Green Goddess's First Fishless Cycle (240 Ltr)

[waterdrop]

I guess I would just think about all the results and see if nitrite and nitrate are high and pH has dropped some. If those things make you feel like a large water change is in order on the weekend then do it. It does make interpreting the test results somewhat harder as you have to realize that your water changes are lowering results rather than bacteria, but you can get a feel for the difference.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[greengoddess]

Hi all,

For some reason the bacterial process seems to have slowed down. It's taking 48 hours to process the ammonia. Either my 10 day holiday has caused it to stall or there is some other problem. I have taken out all the filter sponges today to see if there is a blockage. All looks OK but I replaced the thin woolly pad at the top of the filter because it was choked. I don't really think it was affecting the flow through the filter much but we'll have to see. The pH doesn't seem to want to rise above 7.8 even though I keep adding bicarb. I've run out of bicarb so I'll get some more tomorrow. We're over 100 days now.

 

[PDSimon]

#40## it... I really don't understand why your cycle won't just work!

 

[greengoddess]

#40## it... I really don't understand why your cycle won't just work!

I really think it's turned for the worse now. Not only is it not progressing, it's slowed down. Today is 105 days since the cycle started. I fitted the oxygenator accessory to the tank today in a vague hope that it might help the process. I tried fitting it ages ago but because it is drawing in air and pumping it into the water it lowers the temperature 2 or 3 degrees celcius. However, I now think anything is worth trying. If Waterdrop and yourself agree, I may abandon the cycle after another 2 or 3 weeks if nothing happens. I will then try a straight transfer of both fish and filter media from my small established 25 litre tank to this 240 litre tank.

 

[greengoddess]

Very strange happenings this evening. The ammonia was zero after 24 hours which is unusual given the previous weeks paltry performance, nitrite was only 0.25 and the pH had soared from 7.8 to 9.0 (without adding any more bicarb). The only thing that has changed is the addition of the little oxygenator. I can't imagine that a bit of extra oxygen in the water would have such a dramatic effect so quickly but please correct me if I'm wrong. However, I have noticed that now the oxygenator is fitted to the outlet of the filter pump, the circulation of the water has speeded up enormously due to the much smaller bore of the outflow pipe. Perhaps this increased agitatin has had some effect.

 

[greengoddess]

Yippee!!!

Ammonia = ZERO, Nitrite = ZERO!!! It only took 107 days!

Apart from opening the champagne, what do I do now?

 

[PDSimon]

Excellent..really happy for you!!

I think the next step is processing that 3ppm within 24 hours...

edit: It should handle that pretty quickly so assuming you add that 3ppm tonight and that it reads 0 tomorrow (or maybe the next couple of days) you would then start adding 5ppm to process that within 24 hours and then 12 hours

 

[JoshuaA]

Make sure you DON'T fire the Cham-Pag-Ne cork through the fish tank!

Congratulations, if its done this in 12 hours you can wait to see if it repeats this for a week, or you can do it for a few days (I would recommend a few days minimum) then add maybe 40% of the fish you wanted. Then wait a week or two and slowly stock up, I would probably say 10-15% of your fish at a time.


If however this is the first time in 24 hours, you will probably have a while to go. I hope for the first one.

 

[greengoddess]

Thanks both of you. This is the first time nitrite and ammonia have read zero 24 hours after after adding ammonia. Hopefully it should continue this same process for a couple of days and then I'll increase the ammonia dose slightly.

 

[PDSimon]

remember everything that has made it do this and keep it consistant...also if you have 7 days of 0 ammonia and nitrite in 12 hours you could stock it 75 % if you wanted imo!

 

[JoshuaA]

remember everything that has made it do this and keep it consistant...also if you have 7 days of 0 ammonia and nitrite in 12 hours you could stock it 75 % if you wanted imo!

In the UK even with our LFS standards you'll be hard pressed finding a store allowing you to buy enough fish to stock a 240 litre tank 75%. I only really got 3 fish because the store dude talked me out/wouldn't allow it so I just agreed with it. It only comes to about 40% stocking.

 

[PDSimon]

but with less than 50% stocking you mayaswell just do fishin cycles

 

[greengoddess]

Thanks again,

The only fish that will be going in the tank straight away will be my two fancy goldfish that have been patiently waiting in their puny 25 litre tank since Christmas. After that I was thinking of adding around 10-15 White Cloud Mountain Minnows. That will probably be the total stock in the tank.

 

[PDSimon]

mayaswell add the minnows in with the goldfish but you will have to double check this

 

[JoshuaA]

but with less than 50% stocking you mayaswell just do fishin cycles

The point of fish-less cycle is to prevent fish being exposed to toxic levels of ammonia/nitrite. You can apparently add 100% fish stock although reading through all these articles really suggests it would NOT be safe to do so.

From the stores I've been to a lot of them would sell me more than the usual amount of fish because of the fish-less cycle but would not have as much faith as I believed in to sell me 50-60% of my stocking list. Which makes it a little funnier is the fact that these fish are only juvenile so they probably won't come close to the 4/5ppm Ammonia combined with the food and plant decomposition.