Tropical_fish's Fishless Cycle - Complete

[Tropical_Fish]

It seems a good idea to keep a log on here so some of the more experienced can keep an eye on what's going on and offer any advice.



I've not yet put a heater in so I'm starting at Room Temperature (which I am aware will take longer)


Day 1 - 13/07/2009 - 8.30am

3.5 ml of ammonia added to start the cycle of - from the calculator this should be just under 5ppm
Not tested due to the fact that it won't have gone anywhere yet!


Out of curiosity - tested at 5.00pm to see exactly what I expected - Ammonia showing as more than 4ppm (less than 8ppm) so probably bang on the 5ppm I put in there!

 

[glolite]

So you're off and cycling good luck!

 

[Harlequins]

good luck,i'm on my 7th day

 

[glolite]

Good to see all the newbies being patient. Full marks

 

[Tropical_Fish]

Heater added today and temperature increased from 21°C to 29°C. Is 29°C ok? How long should I wait until I test again? I figured not much would happen for at least 72 hours?

 

[Tropical_Fish]

Day 3 - 15/07/2009

Tested for ammonia again - no change yet

 

[sjolliff]

Day 3 - 15/07/2009

Tested for ammonia again - no change yet

Hi
im on day 18, not much change to mine, you wanna be testing every 24 hours, untill the ammonia drops to zero, then every 12 hours.
have a read of the beginners section, there is alot to read i put it off for a while, but when you do you will think i should of read this sooner,
have you got liquid test or strip?
good luck steve

 

[Tropical_Fish]

already read it and re-read it and re-read it!

Not much point testing every 24 hours at the moment as it won't move very quickly - so will stick to testing roughly every 48-72 hours or so until I see a change.

I'm using the API Freshwater Master Kit.

Going to try and get a little mature filter media from a friends pond over the next few days - hopefully that will boost things a bit

 

[sjolliff]

Ok i test every 24hr to go a full log, im hopefully getting some mature media this sunday off a member on here.

I dint know you could use pond water, thought it had to be from a tropical tank.

by the way dint mean to sound patronizing in my last post

 

[Tropical_Fish]

yeah - I asked the question on here the other day and was told it's the same bacteria for cold water and tropical so pond filter media is fine - biggest problem is that my friends is very big bits of media - and it's been difficult so far to organise picking some up!

 

[sjolliff]

Cant you cut a section off?
the member on here siad when i get the mature media sunday it should take around a week to be there if done properly

 

[Tropical_Fish]

Day 5 - 17/07/2009 6.00pm

Tested for ammonia - No change
Tested for Nitrites - 0ppm
Tested pH - 7.9


Following those tests I put the mature media from a friends pond with a bit of the filter gunk into my external filter.

My Water went dirty for a few minutes then quickly cleaned itself.


So questions following todays bits:

1. pH Any reason why my pH is 7.9 in my tank when my tap water is 7.0 - does it matter for cycling?

2. How long should I wait to test again following the introduction of mature media? Should I test pretty soon? Or wait 12 hours or so?

 

[Tropical_Fish]

Just noticed I have a stow away which must have come in the filter gunk from the pond, it's white about 6-7mm long worm shaped type thing that wriggles about like crazy to move about in the water.

Is it anything to worry about? will it die off naturally? Should I try to sccop it out? etc

 

[sjolliff]

Just noticed I have a stow away which must have come in the filter gunk from the pond, it's white about 6-7mm long worm shaped type thing that wriggles about like crazy to move about in the water.

Is it anything to worry about? will it die off naturally? Should I try to sccop it out? etc

Sounds like planaria
http/www.google.co.uk/search?q=planaria&...lient=firefox-a

 

[Tropical_Fish]

yep looks like planaria - thanks for the link

They seem to be harmless but I'll try and remove it just to be safe (could be fun!)

Couldn't find any info on whether they will die off with no food/fish in the tank?