Ammonia Dropping Very Quickly

[mossonthemoon]

I am probably just being grumpy because I am a little fed up with playing with ammonia, but I'm doing my cycle and my ammonia is dropping very quickly. I am adding around 10ml to my 180ml tank, testing after I think it has circulated, getting a reading of around 4-5ppm, then checking again later in the day (say mid-morning then around 5pm) and it is back down to 1 or 2. My nitrates and nitrites are still too high for the cycle to be complete (though they are decreasing). Is it normal for ammonia to drop so quickly? I should pay closer attention but I would estimate that I checked after about 7 hours last time.

I feel like I am adding ammonia too often now, but from what I can tell the test kit is working well. (I've checked against a measured sample, etc - I'm a biochemist so this should be easy to me. )

 

[Crossfire]

I am probably just being grumpy because I am a little fed up with playing with ammonia, but I'm doing my cycle and my ammonia is dropping very quickly. I am adding around 10ml to my 180ml tank, testing after I think it has circulated, getting a reading of around 4-5ppm, then checking again later in the day (say mid-morning then around 5pm) and it is back down to 1 or 2. My nitrates and nitrites are still too high for the cycle to be complete (though they are decreasing). Is it normal for ammonia to drop so quickly? I should pay closer attention but I would estimate that I checked after about 7 hours last time.

I feel like I am adding ammonia too often now, but from what I can tell the test kit is working well. (I've checked against a measured sample, etc - I'm a biochemist so this should be easy to me. )

Why are you complaining? It just means your filter bacteria are hard at work! Your cycle is almost done

It does seem to be a lot of ammonia, are you using the TFF calculator?

 

[mossonthemoon]

The calculator asked for something just under 10ml, which is what I had calculated, and it does bring me to the right spot, but it drops very quickly. The advice everywhere suggests needing to add it every 12 hours, so I guess I'm surprised that I am already having to add after much less than that. But I hope it's almost done! I guess every tank will behave a bit differently.

 

[phantomlink]

Your cycle is going well, this phase is the longest part though going from Nitrites to Nitrates. Just do some water changes to lower the Nitrates but in time you will see the Nitrites just vanish overnight

 

[Aquascaper]

As you're doing a fishless cycle you don't need to worry about the nitrates and doing water changes (unless you get lots of algae).

I'm adding 12ml of ammonia solution to get to 5-6 ppm and this goes to 0ppm within 12hrs but my nitrites are off the scale at the moment with a small amount of nitrates (10-15ppm)

Keep adding the ammonia as you are and test for nitrites, you should see a huge spike which will take a while to go. Once the nitrites are doing the same as the ammonia, dropping to zero in 12hrs, and you're nitrates are rising the cycle is complete. Test for all three for a week while continuing to add ammonia and as long as they are stable, 0ppm ammonia & nitrites after 12hrs and rising nitrates, you are ready for fish. Do a large water change to get the nitrates down and add the fish.

 

[mossonthemoon]

Thanks! My nitrites did spike massively and I couldn't get a proper reading. They are now not too high, But I'm not really sure where on the scale they belong. It's paler than 5ppm, but very pink so I am guessing 3-4. They seem to be stuck there. I just added more ammonia for the second time today. I can't wait for my nitrites to go down.

 

[Aquascaper]

It's the longest part of the cycle unfortunately.

The bacteria feeding on the Ammonia have to be fed by you, which is a gradual increase from nothing, whereas the bacteria feeding on Nitrites start off with a huge dose already in the tank due to the Ammonia bacterial output so it takes longer for then to have an impact. Some suggest a partial water change to reduce these levels as it will cause problems but I disagree as you only have to wait for the Nitrites to build back anyway to feed the new bacteria.

 

[mossonthemoon]

Thanks for the advice! It has been a few days now and my ammonia isn't dropping quite down to 0ppm, but it was very close today. My nitrites were 0 though! And after having very low nitrates for two tests, I got a reading today. I can't remember off the top of my head, but it was in the midrange on the colour chart. I was very happy to see 0 nitrites.

 

[Electric Warrior]

Dont even worry about the nitrates because you will remove all of those by doing the massive 90% water change the night before you get fish. The only time you have to worry about nitrate in a fishless cycle is if they get very high, and simultaneously cause your PH to crash, stalling you cycle (this happened to me, possibly because I have very soft water). At this point now, you only really need to keep dosing ammonia to about 2ppm (but only once every 24hrs), and when you can clear that completely within twelve hours for 5-7 days, you are good.

 

[mossonthemoon]

Thanks, I haven't really been checking nitrates unless I have felt there has been a big change in the tank. The nitrites finally bottoming out made me want to check, and I was checked before when ammonia was dropping to zero in less than a day. I assume planting will help somewhat with nitrates as well, so I'm not worried. I just found it interesting that I finally did get a reading again.

 

[Electric Warrior]

Thanks, I haven't really been checking nitrates unless I have felt there has been a big change in the tank. The nitrites finally bottoming out made me want to check, and I was checked before when ammonia was dropping to zero in less than a day. I assume planting will help somewhat with nitrates as well, so I'm not worried. I just found it interesting that I finally did get a reading again.

Yeah, after I finished my cycle and planted my tank, put fish in, etc., I have never seen my nitrates go above 10. But during my cycle, my nitrates were over 100, and the PH dropped to 6 or lower, so I had to do several massive WC's and add bicarbonate of soda regularly, just to keep the PH from crashing.