Starting A Fishless Cycle

[waterdrop]

Partial water changes during fishless cycles really don't have meaning. Partial is only about fish. So, unfortunately for you, the thing I'm thinking of is all or nothing (although since its sand I'd quit before it started sucking out too much, lol.)

If you have a bad back (like me!) you really need to get serious about a Python or a DIY siphon in/out system. When I'm finished draining I just attach the hose to my adapter that attaches to the faucet and do the tank fill. The fill is much faster than the gravel-clean-siphon-out! Absolutely the only way to go with back problems!

~~waterdrop~~

 

[danb]

Yeah, i made a 'diy python' the syphon worked but it was never strong enough, no way near as strong as just my regular gravel vac to a bucket.

So you think the only thing i can do is a 90% water change ?

i also noticed my temperature was running at 31.9oc so i put it down to 29oc

 

[waterdrop]

But that doesn't make sense to me. For the out-siphon, the tub drain or the outdoors should be as low as a bucket you have on the floor next to the tank and its the total height from tank bottom to siphon outlet that determines speed, right? And then for the refill, the hose taking it from the tap to the tank has got to be better for your back than carrying the buckets, even if its a big tank and you have to sit there and maybe glance at a magazine for a minute or two while it goes through the main part of the refill. Maybe I'm not understanding.

As far as the 90% I'm talking about, if the time factor is too long at one sitting, you could plan two 50% changes for different parts of the day or a day apart or something. The point is to try to make a really significant change from high nitriate to near zero nitrate and the same for nitrite(NO2) so that the water environment seen by the growing bacteria is different.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[danb]

Ill give my syphon another go, i had to make it to adapt to my taps as i dont have a mixer tap, just a hot and a cold tap seperate.

My nitrate has been at a steady 5 but the nitrite has been just purple drops in the bottom of the tube for the last 2 weeks.

Ill do a water change today, just going to connect the outpipe from my external filter to the hose! Genius.

 

[waterdrop]

Ok, good, glad you are coming around to the idea of some water changes. Just keep an eye on your filter doing that - you don't want your filter to pump itself dry, possibly damaging the impellor rotor and drying out the bacteria, but I'm sure you know that. It is true that some people come up with great ideas for water changes involving separate little water pumps they buy. One that I heard was a woman who told me she bought a giant new plastic trashcan, the kind a professional janitor would use on rollers. She could fill it with fresh tap water and dechlor it and then allow it to sit overnight to allow the CO2 to gas off and then roll it to the tank and plug in a little pump that sat in the bottom of the trash can and pumped the water into the tank. To me this sounds like the dream solution but I don't have a big closet where a trashcan like that could live!

The fact that your nitrate(NO3) seems to not be rising is just further confirmation that there's still a big gap between all the A-Bacs you have and the very few N-Bacs that you seem to have. This was another reason for my water changes recommendation because the Hovanec comments I remember were more aimed at the N-Bacs being slowed by either high nitrite or high nitrate or both, I believe. Its not guarantee but its the best I can think of for you at the moment.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[danb]

that was nice and easy, doing water changes now is going to be very easy! Just going to use the filter as a pump to pump the water out and pump the water into the tank, maybe not into the tank, not decided yet.

I have topped up, added ammonia and some bicard and will do a test later on once its all settled.

 

[danb]

how do them figures look now? Its processed around 4ppm of ammonia overnight, i will just add upto 2ppm tomorrow.

 

[waterdrop]

Dosing at 2ppm is a little low. There ideally should be no time during a fishless cycle when one is dosing really as low as 2ppm, although I admit that its hard to judge and I'm about to say that 3ppm is the better choice. 5ppm at the beginning of the cycle, 3ppm during the nitrite spike phase and back up to 5ppm for the phase after the nitrite spike would be my recommendation.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[danb]

Okay ill try upping it to 3ppm!

Thank you

 

[danb]

Well it seems to be going back to how it was so i think im going to put in a sponge from my other tank, i was unsure at the start of this cycle if my other tank was cycled or not, but; it must be by now.

The stats on my other tank are: 0 amm // 0 nitrite // 6.8 ph // nitrate 5 //

There have been over 26 fish in that tank for over 5 months so i presume it must be cycled now. Im going to add a lump of sponge in the filter from this tonight, do you think this will help?

 

[waterdrop]

MM can't hurt.

I've been looking this cycle over to try and see if there's anything we've missed. It seems to be a 180L/50G tank with a Tetratec 1200 running and I guess the media is probably ceramic rings, sponge and floss, right? Both the A-Bacs and N-Bacs seem to be pretty slow to develop but the pH has been kept up pretty well by the bicarb and I assume the temp has been stable at 84F/29C and we've had at least one 90% water change recently. I assume the light is off most of the time.

I really don't see anything wrong that I can figure out but its somewhat slow. Sometimes with big cannister filters I feel that they seem slower to process but the finally seem to come on all of a sudden and then stay cycled very solidly for the long run, but that's just a feeling. Has anybody else analyzed this fishless cycle?

~~waterdrop~~

 

[danb]

MM can't hurt.

I've been looking this cycle over to try and see if there's anything we've missed. It seems to be a 180L/50G tank with a Tetratec 1200 running and I guess the media is probably ceramic rings, sponge and floss, right? Both the A-Bacs and N-Bacs seem to be pretty slow to develop but the pH has been kept up pretty well by the bicarb and I assume the temp has been stable at 84F/29C and we've had at least one 90% water change recently. I assume the light is off most of the time.

I really don't see anything wrong that I can figure out but its somewhat slow. Sometimes with big cannister filters I feel that they seem slower to process but the finally seem to come on all of a sudden and then stay cycled very solidly for the long run, but that's just a feeling. Has anybody else analyzed this fishless cycle?

~~waterdrop~~

Just your self has analyzed this i think WD.

Yes thats correct about the filter, the temperature did start off at 29oc but krept up to 31.4oc for a few weeks and ive turned back down to 29oc now; would that have affected anything?

I did the 90% water change 4 days ago now.

aThanks for your help

 

[waterdrop]

The analyze part: that was me trying to get some more members to look over your cycle! No, that temp diff isn't something I'd worry about, probably made no difference at all. It may just be that this will be one of those ones that ends somewhere between days 70 and 80, we used to have a lot like that but have just had a run of quicker ones lately.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[danb]

well hopefully this has quickened it up.

I put some mature filter media in last night, added a little bit of ammonia. Tested ths morning, and instead of the test tube drops turning purple with the nitrite, it started off light blue, then turned purple. Also, the nitrate jumped to around 80ppm, i tested this again about an hour later and it was still at 80ppm so wasnt a false result.

Does that look like its kick started the cycle now?

 

[danb]

Well i got home tonight and my nitrite has dropped to 0, nitrate 80, ammonia 0, ph 8. Therefor im going to start my qualification week tonight! Ive added ammonia upto 5ppm and hopefully that will be me done!!