Beginning My Fishless Cycle

[atc223]

Okay, I've read through a few of the articles on cycling in general, and fishless cycling specifically, and I think I am fairly literate in the topic. However, I want to be certain that I have not misunderstood anything, and that I am not forgetting anything!

I have set up my tank. Filter, heater, thermometer, and lights are all set up and running. I have my rocks in place, as well as about half the plants I think I'll want. I've put a small amount of rocks from a mature tank in as well. I'd like to put more but the tank they from which they came is tiny, and I don't want to take allthe rocks from it.

I have bought pH, Ammonia, NO[sub]2[/sub][sup]-[/sup], and NO[sub]3[/sub][sup]-[/sup] tests, and I have tested and established results from my tap water, which are as follows:

pH: 6.5​

Ammonia: 0.25 (Out of curiosity, should there be ammonia in my tap water?)​

NO[sub]2[/sub][sup]-[/sup]: 0​

NO[sub]3[/sub][sup]-[/sup]: 0​

I had some trouble reading the tests, which I am attributing to my inexperience. A few of the results appeared a bit inconclusive, as if, for example, the pH might have been 6, 6.5, or 7. Will I develop better skills at reading the tests as I gain experience?

Though I am not particularly well-read on how this will come in to play later, I went ahead and tested the general hardness and the carbonate hardness, which both came out to zero.

My temperature reads, right now, at 84 F/29 C and I am going to purchase ammonia, a small medicine dropper, and an air stone literally as soon as I post this. I anticipate that the water temperture will continue to rise, because I think I have the heater turned all the way up. I believe the article I read on the topic suggested a temperature of around 88-90 degrees F for bacteria growth. Do I have the right idea here?

I have been considering getting a mature media filter to accelerate the process, but I have not made up my mind yet. If I do so, what is the best way to position it? Also, how many hours of light should I provide for an effective cycling process? And when new plants, rocks, wood, etc. are added to the tank, is that likely to change the pH, Ammonia, NO[sub]2[/sub][sup]-[/sup], NO[sub]3[/sub][sup]-[/sup], GH, or KH levels?


Thanks to any and all who can help me out! Any suggestions, comments, questions, etc. are welcomed!

 

[OpalineAqua]

When you add the wood or rocks some types of rocks can change the hardness of the water, and be careful because there are some types of wood that will stain the water an orangish color.

 

[atc223]

Thank you for the advice on wood; this had not occurred to me. I added one rock today and two new plants, however no wood. I will be checking the hardness of the water tomorrow and will make a note if it changes.

 

[toshapetriji]

Your general understanding seems ok. Not sure why you transfered rocks from a mature tank, they will not help your cycle, however the mature media you talk about certainly would.

With mature media in place you may cycle in a couple of weeks and it shoud be placed inside your own filter.

A heavily planted tank will certainly help to reduce Nitrite but you have some way to go before seeing that in a significant amount. Ammonia can certainly be found in tap water but as your bacteria grow this will reduce to zero.

 

[philak]

" I went ahead and tested the general hardness and the carbonate hardness, which both came out to zero."

This was for tap water? Seems like a very odd result for tap water, i've only ever seen results like that from RO water.Either your tap water has a extremely low mineral content which may not be good for fish or you have a testing problem.

 

[OldMan47]

A small amount of ammonia detected in new tap water is not unusual. It comes from breaking the bond of chloramines to allow the chlorine to be neutralized by your dechlorinator.
The rocks from a mature aquarium do indeed have some of the right bacteria on their surface and the trace of ammonia may keep them alive a short time until a proper source of ammonia can be obtained for a fishless cycle. Bacteria grow on all surfaces, not just filter media surfaces.
The zero KH and GH is troubling. It is possible but is seldom seen in any practical situation. Please re-read the instructions for your testing chemicals and check again. If you are counting drops before conversion, you may be looking at the wrong color first. Another thought on the results you have, based on your statement about pH, is that we do not recommend that anyone use any test strips. Instead you should be using a liquid type testing kit, the kind with the little test tubes. The test strips are notorious for giving misleading readings.

 

[atc223]

Thanks for the advice. My ammonia test kit is the liquid kind, and the others are the strip kind. That could account for my strange GH and KH readings. Guess the next thing on my list is a more accurate, liquid test kit.

Also, I did add the mature media filter in to my filter this morning, so hopefully that will speed things along.

 

[waterdrop]

In answer to one of your earlier questions, if you know the direction of water flow inside the filter you can optimize the mature media insertion by placing it such that water flows through it prior to flowing through your main sponge or other "biomedia."

Sounds like you are getting off to a good start. Its good to have a thread like this and to keep interacting. The articles are good but do not cover everything.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[atc223]

I'm glad you mentioned that because when I put it in there this morning I was wondering where to put it and actually ended up placing it so that the water passes through it second. Now I've got it going the way you suggested - thanks!

 

[waterdrop]

Great! Can't hurt!

~~waterdrop~~

 

[atc223]

" I went ahead and tested the general hardness and the carbonate hardness, which both came out to zero."

This was for tap water? Seems like a very odd result for tap water, i've only ever seen results like that from RO water.Either your tap water has a extremely low mineral content which may not be good for fish or you have a testing problem.

Okay, I retested this today and it turned out I had read the results wrong. My result for GH is 30 and for KH I got 40. Does that sound better?


Today's results:
pH: 7.5
Ammonia: 0.5

 

[waterdrop]

I assume you're giving GH/KH in ppm. If that's the case could you convert it to german degrees of hardness for us? The vast majority of kits just have you count drops until the color change and that equals the degrees and that's how we normally discuss hardness.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[OldMan47]

OK, so you have fairly high GH and KH if those are numbers in degrees or very soft water if those numbers are ppm. Either one is easier to believe than a straight zero. The races of ammonia could still be from the tap water. Have you tested it yet?

 

[atc223]

I assume you're giving GH/KH in ppm. If that's the case could you convert it to german degrees of hardness for us? The vast majority of kits just have you count drops until the color change and that equals the degrees and that's how we normally discuss hardness.

~~waterdrop~~

I did give GH and KH in ppm. Converted to german degrees, my results were as follows:
GH: 1.676
KH: 2.235
With these results I did not know how many decimal places to include, so I rounded up on the third for each.

 

[waterdrop]

I would round on the first decimal and just use the resulting single integer when in discussions of hardness.

With those numbers you have very soft water just like mine. It will be an issue.

Regular KH readings will be helpful for you as they will give you much more advanced warning of when pH is going to drop. When KH drops below 4, the fishless cycling process could easily use up the buffer and cause pH to drop to 6.2 or lower, stopping the process.

Your tap pH was 6.5? But your latest tank reading was 7.5? Perhaps this is the ammonia raising the pH. If the pH seems to hold at 7.5 then there's probably not a reason yet to consider added buffering.

~~waterdrop~~