Bojangles Fishless Cycle

[Tropicoll]

In that case I have no idea why the nitrate would drop. However, something else I do remember is that Miss Wiggle and Waterdrop (and maybe rabbut too) say that the nitrate test is an indication at best and just a pretty colour at worst!

Which tank is it on eBay? I've got my fingers crossed for you. I'm not allowed another one yet!

 

[waterdrop]

My father-in-law was a top-notch chemist his whole career and helped my son and I when we were learning and establishing how to use our freshwater test kit. He said right off that tests like we use for nitrate(NO3) (and particular to NO3) are notoriously difficult to design and inherently unreliable. He said the tests we've got are probably the very best you can do with reagents and colors but that you'd really need very expensive equipment probably to get it right. He was adamant that the shaking times were probably bare minimums and every bit of those shaking times on the back of the api card (in the case of api test) would need to be observed.

That said, my personal observations during fishless cycling seemed to jive with many others. There seemed to be plenty of wacky results during the cycling but after cycling was over and my filter settled down, I've found that the nitrate test seems to be a pretty steady thing for me, running along at 20ppm for a number of months and then lowering to 10ppm, where it has stayed ever since and is quite consistent.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Bojangles]

todays 12 hour tests

Ammonia - 0 (-3)
Nitrite - 3 maybe 4 but most probs still off the chart because there going purple again when drops hit water
Nitrate - 20+
PH 7.6

 

[Bojangles]

This morning test

Day 13

Ammonia - 0 (raised to 3)
Nitrite - Between 1 & 2
Nitrate 20
PH 7.6

Which tank is it on eBay? I've got my fingers crossed for you. I'm not allowed another one yet!

I withdrew my bid for the 190L when i bid on it the seller said it come with a stand then changed the it to having no stand

 

[Bojangles]

12 hour test

No change all the same as above minus me adding ammonia.

Thought i might have been seen nitrite start to drop by now tbh but fingers crossed for tomorrow

 

[Bojangles]

Todays tests 15 mins early because i have to be out by 8 am

Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0.25 ppm
Nitrate - 10 ppm
PH. 7.6

Massive drop in Nitrites which i am very happy about

Update

Did not bother going out at 8 am

So did the tests again

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 10
PH 7.6

 

[Tropicoll]

Wow! 0.25 to 0 in 15 minutes! Impressive!

 

[Bojangles]

Wow! 0.25 to 0 in 15 minutes! Impressive!

Was shocked when i did the test and seen it had dropped 0.25 ppm in 15 mins myself

Few days of zero readings and i can get fish

 

[Tropicoll]

Yay you!

I am hoping (with my one hand - knackered my thumb on my left hand) that I can do a partial tonight or tomorrow, prove the tank for the week and hopefully get me fish on Saturday too!

 

[Bojangles]

My test results at the moment are

Ammonia - 0 ppm
Nitrite - 0 ppm
Nitrate - 20 ppm
PH 7.6

Ammonia is going in 12 hours nitrites in about 15 hours

I am confused is my tank cycled or not ?

 

[Tropicoll]

*by no means the expert*

I would say not quite. All the advice seems to be getting both to drop in 12 hours. I guess you're close (very) to the end, possibly even in the final "proving period" where you are testing for a week to see everything drop in 12 hours.

Dunno, but I guess WD, or someone would be along soon.

C

 

[Bojangles]

*by no means the expert*

I would say not quite. All the advice seems to be getting both to drop in 12 hours. I guess you're close (very) to the end, possibly even in the final "proving period" where you are testing for a week to see everything drop in 12 hours.

Dunno, but I guess WD, or someone would be along soon.

C

Hopefully be there in next few days (fingers crossed)

 

[waterdrop]

Hi there Bo,

The part of your reporting that makes it a bit hard for us to say quickly is the reporting of time of day rather than simply "how many hours since ammonia was added."

You're giving us lots of info on how fast ammonia is dropping to zero, but whether nitrite is dropping to zero within 24 or 12 hours is harder for me to dig back and find.

Trop is stating it correctly I believe. Your goal is to put in 4ppm (even trying to trace the color slightly darker (if API) such that you might declare it to be 5ppm) and then find at your 12-hour-later test that both ammonia and nitrite are clearly reading zero. Once that is accomplished once, you can allow yourself (LOL) to get excited and consider yourself to be in the "qualifying week" where you then continue to add 5ppm at the 24 hour mark and continue hopefully to see double zero readings at the 12 hour mark each day all week long. The recommendation of a "qualifying week" has gradually come about because a fair number of people get fooled by a single double-zero test set that then backtracks on them a bit a few days later.

All of it is just making your two colonies more and more robust, which gives you lots more confidence as the first fish go in and normal life with your tank gets underway. Its a great feeling to have and well worth it in my opinion.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Bojangles]

These are the Nitrite results from sat

Sat 22nd - Nitrate was 5ppm+
Sun 23rd - Nitrite had dropped from 5+ppm down to 0ppm in 24 hours
Monday 24th - Nitrite had again dropped from 5+ppm to 0 in 24 hours
Tuesday 25th - As above

I topped up with Ammonia at 8AM this morning then tested water again at 9AM results where as follows

Ammonia 4 to 5 ppm
Nitrite round about 4ppm mark
Nitrate - 20ppm

Been testing Nitrite every few hours and since nitrite peaked at 4 ppm this morning it has slowely been dropping during course of day and nirite test at this moment in time is

Nitrite 0.50ppm

Hope this is more helpful

 

[waterdrop]

Excellent. Always fun to have a day where you can watch a trend in detail as a kind of learning thing. Sounds like nitrite(NO2) today is all the way down to 0.50ppm in 5 hours if I'm reading right. Very good chance it'll be at zero on the test that's nearest 12 hours from "add" time. If that's the case then you met the test to begin a qualifying week and hopefully you'll be able to drop both ammonia and nitrite(NO2) from 4-5ppm ammonia down to zero ppm within 12 hours or less all week long.

~~waterdrop~~