Can This Be Right? Fishless Cycle Guidance

[LDBartholow]

Greetings! Hope everyone is having a great day. I've researched fishless cycling until my eyes bled, so I feel I have a good grasp of how it is SUPPOSED to work. With that said, I am a newbie, and ran into a peculiar situation.

Last Thursday (Jan 3), I set up my new 20 gallon long tank for fishless cycling with the following:

• Flourite substrate
• Hollowed out driftwood decoration (Top Fin fake)
• AquaClear/Fluval 50 HOB filter
• Fluval 100w heater
• Tap water treated with Prime
• Ace 10% ammonia to 5ppm

I did NOT add any old media to the tank. I simply cranked up the heat, turned on the filter and let it do its thing. I did not do any water testing until Sunday. All testing occurred at 6:45 am/pm.

Sunday morning - I was shocked to already have a nitrite spike. As the post on this forum stated, the minute I added the drops to the vial, it turned dark purple immediately and as stated, it did turn this murkish dark green purple color when I just let it sit there. I didn't expect it to happen that fast, especially since I did not add any media from an established tank. Ammonia was still about 3ppm and stayed that way all day.
Monday morning - My ammonia reading was already below 1ppm. I added enough ammonia to bring it back to roughly 4ppm.
Monday evening - 12 hours later when I returned home from work, ammonia had already dropped below 1ppm. It wasn't quite yellow. I added a dose of ammonia to bring it back to 4ppm.
Tuesday morning - Roughly 12 hours after adding ammonia, definite zero ammonia reading. Added more ammonia to bring it to roughly 4ppm and went to work.
Tuesday evening - Roughly 12 hours had past. Ammonia reading was below 1ppm, but not quite zero. Still a twinge of green. Topped off ammonia to 4ppm.
Wednesday morning - Same thing. Almost zero ammonia, added to 4ppm.
Wednesday evening - I fully planted the tank. Same thing. 12 hours, ammonia drops not quite to zero, but close enough

During this entire week, I did not test nitrites other than the initial test. This morning, I tested nitrites, and my nitrite reading was a very, very pale lavender. Definitely under 1ppm, but not quite zero. A nitrate test has not been performed.

My question - Is this possible and would this be considered "cycled". Did I mess something up? All my research led me to believe this process would take weeks, not A week. Your knowledge is greatly appreciated! Here is a picture I took on Wednesday evening after planting. Cloudy water due to the Flourite. I don't think I rinsed it as well as I thought I did.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

It can happen that fast, but rarely. The question is, where is your water coming from? What's the ph of the tap water, did you test you tap water for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate? If you have a bit of ammonia in your water naturally, its possible your water has a fairly high concentration of the bacteria you are trying to cultivate.


Things look good according to the tests you've done. Personally, I wouldn't dose the ammonia every 12 hours. Even when doing the 12 hour tests, you should still only dose every 24, but you certainly don't seem to be hurting the fish any. BTW, it because of cases like this that some folks who don't do any kind of cycle process believe that 'cycling' the tank is a waste of time. But, this is an extreme case at one end of the scale, then there are folks like DaizeUk, etc, who have to wait weeks just to see the initial drop in ammonia.

The MEAN is somewhere around 6 weeks for a full cycle. So, seeing a case take about 1 week balances the case where the cycle takes 3+ months. It is frustrating for those folks to see a cycle like this, but it can happen.

Were any of the items in your tank used at one time? Is this a brand new tank, or was it used?


BTW, your tank looks amazing! Great scape!

 

[TwoTankAmin]

I would say you have actually provided too little information for one to be able to make sense of your readings. I am assuming the readings are accurate and the test done correctly. But with folks new to the hobby, there is always the possibility for "operator error" when testing. Without any form of seeding or addition of a viable bacteria starter, it is not possible for a completely new tank to process 2 ppm of ammonia in 3 days and over 4 ppm in 4 days. Moreover it is even less likely that a tank is processing what seems to be 4+ ppm or more of nitrite in 3 days as the nitrite oxidizers take longer to build up than the ammonia oxidizers. So,

-What test kits are you using and what is the date on them- is it an Expiration date or a Bottling date?
-What was the source of all the items you mentioned, i.e. gravel, fake wood and anything else you put into the tank at the outset? Were they brand new or hand me downs/used?
-Regarding Prime, what dosage did you use and then did you add more prime after the first dose? If so at what dosages and when?
-Cranked up the heater is not a temperature reading, what is the actual temp.
-What is the pH of the tank? Do you know the KH?

Eagle, it is hard for there to be that much bacteria coming in with tap water. That is because any established bacteria in the system should be living in a bio-film and that doesn't move too often. It is possible a nice chunk sheared off due to over growing the optimal thickness and then having sufficient flow rate to dislodge it. But that is not such a common thing. Tap water could bring in some free floating bacteria not yet in a bio-film or perhaps small scruds of bio-film, but neither should normally be in sufficient quantity to almost instantly cycle a tank.
Of course, it is always possible that there was a visit by the bacteria fairy

(Sorry could not help myself there. Silly gene acting up.)

 

[eaglesaquarium]

That's kind of what I thought, which is why I asked about used components. It is rather hard to believe. I think the test kit is API, considering the description of the nitrite test.


No worries about the little joke TT. I have thick skin. ;-) It seems hard to believe, but at the same time, if these results are accurate... that's pretty fast. Not having a nitrite test results doesn't help get a picture.

 

[LDBartholow]

-What test kits are you using and what is the date on them- is it an Expiration date or a Bottling date?
-What was the source of all the items you mentioned, i.e. gravel, fake wood and anything else you put into the tank at the outset? Were they brand new or hand me downs/used?
-Regarding Prime, what dosage did you use and then did you add more prime after the first dose? If so at what dosages and when?
-Cranked up the heater is not a temperature reading, what is the actual temp.
-What is the pH of the tank? Do you know the KH?

1) Using API Master Kit. Bought new from the LFS a few months ago. I've been using it on my betta tank at work. Doubt expiration has anything to do with it, as all bottles have 2017 use by date, and as mentioned. I've used this kit during a fish in cycle with my betta. It seemed to be accurate for that. My parameters in my betta tank always matched what was going on inside the tank.
2) Everything was bought NEW from the LFS. Tank, decorations, substrate - everything. All out of the package. Nothing re-used. Everything was treated per instructions. No soap, etc. Just a rinse and a light scrub with my tap water before adding it to the treated water in the tank.
3) Prime dosing - Used the directions on the bottle. Not really rocket science

. Dosing instructions call for 5ml per 50 gallons. My tank is 20 gallons, therefore, I filled my 20g tank with tap water and then treated the whole tank as a whole with two medicine droppers equaling 2ml.
4) I used the ammonia calculator provided on a forum. I can't remember if it was this forum or another. Told me to add just shy of of 4ml of 10% ammonia for a 20 gallon tank. I used a medicine dropper to insert 3.8ml and it immediately tested to 5ppm. That was my initial addition of ammonia. I also fill my tubes with a clean pipette to avoid any cross contamination, and I clean the tubes/pipette in hot water and air dried upside down on a test tube rack. I used to be a genetics major, so I happen to know proper testing techniques through years of chemistry. As I only have four test tubes, I make sure that there is no residual testing agents (some are corrosive and aren't easily rinse from a tube). Again, I used that same calculator to add the additional dosages. Always ended up at the target I specified in my OP. It was usually only 2ml (added with a medicine dropper for accuracy) of 10% ammonia to get it back to 4ppm.
4) Temperature is holding steady 83 degrees. I should not have assumed people would take "cranked it up all the way" to mean the heater max of 86 degrees. My bad. Some heaters go higher. I turned the heater to the max the heater would allow (86 degrees) as many of the articles I've read said the hotter, the better.
5) My home has a water softener system, so I doubt the water is considered "hard". API tells me the tap PH is 7.2. Just went to test the actual tank water. PH is 7.2.

I am already showing signs of brown algae on my decorations this afternoon. Very slight, but definitely brown algae. I remember the look when I cycled my first betta tank at work. Well, I didn't realize you were supposed to cycle until it was too late, so I came back to work after a holiday weekend and my tank was blooming brown. Same stringy looking stuff that is easy to just wipe off. The decoration is getting slimy, too. Tested the ammonia just now. You guess it. After 24 hours, it processed 2ppm of ammonia. The nitrite is at 2ppm-5ppm. Lovely shade of purple.

So, I gather it is technically not cycled as the nitrite hasn't dropped to zero yet, but it is eating a ton of ammonia. I tested nitrAte last night, and it is sitting nicely at 20ppm. The water is clear as clear can be. My cambombas are already pearling. I've been running T5's for 12 hours since Wednesday. I figured I'll just keep keepin' on until the nitrites drop to zero, do a water change and add my first round of fish. My filter media is looking pretty ripe. I KNOW this is SUPPOSED to happen this quickly, but I have faith my testing procedures aren't lacking, or the kit is bad. I guess bacteria was introduced somehow. Just don't know how. Supporting pictures are below. Just took them with my cell phone. The first picture is my whole tank. Second are my testing results: ammonia, then nitrites, then tap PH, then tank PH. Last picture is showing some seemingly fuzzy brown growth that was NOT there yesterday. I'm assuming brown algae. Correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

It sounds pretty textbook to me based on the most recent information. 84F is the sweet spot as far as temp goes with the bacteria.


You are processing 2ppm daily, which is good, but until it turns over the nitrIte as well, you still have a ways to go. Keep it up, and remain patient. You are in phase two (nitrite spike).


TTA will confirm or clarify, I'm sure. ;-)

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Clearly you are not cycled. But I can not figure out why you tank should have processed ammonia as reported. Since adding the plants you change the paradigm. Plants eat ammonia and nitrate. Stem plants will begin uptaking nutrients faster than most. But rooted plants will initially work to establish roots and will survive on stored nutrients while doing so. And then there are always the effects of transplant shock to deal with initially. But your plants went in later rather than at the start. So while they might be having some effect on your levels now, they were not at the outset.

Given all the details you have reported, I have to say I am baffled in terms of an explanation. Had you managed to get a big chunk of bio-film with bacteria coming in with your tap water, it would have contained the nitrite oxidizers as well. Your current nitrite levels indicate the bio-film theory is out. One advantage to using the effective bottled bacteria starters or seed materia from a cycled tanks is that a tank can process both ammonia and nitrite right away, there is no lag.

I am going to fall back on the bacteria fairy theory in the absence of being able to offer any better explanation.

 

[LDBartholow]

I am going to fall back on the bacteria fairy theory in the absence of being able to offer any better explanation.

I'm going to rely on this statement, because nothing is making sense. I didn't add anything other than the plants on Wednesday. I'll just keep testing