Starting A Fishless Cycle

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[danb]

is it normal for the nitrite to go up a little? I added ammonia last night upto 5ppm at 8pm tested this morning at 8am, ammonia was back down to 0 but the nitrite was at .5; is this normal? I presume this is just building up the bacteria?

 

[waterdrop]

This is the way it behaves when its not quite there yet - you still get traces of one or the other. It just throws the start of your qualifying week back a little. WD

 

[OldMan47]

You are doing fine DanB. There can be no progress without change and growth. To get your nitrite processors to grow, they indeed need to see nitrites coming from the ammonia processors. A jump start is not instantaneous but takes a bit of time to work its way through. When I clone a filter by using the existing filter as a starter source, I often get done in about a week but I never see it complete the same day.

 

[danb]

Thank you.

Ive had stable results on the 12 hour mark now for the last few days. The nitrites are going up in that 12 hour period, but when it gets to 12 hours, they are more or less at 0. Both ammonia, and nitrite. Is this normal?

Cheers

 

[danb]

anyone?

 

[waterdrop]

You have entered double zeros (zero ppm for ammonia and for nitrite) for what I presume is a 12 hours (hours since ammonia was added) test and you've entered that in your log for 6 days straight.

But then in the post right above this you say "they are more or less at zero." Are both ammonia and nitrite really testing at zero or are you rounding down to zero?

Regardless of which, you are clearly either basically already cycled or very, very close. Of course there's always a small chance of getting a spike after adding fish (no system is perfect) but in the vast majority of cases the biofilter has been really solid after a qualification week like you've been doing.

So its really down to planning the final logistics of whether you can actually get the fish you want for your first stocking (its always nice to take advantage of the fact that the colonies are at a level higher than most any reasonable first stocking will be. Or, the tank can hold just fine by you continuing to just put in ammonia, while the fish come in. Are you thinking about the upcoming weekend for the big water change?

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[danb]

Sorry, i didnt explain well. My more or less, i mean if i test it a couple of hours before the hour mark there are traces of nitrite. However on the 12 hour mark for the last 5 days its been double 0's.

I need to do the water change at the earliest available opportunity. I nearly lost 1 of my fish yesterday trapped behind the juwel internal filter, today i did lose one. I need to get them out of that tank asap. I had to pull the filter off the tank yesterday to free the fish that was stuck, he was practically dead. When i had put the filter back there must have been a small bit of gravel creating an opening, when the fish were sleeping it must have got stuck between the filter and the glass and just died

Poor guy.

 

[waterdrop]

Go for it! You look to be well-cycled and nobody can totally predict it anyway so you just have to do the big water change (-don't recharge with ammonia) and acclimate the fish into the new tank and log the event in your notebook, starting the clock on your new maintenance of the tank with fish. Be aware that you'll still want to test twice a day and be sure the filter doesn't mini-cycle on you.

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[OldMan47]

Your new tank is ready to try with fish as soon as you do the big reset water change in my opinion.

 

[danb]

cheers when i do the water change should i add 50% water from my current fish tank and 40% fresh tap water or just all 90% fresh tap water?

Danny

 

[waterdrop]

Tap water (conditioned and roughly temp matched) should be just fine. WD

 

[danb]

OK no worries, just didnt no if i should add some of the water from the tank the fish are currently in.

 

[danb]

well the fish are now in their new home and seem to really like it Nitrate is abit high so will do a water change tomorrow!

Thanks for all your help guys.

Fish arent used to the power of the new filter . . . poor guys, dont think they got much sleep last night.

 

[waterdrop]

Congrats!