A Fishless Cycle Log Of Sorts

[Katch]

Day off today and nothing else to do so keeping a closer eye on the water (especially after the pH incident this morning).

4ppm Ammonia has all but gone to zero in less than 10 hours. pH has dropped back to 7.

After my 50% w/c Nirtites were still high but still on the chart just ~2ppm - now; 10 hours later nitrites are off the chart - I think it is safe to say I am in the spike.

I'm away for 4 days now but have someone to squirt 3ml of ammonia in for me each morning - have cut the dose by 1ml as I'm not around to keep an eye on water stats and don't want the pH to rocket again with out being here to fix it.

With any luck I'll get back to see nitrites dropping... fingers crossed!

PS - I have a couple of little ramshorns that have appeared as well as the trumpet. They seem very active and content picking at the patches of old algee from the last time the tank was running.

 

[Katch]

Right, back after 4 days;

Day 18

Nitrite and Nitrate off the chart.

Ammonia (dose T+7 hours) 1ppm

pH 5! or lower (lowest reading possible from my test)

pH crash... not ace.


So here is what I've done;

70% w/c and then added 4 tsps of bicarb to buffer my soft tap water a bit (I think my crash probably happened after the last water change took out the buffering of the previous bicarb)

pH back up to just over 8
Ammonia 0 (2ml added - up to ~2ppm)
Nitrite 1.5
Nitate still very high somewhere close to but not quite 100 (highest reading posible from my test)


Some questions;

How am I doing?

After if finish cycling should I keep a little bicarb in the water to keep it buffered?

Do I need to try and get the Nitrates down further with another w/c tomorrow?

 

[waterdrop]

During a fishless cycle there's no meaning to a water change less than down to the gravel. There are no fish to protect, which is all that a less than full water change does. Right now you are in the business of creating the best "bacterial growing soup" you can.

Yes, I'd do another one right down to the substrate until the siphon sucks air (unless you've got sand, lol.) Then I'd redose ammonia and bicarb.

No, bicarb is not my pick for the method of choice in raising KH/pH when fish are in. The first and most important rule is that you should not draw expectations about your fish water from the way your tank behaves during fishless cycling. It can be a whole different world after you stop cycling and have fish, and if at all possible, that's the way you want it.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Katch]

Ok so;

Checked this morning to see 0 Ammonia and maybe 1 Nitrite so gave the tank a 3ml shot before heading out.

Came back about 8 hours later to find Ammonia down to .5 and nitrite down to .1

Had enough time to do a 100% w/c to get the nitrates down.

After w/c dosed with bicarb and ammonia;

Stats;

pH ~8
NH3 ~5
NO2 0
NO3 ~12.5

lets see what happens in 12 hours...

 

[Katch]

Ammonia back to 0
Nitrite .25
Nitrate up to ~50

not there yet.

Will see if it zeros in the 24 hour window.

Question;

Does a fully stocked tank produce less than 5ppm per day. I only ask because if the fish produce the same ammount of ammonia as we use to cycle surely nitrates would rocket out of control every day as within less than 24 hours mine have increased more than 4 fold.

 

[waterdrop]

No, even an overstocked would rarely, probably never, reach 5ppm bioload level. The fishless cycle is designed specifically to reach as high a colony level is possible, without crossing over into encouraging the wrong species of autotrophs, so that the "drop-down" after the artificial ammonia souce is removed will result in a fledgling colony that will not "mini-spike" during the first 2 or 3 weeks.

Doing the 5ppm level is about the bare minimum we can do to maintain effectiveness after the drop-down. Some experienced cyclers would rather see the qualification be 8 or 10 hours rather than 12 hours, but in our experience you can just slip by with the one week 12 hour qualification level. It seems to eliminate nearly all chances of bad spiking during those first two weeks with fish and during that time the colonies should become so robust that they will move toward their 6 month major maturity level rather nicely.

So, bottom line is that 5ppm is all about bouncing in a level of bacterial colony robustness that will just squeak you through the starting gates, its not about matching the initial tank bioload, in my opinion. And so, no, you will definately -not- see nitrate buildup on anywhere near the level of the fishless cycle once you have a normal running tank with fish.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Katch]

24 hours after last Ammonia dose;

Ammonia 0
Nitrite ~0

4ml added

 

[Katch]

Oh and here's the actual tank; if you were interested.

 

[waterdrop]

Nice!.. always enjoy getting a peek at any tank I'm helping with, lol. WD

 

[OldMan47]

A very nice piece of wood you have there. It should provide lots of spaces for your eventual fish to explore or even to hide if they turn out to be a bit shy.

 

[Katch]

Another shot after a little more planting.

I managed to get a piece of roof slate (new) for £2 large enough to fill the back of the tank. Drilled a hole for the outflow and cut the inlet; I think it looks the biz! (Also made a little slate cave out of thick slate tile)

Added Java ferns (lots of tiny rhizomes on the left of the wood and the larger ones at the back) - Christmas moss on the top and some crypts (I think) in the foreground.

I poured boiling water over the wood and left it to soak for 3 days in a bucket outside but I'm still getting loads of tanins... hopefully they'll reduce over not too much time.

pH was on its way down again today so another near 100% w/c (made it easier to sort out the planting anyway).

 

[Katch]

Well this is a little odd... I mean I know you can get odd readings after a big water change but...

I added 3ml of Ammonia 5 hours ago after the big w/c.

Right now I have near 0 ammonia, near 0 nitrite and about 50 nitrates (my tap water after treating has 12.5).

Has my tank just cycled 3ppm in 5 hours?

 

[Katch]

The status quo;

tank is cycling ammonia in under 12 hours

nitrites are just under 2ppm after 12 dropping back to near 0 in 24.

and so we wait...

 

[Katch]

updated;

Day 28 - time flys when you got no fish...

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 2
Nitrate ~70 and climbing

I'm counting this as the first day out of the Nitrite spike phase in spite of previous data as I am unconfident of the results prior to getting the API kit.

Still waiting for that all elusive double zero.

 

[waterdrop]