Liverbird's New Fishless Cycle

[Liverbird36]

Have done another 10% water change and the tank smells a huge amount better. Can't smell it when I walk in the room now. Have also removed Carbon sponge and replaced with some Biomedia. Water is lovely and clear. White stuff hasn't returned but still have a large quantity on contents of the tank. Will try to gradually remove by doing small (10%) water changes every few days.

 

[OldMan47]

Your living room should never smell like anything but perhaps freshly turned garden soil. If it takes on much more of an odor than that,you have something not quite right going on in your filter.
If you find a need to replace any of your water, for whatever reason, do not mess about with 10% water changes. During a fishless cycle, it is far easier to replace 90% or more of your water than to mess about with a smaller amount. In most cases, the larger water change will put you on the road to a recovery while the little, 10% or a bit more, will not give you any improvement.

 

[LondonguyJ]

My living room is beginning to smell like a jungle !!! Not sure if that's a good sign or not.

Can I ask how much ammonia you added to your 64l to get the cycle started?

Your living room should never smell like anything but perhaps freshly turned garden soil. If it takes on much more of an odor than that,you have something not quite right going on in your filter.

At the beginning of my cycle the living room did smell. The smell was not apparent when I first added the ammonia (10ml) but was noticeable about a day later. But once the ammonia count dropped from 4.9 (nutranfin testing kit) to 2.4 the odor was not present. Is this normal? Or would you say that something is wrong with my filter also?

I'm kinda confused

 

[Liverbird36]

My living room is beginning to smell like a jungle !!! Not sure if that's a good sign or not.

Can I ask how much ammonia you added to your 64l to get the cycle started?

Your living room should never smell like anything but perhaps freshly turned garden soil. If it takes on much more of an odor than that,you have something not quite right going on in your filter.

At the beginning of my cycle the living room did smell. The smell was not apparent when I first added the ammonia (10ml) but was noticeable about a day later. But once the ammonia count dropped from 4.9 (nutranfin testing kit) to 2.4 the odor was not present. Is this normal? Or would you say that something is wrong with my filter also?

I'm kinda confused
I never said that the smell was caused by the filter. I merely suggested that Ph buffers and bacterial aids that had been used in the tank COULD have been responsible for the problems I was having with the water. The Bacterial bloom on it's own surely shouldn't have caused a 2cm layer of white gunk over the entire tank. This gunk was very foul smelling and caused my filter to block within 2 days of its appearance. I may be wrong but I have read that Ph buffers in particular can dump a lot of Phosphates in the water and i'm wondering if it was this as well as using the Filter Start product, that was responsible. Once the majority of it had been removed, the smell improved dramatically. The filter never caused the problem or made it worse, it simply could not cope that well with the huge amounts of gunk in the tank. The fact that there were Nitrites and Nitrates in the tank could also suggest some form of dumping by the products used. Since the use of these products as been stopped, the water balance has gone back to normal and is at levels expected for the beginning of a Fishless cycle. So please accept my apologies for any confusion caused but the problems I have had were not filter related in any way.

 

[Liverbird36]

P.s Forgot to mention, when I spoke about Filter Start, I was not talking about the filter itself. Filter Start is a bacterial product added to the tank water to aid filter establishment.

 

[LondonguyJ]

Slight miscommunication here Livebird

I was directing my comment at oldman47 since he mentioned something that something could be up with the filter unit itself. That's why I put my question directly under his comment

My question to you was "How much ammonia did you used to start the cycle?"

 

[Liverbird36]

Slight miscommunication here Livebird

I was directing my comment at oldman47 since he mentioned something that something could be up with the filter unit itself. That's why I put my question directly under his comment

My question to you was "How much ammonia did you used to start the cycle?"

Oh !! sorry Londonguy lol. When I started the cycle I added 2.5ml of Ammonia and it raised the test result from 0.5ppm to 5.0ppm. I only have a 64 litre tank though. I think the recommended dose using the Ammonia calculator was around 3.5ml but the Filter Start products can dump ammonia in the tank so only decided to go a little on the cautious side with 2.5ml, but it gave the correct level in the end. Sorry for misunderstanding you. I am new to this so it's taken me some time to get my head around things.

 

[LondonguyJ]

No worries

 

[Liverbird36]

Hooray !!!! my tank finally has that freshly turned soil smell !!! Never again will I chuck Ph buffers, bacterial aids and water cleaners in my tank. Have learnt my lesson.

 

[Liverbird36]

Hi Guy's Started my Fishless cycle today and are new to Tropical Fish keeping so any advice would be warmly welcomed. This is my first ever attempt at Aquarium cycling so please feel free to chastise me if I go awry lol. The tank was set up 6 days prior to the start of this Cycling but had to empty about 80% of tank water due to inncorrect Ammonia dosage given to me by P@H. In those 6 days that the tank was running, the temperature was set at 24 degrees and 2ml dose of Filter Start added every other day, and had a very heavy Bacterial Bloom after day 3. The set up is as follows:
Interpet Fishbox 64 litres: Dimensions 24inch length x 12inch width x 27inch height.
Heater = Interpet Delta Therm 150w
Filter = Interpet PF2 500l/h max (three stage bio filtration) also includes an airation pump at top of filter.
Lighting = Daylight Compact bulb on right side of tank and Blue Moon bulb on the left hand side.
Water dechlorinated using Interpet Bioactive Tapsafe and Interpet Filter Start used every other day to aid filter establishment

Cycling using Homebase Household Ammonia 9.5%
Testing using the API Master Test Kit.

TAP WATER TEST RESULTS

Ammonia = 0ppm
Nitrite = 0ppm
Nitrate = 0ppm
PH = 7.6ppm

DAY 1 Temp 26c Ammonia 0.5ppm Nitrites 0ppm Nitrates 0ppm. Temp raised to 30c and 2.5ml Ammonia added.
DAY 2 Temp 30c Ammonia 4.0ppm Nitrites 0.25ppm Nitrates 5.0ppm. No Filter Start added.
DAY 3 Temp 29c Ammonia 4.0ppm Nitrites 0.25ppm Nitrates 10ppm. Ceased the use of Filter Start and 10% water change
DAY 4 Temp 29c Ammonia 3-4ppm Nitrites 0.25ppm Nitrates 5.0ppm.
DAY 5 Temp 29c Ammonia 3.0ppm Nitrites 0ppm Nitrates 3.0ppm.
DAY 6 Temp 29c Ammonia 3.oppm Nitrites 0ppm Nitrates 5.0ppm.
DAY 7 Temp 29c Ammonia 2.0ppm Nitrites 0ppm Nitrates 5.0ppm. 10% water change may hae dropped Ammonia levels.
DAY 8 Temp 29c Ammonia 2.0ppm Nitrites 0ppm Nitrates 5.0ppm. Added 2ml Ammonia to bring level up after water change.
DAY 9 Temp 29c Ammonia 4.0ppm Nitrites 0ppm Nitrates 5.0ppm. Tank no longer smells rancid. Nice tropical house smell.
DAY 10 Temp 29c Ammonia 4.0ppm Nitrites 0ppm Nitrates 5.0ppm.
DAY 11 Temp 29c Ammonia 4.0ppm Nitrites 0ppm Nitrates 5.oppm.

 

[Liverbird36]

Yeah !!!!!! I have Nitrites !!!!

 

[PDSimon]

Lol

 

[Liverbird36]

Lol

I know I had to laugh at my utter excitement too !! Had two set backs of a couple of weeks so feel like I have been on a very slow treadmill on the road to nowhere lol. Hopefully, things are on the right track now. My kid's thought I was crazy getting excited over such a small thing. I admit, dancing around the kitchen may have been a bit extreme though lol

 

[PDSimon]

I understand, I question my mental state at certain parts of this #40## cycle!

Day 57 or something I'm at

 

[Liverbird36]

I understand, I question my mental state at certain parts of this #40## cycle!

Day 57 or something I'm at

day 57 !!!!! OMG !!!! surely you can't be far off finished ?? Well you will understand my excitement lol my whole life at the moment seems to revolve around Ammonia readings. Well, when it comes to Chemistry at school my kid's should be well versed on some of the chemical elements and Nitrogen cycle lol. I'm sure they'll thank me one day for my madness.