My Fishless Cycle

[tommyg123]

Hello everyone

So far im only on my 2nd day but just wanted to make sure im on the right way and i can also use this as my log book.
And hopefully help others who are unsure on what their doing like myself..

My tank set up Juwel Rekord 600 Aquarium/63 litres
I have the temp on about 28-29 atm, Long air stone as ive heard oxengy will speed up the progress. And of course a bioflow filter super system. Havn't had the time to get any plants just yet, if this is a problem please let me know.

I havn't tested for Nitrate or Nitrite because from what ive read from other peoples cycles there is no need to test for this just yet.
I also have been using Nutrafin Cycle supplement but have also heard that is useless and a waste of money.

Is there anything else i should have/doing? All advice/questions are welcome!
Just please dont give a link to another forum page about fishless cycle, i have read many and still on the same level.

Thanks for your time.

(Nutrafin Master test kit)
so far

Day 1; Ph = 8.0
Ammonia = 0

Day 2; Ph = 8.0
Ammonia = 0.6


(Also will keep adding my test results)

 

[djl08]

first bit of advice i would give is get some household ammonia. If ur in the uk get down homebase, £3 odd. You need to get the ammonia levels up to 4ppm or its gona take forever. Im still waitin for my first dose to drop to zero, been 10 days now.

Hope this helps,

- Dj -

 

[tommyg123]

Thanks alot mate,

Going to head down there now, so i bump the ammonia upto 4ppm and then leave it to go to zero?

 

[gaz gun man]

Thanks alot mate,

Going to head down there now, so i bump the ammonia upto 4ppm and then leave it to go to zero?

yep, then top it back upto 4 or 5 ppm.

 

[tommyg123]

Ok just got my household ammonia,

Now im not sure how much to add to the tank to get it upto 4-5ppm can anyone tell me very confused now

 

[tommyg123]

Desired tank ammonia level/ (Ammonia concentration % (from the label) x 10/tank volume in litres) = Amount of household ammonia to add in ml

so.. 4/(9.5x10/63)= 2.6ml

Is this right?

 

[gaz gun man]

the aquarium calculator says 3mls for a 60L tank

http/www.fishforums.net/aquarium-calculator.htm

most people add enough for 5ppm.

 

[tommyg123]

Ok ive done that and results are around 4.9-7.3 I think i might of gone over abit is that going to be a problem if so what do i do? thanks

 

[gaz gun man]

try a 30% water change (with dechlor) if you think its closer to 7ppm, it should bring it down, then re-test ammonia to make sure you're around 4-5ppm

 

[Miss Wiggle]

hi there, yes you should do a water change to bring it down a bit, sometimes it takes a bit of trial and error to find the right amount of ml's to take your tank up to the 5ppm, the calculation is based on the full tank volume, once you account for substrate, space taken up by equipment, decor etc you'll actually have a bit less than the full tank volume so the calc is not always spot on.

if ammonia is above 8ppm then this can be inhibitive to the bacteria growth, our test kits are good but not perfect (after all we don't have a full science lab!) so it's safe to aim around 5ppm.

basically you just need to top up the ammonia to this level, test it every day and when it drops down to 0 you add it back up to 5ppm. Keep repeating this process until ammonia starts to drop to 0 within around 24 hrs, this may take a few weeks. At this point you can start testing for nitrite and nitrate (you can test sooner but it's not really essential) and you'll probably find you have quite high nitrite levels, you keep adding ammonia when it drops to 0 (no more than once every 24 hrs though) and then wait for nitrite to drop, after another few weeks the nitrite level will rise and fall to 0 within a day. At this point you should start testing every 12 hrs, what you are aiming for as for both ammonia and nitrite to read 0 12 hrs after you've added your 5ppm of ammonia. At this point we class the tank as cycled, we then recommend you do a 'qualifying week' this is basically just to make sure as the process is not 100% perfect, sometimes you get a little blip. for this week you just keep adding the same amount of ammonia as before every 24 hrs and testing on the 12 hr mark, if you get consistent 0 readings at 12 hrs then you are safe to add fish. By this time nitrate will be sky high so you do a 90% water change and then you can add fish that same day.

 

[tommyg123]

Ok Thanks alot Miss Wiggle and Gaz gun man for your help on this i understand what i need to do.
I will do a water change in the morning to bring my ammonia down to 4-5ppm and will retest after that and let you know what the results

Thanks again for your help

 

[Miss Wiggle]

look forward to hearing about your progress

one other thing to keep an eye out for is your pH, test that every day through the whole cycle, the single most common thing to go wrong in a cycle is a pH crash so keep monitoring it, if it drops down to around 7.2 then post up and let us know and we'll talk you through what you need to do. your pH starting nice and high at 8 is a good sign though, hopefully you won't have any problems but it's just worth keeping an eye on.

 

[paulbr1]

Hi and welcome, when you are testing the water stats remember to give the pump time to circulate the water fully first before you test (me = 30mins) - otherwise you will be guessing, as for the Ph crash most people seem to get one around 30days in to the cycle (I had two) but with 63L it shouldn't be too hard to do a good change.

Good luck and do stick with it (the cycle that is) Fishless Cycle = Happy, Healthy fish.

Paul.

 

[tommyg123]

Ok, so far i have done a 30% water change and now waiting to retest the ammonia and Ph.
Also forgot to buy any Dechlorinator like a idiot at shop, but will be poping down to get some in a few hours.
This shouldn't effect my cycle at the moment should it?

I'll post the test results in abit.

Thanks for reading

 

[Miss Wiggle]

did you not dechlorinate the water that you did the water change with then?