Back From Trip Starting Fishless Cycle On 10 Gallon Again

[julielynn47]

Okay, I am back home and ready to give this another try.   
 
When I left on the 9th I took all the media out of the filter housing and put it over in the 55 gallon. So if any bacteria was still living it would not die.
 
I just checked the water in the 10 and the ammonia is at .25 and the nitrite is also at .25    What is weird about this is when I left nitrite was at 0. Ammonia was at 1ppm
(if you remember for whatever reasons the cycle must have crashed. I was at 0 nitrite and 1.0 ammonia and I just left it like it was and went on my trip.)
 
So the ammonia has dropped, and the nitrite increased, and there is no media at all in the filter. Maybe there is bacteria living in the sand, I don't know.  I am going to put the media back in the filter and see what it all reads tomorrow.   
 
I have not done any water changes. I am just going to see if any bacteria on the media will have these readings sitting at 0 tomorrow. If they do, then I will add the ammonia and let the cycle start again. If not then what I plan is to do a large water change, and then add ammonia and start over.
 
I hope I have not confused anyone because I feel a bit confused myself at what I just typed. LOL   But anyway, stay tuned folks...for more of my adventures of a first time fishless cycle

 

[Byron]

So the ammonia has dropped, and the nitrite increased, and there is no media at all in the filter. Maybe there is bacteria living in the sand, I don't know.
 

 
All surfaces covered by water in an aquarium will develop a bio-film.  Bacteria of many species will colonize this film, being sticky; bacteria adhere to surfaces.  This occurs throughout the aquarium, on every grain of substrate, on plant leaves, tank walls, decor, etc.  There are more bacteria living in the substrate than in the filter (or should be).  This includes the nitrifiers.
 
As soon as ammonia is present, from any source, Nitrosomonas species bacteria will appear; this may take a few hours to a few weeks depending upon the tank.  Once these bacteria produce nitrite, the Nitrospira species bacteria appear; these take a bit longer to multiply.  This happens in all tanks, with or without a filter.
 
I cannot explain the numbers of tests here, but I wouldn't worry.
 
Byron.

 

[julielynn47]

Absolutely nothing has changed since yesterday when I put the media back in the tank.  I am thinking maybe I just need to forget fishless cycling and do a fish in cycle.  It will be a lot of work keeping the water changed, but I just don't know if I want to deal with this anymore.  I would have thought that the media would have helped a little that I put in there yesterday. But I guess not.

 

[Byron]

Absolutely nothing has changed since yesterday when I put the media back in the tank.  I am thinking maybe I just need to forget fishless cycling and do a fish in cycle.  It will be a lot of work keeping the water changed, but I just don't know if I want to deal with this anymore.  I would have thought that the media would have helped a little that I put in there yesterday. But I guess not.

 
Cycling can take anywhere from several days to several weeks.  The biology and water chemistry of every aquarium is sufficiently different to allow this.

 

[julielynn47]

I am going to give it another go, but I was hoping for more success from the media than what I got.   I might purchase some of the bacteria in a bottle as see if that helps. I guess it can't hurt.

 

[Byron]

I am going to give it another go, but I was hoping for more success from the media than what I got.   I might purchase some of the bacteria in a bottle as see if that helps. I guess it can't hurt.

 
No, it can't hurt.  And it does speed things up; there is scientific evidence (from Dr. Tim Hovanec) that even the products like Nutrafin Cycle that contain the "wrong" nitrifiers do speed up the cycling by a few days.  I have used Seachem's Stability, and I would use Tetra's SafeStart by preference except no one locally carries it, and when I need one of these in an "urgent" situation, I have to get it locally.  So the Tetra would be my first choice if you can get it.  Dr. Tim's One and Only is a full process in itself, start to finish.  As you are clearly "started," I would not go with this one myself.

 

[julielynn47]

Going to Wal-Mart today and try to get some Safe Start. I hope they have it, if not I will order it.  If one bottle does 200 gallons, as it says it does, then I should be easily able to use it with the 10 gallon and the 75 gallon.

 

[Byron]

Going to Wal-Mart today and try to get some Safe Start. I hope they have it, if not I will order it.  If one bottle does 200 gallons, as it says it does, then I should be easily able to use it with the 10 gallon and the 75 gallon.

 
Buy the smallest size.  Once these are opened, most advise they do not last long.  So use it up (within reason of course).

 

[julielynn47]

Wal Mart had it, and so I know I can pick up more if I need too.  It says to put in the whole bottle if you are starting up an aquarium.  This tank has been started for awhile, but I am going to go ahead and pour the whole bottle in. I can get another one for the 75 if this one works.   
 
I just added my ammonia. I put in the same amount as I did before.  I guess I will see how this goes this time around.

 

[julielynn47]

After the ammonia had been put in and the Safe Start, the readings were 1.0 for ammonia and .25 for nitrites, after a few hours
 
This morning the ammonia reading is .50  Nitrites are at 0.    I think this stuff might actually work!!

 

[julielynn47]

This mornings readings...
 
Ammonia .25
Nitrite 0
 
I don't know if I should wait until Ammonia reads 0 as well to add more ammonia or add it today.  The bottled bacteria are obviously working, but have not pulled it to 0 yet.

 

[Byron]

This mornings readings...
 
Ammonia .25
Nitrite 0
 
I don't know if I should wait until Ammonia reads 0 as well to add more ammonia or add it today.  The bottled bacteria are obviously working, but have not pulled it to 0 yet.

 
Given the quick rise and fall of ammonia and nitrite, I would consider the tank "cycled" and not go adding more ammonia.  The bacteria are not going to die, they will go into a sort of suspended animation or hibernation (to use words that hopefully will make sense) until their food is again present.

 

[julielynn47]

Okay, this is going to sound ridiculous, but I have to ask this question.  
 
I had a nerite snail, that crawled out of my 55 gallon, completely out of the tank down the side and onto the floor. Of course, it died.  I couldn't find it in the tank, and then it was found on the floor dead. I guess it couldn't find its way back to the water. This happened while I was away on my trip.  I put him back in the tank hoping it was not dead, because it did not smell bad. But after a couple of days it has not moved at all. So I guess it is indeed deceased.  
 
Would it be okay to put this snail in this 10 gallon tank and just let nature take its course with it?  That would produce a little ammonia to feed the colony until I am able to get to the big city for shrimp. 

 

[Byron]

Okay, this is going to sound ridiculous, but I have to ask this question.  
 
I had a nerite snail, that crawled out of my 55 gallon, completely out of the tank down the side and onto the floor. Of course, it died.  I couldn't find it in the tank, and then it was found on the floor dead. I guess it couldn't find its way back to the water. This happened while I was away on my trip.  I put him back in the tank hoping it was not dead, because it did not smell bad. But after a couple of days it has not moved at all. So I guess it is indeed deceased.  
 
Would it be okay to put this snail in this 10 gallon tank and just let nature take its course with it?  That would produce a little ammonia to feed the colony until I am able to get to the big city for shrimp. 

 
I would not deliberately add a dead snail to a fish tank.  There is more than just ammonia involved.
 
Shrimp--I assume you mean the small shrimp that will live in the tank?  [Some people add dead shrimp meat to "cycle," you don't want that.]
 
The ammonia are not going to die off [see the linked article for some interesting data].  Also, do you have live plants in this tank?  With shrimp I would assume so...they will help in all this too.  I have a 20g tank used to quarantine new fish acquisitions.  It can sit without fish for several months (I think just over a year was the longest period) and then I might add 20-30 fish.  I have live plants including floating.  There is no "cycling" in this tank because there has been ammonia for the plants and bacteria all along, however minimal.

 

[julielynn47]

Okay, no dead snail.   And yes, I mean live shrimp. This is going to be a shrimp tank. It is heavily planted, or what I consider heavily.