Fishywishies Fishless Cycle

[Twinklecaz]

Yeah good idea. If I ever upgrade my tank I'm gonna get the biggest filter that's reasonable.

 

[FishyWishie]

Better news tonight Ammonia dropped from 5ppm to somewhere inbetween 0.25 and 0.5 pmm between 11pm last night and 11pm tonight

I've redosed to 5ppm

 

[FishyWishie]

Looks like ive hit a bit on a nitrate spike when i checked them 27/06 at 11pm they were 10/20 Just checked them now as i forgot to at 11pm last night and there 160+ looks like first thing in the morning ill need to do a massive water change.

 

[FishyWishie]

Man my thread seems to have died lol

Im a little unsure of exactly where i am cycle wise atm

Ammonia processes from 5 to 0.25ish in 24 hours (1st time last night) Nitrites and Nitrates are off the chart as of last night

HELP ?

 

[PDSimon]

Sounds like your back into your nitrite spike, I'm not sure exactly of what WD would say but what I would do is either

start dosing 3ppm of ammonia daily until nitrites come down

Or

- do a waterchange to remove all the nitrites
- add 5ppm of ammonia
- test in 24 hours time

If ammonia is 0 and nitrites are low then proceed adding 5, if nitrites are high, do what I first said

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, its hard to tell quite what it has settled down to in the 4 entries or so since you came back from vacation. But usually once the nitrite spikes, it stays that way, so I agree that you might as well ease back on the dosing to 3ppm as Si mentioned. (The idea is to ease back on the dosing during the nitrite spike phase so that the overall excess of nitrate(NO3) and its small nitric acid component doesn't build up as quickly and lead to as many pH crashes. Likewise, we have a fair amount of speculation about whether weekend massive water changes (on weekends where you felt like doing it, lol) during the nitrite spike would possibly help the N-Bacs develop a little faster since they get inhibited by high nitrate. You have to remember to recharge ammonia back to 3ppm after such a water change.)

Later, usually after a long nitrite spike period, the N-Bac colony will catch up with the excess nitrite and rather suddenly you'll have zero nitrite at 24 hours after dosing. This is the point at which to begin easing back up on the dosing, first to 4ppm and then 5ppm (which of course may drag out your date for getting double zeros at 24 hours after dosing.) At any rate, this is the transition to the "after nitrite spike" phase (or 3rd phase, as I call it) and during the 3rd phase you are watching to see whether the bacteria can begin to clear things in less than 24 hours, approaching 12 hours. The clearest way to see this is to take tests at 12 hours (in addition to the 24 hour ones) and watch the ammonia and nitrite become less and less over the days/weeks. Throughout fishless cycling you just dose ammonia at your 24 hour mark, despite whatever your 12 hour test shows you.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[FishyWishie]

Many thanks to you both for the replies im no longer panicking

Ammonia seems to process atm from 5ppm - 2ppm in 12 hours and from 5ppm - <0.5ppm in 24 so i think things are heading the right way ill redose to 3ppm at 11ppm tonight and commence some 12 hour checks to give a clearer picture of whats happening ill tidy up post 1 as well get rid of the pre holiday readings so its easier for people to read / comment on

 

[FishyWishie]

For 2nd day running tank has all bar the faintest hint of green processed 5ppm to 0 in 24 hours.

As the nitrites/nitrates were off the chart a massive (80-85%) Water change was carried out and ammonia redosed to 3ppm (7.79m)

Minor fail tho forgot to add dechor till after id filled it Hope i haven't just killed all my nice bacs i turned filter back on dried everything off and went sh*t no dechlor so i put in 1.5x the ammount needed as it was a major water change.

 

[FishyWishie]

12 hours on and the 3pm has processed around 0.25 ppm (should i redose to 3ppm now or wait till 11pm which is the 24 hr mark)

Nitrites are back to off the chart Nitrates are either 40 or 80 Well down from pre water change but still rather high

 

[PDSimon]

What do you mean should you redose now? Its only been 12 hours. You always dose at the 24 hour mark which would be around 11 o clock, that seems to be your normal testing time. Even on the last qualification week if you get double 0 in 12 hours you don't dose until the 24 hour mark.

The aim you've got here is to process that 3ppm of ammonia to nitrate so that there is no nitrite left in 24 hours.

the next step would be to process the 5ppm of ammonia to nitrate in 24 hours

then to process 5ppm of ammonia and nitrite in 12 hours

 

[FishyWishie]

Gotcha i was getting totally bamboozled ive been battling chest and ear infections this week so even the simplest thing is hard going lol

 

[PDSimon]

No worries...I know this stuff is difficult to follow and you don't really understand it until afterwards

 

[FishyWishie]

Quite a change tonight (bearing in mind as suggested by WD and PDSimon the ammonia has been reduced to 3ppm during the Nitrite spike)

Ammonia dropped to 0ppm Nitrites look to be either 2ppm or 5ppm but a lot lighter than last night and nitrates have reduced from off the chart to 20ppm.

I do have some plants in so they may be helping on the nitrate side.

Ammonia redosed to 3ppm.

 

[FishyWishie]

Tonight Ammonia was again 0 nitrites were def 2ppm and nitrates still around 20ppm

Redosed Ammonia to 3ppm.#

I've no idea if these results are what i should be expecting at this stage or not i just keep my fingers crossed

 

[FishyWishie]

Were making progress

When i tested tonight at 10pm (Hour earlier than usual but im tired :lol)

Ammonia 0 Nitrites 0 Nitrates Whoa there be nitrates in them thar hills !