like TPN+ is indeed a primarily macro-nutrient soup so it will indeed prevent your plants from consuming nitrogen from the water because the TPN+ is already supplying the plants with the nitrogen they need. The Tropica information reads as if they are encouraging you to use the product in the basic style of an EI dosing scheme, which means you oversupply nutrients, beyond any expected usage, and then do water changes to prevent a negative build up of fertilizers in the water. The water change is intended to reset you to a place where it is again safe to add that much fertilizer. Under that kind of dosing regime, nothing organic in the tank will need to be used by the overfed plants, they have no need for your nutrients from ammonia when they are already overfed on nitrogen.
I would try a TPN+ dose of half or less the usual amount and see if maybe your plants can help things along. I did not see any indication of what form the nitrogen takes in that product so it may also be showing nitrates in your samples that are not from your cycle. Various nitrate salts are the most common ones in artificial fertilizers.

 

[FishyWishie]

Nitrites not shifting at all (still stuck around the 16/17 hour mark) Im debating not bothering doing any 12 hour test for say 2 weeks then trying again. Ive only been doing them every 4 days atm and theres no noticable change.

Feel like im getting nowhere atm

 

[LondonguyJ]

Just had a look at your table and noticed that your PH and nitrate tests haven't been done for a while. From my own experience the Nitrate can crash your ph within a day to under 6.0

What I'd suggest is keeping the ph at 7.5 or above to aid your nitrite development.

 

[FishyWishie]

Ah forgot to add PH which today was 7.4 so ive added bicarb and raised to nearer 8.

90% Water change was done 4 days ago to get rid of a bunch of Nitrate Just tested it right now and its approx darker than 40 but a fair bit lighter than 80