65l Fishless Cycle.......please Add Any Comments

[Ginga@139]

Ok Added 3.5ml of ammonia at about 9am this morning
been out all day.. had great day thanks
so results as below
How are these results for 12hrs???
10th test
9pm sunday 16th
Ammonia 2ppm
Nitrates 5ppm
Nitrites 2.0ppm

so conculsion
ammoinia up to 2ppm from 0.25 this morning
Nitrates same at 5ppm
nitrites up to 2ppm from 1ppm this morning

please tell me what you think

8am 16th sunday
9th Test
Ammonia 0.25ppm
Nitrates 5ppm
Nitrites 1.0ppm



8th Test
Ammonia 2.0ppm
Nitrates 5ppm
Nitrites 2.0ppm
PH 8

7th Test
14/08/09
Ammonia 0.0ppm
Nitrates 5ppm
Nitrites 2.0ppm

was suprized to see ammonia at "O"
nitrates dropped to 5 and nitrotes the same
Do i now add another 3ml of ammonia to the tank???

6th Test
13/08/09
Ammonia 1.0ppm
Nitrates 10ppm
Nitrites 2.0ppm




12/08/09
5th Test
Ammonia Lighter than 2ppm but not quite 1ppm
Nitrates 40ppm
Nitrites 2ppm

11/08/09 8.15pm
4th Test
Ammonia 2.0ppm
Nitrates 40ppm
Nitrites 2.0ppm



so were these figuress going??
Are they going in right direction


3rd Test 10/08/09
8.30pm
PH 7.6
Ammonia 4ppm
Nitrates 20ppm
Nitrites 2ppm




2nd Test 9/8/09
8pm
Ph 7.6
Ammonia .. 4.0 ppm but not quite light enough to be 2.0ppm
Nitrates ... looks lighter than 40ppm but not quite 20 ppm
Nitrites 5ppm



1st test 8/8/09
8pm
PH 7.6
Ammonia 4 ppm
Nitrates 40ppm
Nitrites 2ppm

 

[OldMan47]

What I see is that you added some ammonia and now have shown a nice response from the ammonia processing bacteria. At the 12 hour point the nitrite processors are not quite keeping up but don't forget that each 1 ppm of ammonia becomes more than 2.5 ppm of nitrite so they are also moving a lot of nitrites through. You are not close to being finished but both groups of bacteria are evident and seem to be doing their job just a little less well than we would like. From here it is just a matter of growing both populations and you will be ready for fish.

 

[Ginga@139]

Great , so atleast im moving in the right direction..
so my thinking is by tomorrow evening ie 17th or 24hrs from now
most or all of the ammonia should have been eaten up( back to Oppm) and the nitrites should be lower too ???
Is that correct??
still dont get my head round the nitrites to nitrates bit dont suppose you have a simple mans answer

 

[OldMan47]

I think you have the right idea of what to expect. It depends when your ammonia gets to zero whether or not the nitrites will have a chance to make noticeable progress before your next sample. Every bit of ammonia that you process, adds a little over 2.5 ppm of nitrites to the tank. That is what the nitrite processing bacteria have to work with. Needless to say, at this point in your cycle that is a lot of nitrites. The nitrite processing bacteria are doing their best to turn the nitrites into the much safer nitrates but they have a huge amount to deal with so it is not too surprising that they can't keep up yet. Give them time and they will build their numbers to where they can move all of the nitrites right through, but they are just not there yet. Nothing but plants and water changes will remove nitrates so when you have those, even though they are much less hazardous to your fish, you will deal with them using periodic water changes to just dilute them. The typical maintenance approach to nitrates is to change from about 15% to about 30% of the water once a week. That would be after you have fish in the tank and your cycle is stable.