My First Fishless Cycle

[jason8888]

I just found a 29 gallon aquarium for super cheap . After doing a very long and painful fish in cycle for my 10 gallon 6 months ago I decided I will never do that again now that I found this wonderful place full of helpful advice and info. I just bought a Fluval C3 filter, Dr Tim's ammonia drops, And I also had some sea-chem stability left over from my 10 gallon aquarium. My tank has about 4 to 6 inches of pool filter sand as substrate. My decorations and Lid for the aquarium will be here Saturday so its very bare atm. I also bought a python for future water changes, My goodness how I love that thing....
 
Day 1
I added a filter from my 10 gallon that has about 5 months worth of good bacteria on it, Not sure how well it will work I had to fold it to add it in my C3 filter where the bio-balls are supposed to be. I also added 2 cap fulls of sea-chem stability ( still not sure if this stuff works but guess it cant hurt ). I then dosed 29 drops of Dr. Tim's pure ammonia per the directions.
 
30 minutes later
Amm between 2 and 3 PPM
Nitrites didn't check
Nitrates didn't check
Tank temp set at 82 still at 78 ( I goofed and added all cold water lol yesterday)
will update tomorrow after 24 hours.
I also have .5 to 1 PPM of Ammonia due to Chloramine in my tap water

 

 

[sbenbow]

Looks like the cat is keen for you to get your tank up and started too

!
 
Good luck with the fishless cycle - keep us all updated on how you go.

 

[jason8888]

Looks like the cat is keen for you to get your tank up and started too

!
 
Good luck with the fishless cycle - keep us all updated on how you go.

haha yea hes mad hes been getting in the tank the last few days before i filled it with water 8)

 

[fluttermoth]

Can I just point out that your sand is far too deep; you're going to have problems keeping it from turning anaerobic at that sort of depth.
 
You need only a couple of inches, if you're having live plants; less if you're not.

 

[jason8888]

OK I'm a newb when it comes to sand lol my first attempt at it. What does turning anaerobic mean or do exactly ?

 

[Ch4rlie]

I'm not particularly knowledgeable about this but after hearing about this in the past from other members, hopefully I can remember this right for your information
 
Anaerobic decay is when organic material in sand below 2 cm or more which bacteria consumes without oxygen which in turn produces a gas which, i think, becomes hydrogen sulphide. These gases can come out of the sand substrate and is bad news for fish, can actually be fatal to fish.
 
Think most people try to avoid this issue by gravel vac top of sand then stir the sand around to stop these anaerobic pockets from forming.
 
Also have heard Malaysian Trumpet Snails (MTS) are good for this as well as they bury themselves deep in sand substrate and stirs the sand around which lets oxygen into the sand as well as eating any organic material in sand substrate.
 
Hope that helps a bit for you.

 

[jason8888]

Should I remove the sand now or wait till the cycle is complete. I did some research and deep sand sounds scary lol I don't want to risk the Anaerobic stuff. im thinking about a inch deep and add some Malaysian snails later to be on the safe side.

 

[Ch4rlie]

I'd remove some sand now while still at beginning of cycle, this will settle down fairly quickly.
 
A couple of inches of sand will be fine if you intend to have live plants as Fluttermoth recommends.
 
Do note, you may get some sand into your filter while removing sand, so would say probably better to switch filter off while you remove sand and once sand settles a bit after removing sand, then switch filter back on, won't harm the bacteria at all to have filter off for a while.

 

[daizeUK]

No harm in taking out some of the sand now.
Also note that 29 drops of Dr Tim's ammonium chloride will give you 2ppm ammonia.  As soon as you start to see nitrite then you should add another 15 drops to bring it up to 3ppm.

 

[jason8888]

No harm in taking out some of the sand now.
Also note that 29 drops of Dr Tim's ammonium chloride will give you 2ppm ammonia.  As soon as you start to see nitrite then you should add another 15 drops to bring it up to 3ppm.

How do you determine this that it will only be 2 ppm ? the directions says on the bottle to add 1 drop per gallon of water plus I have .5 PPM in my tap. Also I checked it about 30 min after it was around 3. Just trying to find out if I missed something lol
Day 2
removed all but around a inch of sand(thanks for the advice )
added 2 more capfuls of seachem stability
Amm still around 3
Nitrite didnt check
Nitrate didnt check
temp is 81
also had to add around 5 gallons of tap water added dechlorinator for 10 gallons just to be safe.

 

[daizeUK]

Ignore me!  The directions on the bottle state that 1 drop per gallon will give 2ppm ammonia but I forgot that Dr Tim always works in ammonia-nitrogen rather than total ammonia (which most test kits read) so you have to multiply by about 1.3 to get the total ammonia value, which gives you around 2.6ppm instead of 2ppm.   Completely forgot about that.  Sorry for confusing you!

 

[jason8888]

Ignore me!  The directions on the bottle state that 1 drop per gallon will give 2ppm ammonia but I forgot that Dr Tim always works in ammonia-nitrogen rather than total ammonia (which most test kits read) so you have to multiply by about 1.3 to get the total ammonia value, which gives you around 2.6ppm instead of 2ppm.   Completely forgot about that.  Sorry for confusing you!

Hey no problem I thought maybe I missed something which is very likely lol.

Day 3
Ammonia looked slightly less than 3 between 2 and 3 PPM
Nitrites checked and 0
Nitrates didnt check
Added 2 capfulls of Seachem Stability

I have my used filter media underneath my wet/dry media dispenser compartment and its kinda folded in half. Should I try to put this behind my new filter pad somehow ? I couldn't make it fit into My new C3 without cutting it to pieces. Anyone familiar with the Fluval C3 any ideas ?

 

[fluttermoth]

If you have used filter media, get it into one of your filters, ASAP; it won't do your cycle much good unless it is actually in a filter.
 
Cut it up if that's the best way to get it in there

 

[jason8888]

OK I managed to cut my seeded filter media and got about 1/2 to 3/4 of it behind the new filter in the C3 so hopefully that will help some.
 
Day 4
Ammonia 1 PPM ( will probably have to re-dose tomorrow to bring back to 3PPM)
Nitrite still not showing
Nitrate didn't check
 
Also added 2 cupfuls of Seachem Stability

 

[jason8888]

Im now on day 11 and my ammonia is cycling in about 2 days. My problem is that my nitrites are off the charts. Is this normal and do i keep adding my ammonia when the ammonia gets below .5 PPM ? Ive read high nitrites will stall the process do I need to do a water change to get the nitrites readable again ? I also showed around 20 PPM of nitrates as well.