Cycle Started - No Turning Back Now!

[Quacker]

Hello - after what seems an eternity, though in reality only 4 or 5 days, I have began the dark art, sorry, noble art of fishless cycling.

I've raised the Ammonial level to 5ppm or 5mg/l (I think they are the terms) and increased heater temperature to 30-32c

Am I correct to now just test ammonia levels until they drop, and then raise again before testing for nitrites and ultimately nitrates?

I've read a lot of methods and all differ slightly. Please bear in mind this is my first attempt.

Steve

 

[Amunet]

Once the ammonia starts to drop, I would start testing nitrites every day. That's just me though. I liked knowing where the cycling was at every day and plus I was uber paranoid that something would go wrong. So checking it everyday assured me when I got good readings back that everything was going the way it should.
You probably don't have to check nitrites every day, it's just up to you how frequently you do

 

[Colin_T]

Hello - after what seems an eternity, though in reality only 4 or 5 days, I have began the dark art, sorry, noble art of fishless cycling.

LOL
ah ha, welcome to the group. Now you have joined you are in it for life

besides that it sounds like you are doing things right. Just make sure there is heaps of surface turbulence. The good bacteria like oxygen and the more surface turbulence, the higher the oxygen levels and the faster the cycle can proceed.

 

[Gillymore]

I have just started Quacker. And it scares me!!! Is the whole point of this cycle to build up the "friendly" bacteria within the tank and to to be able to load the tank with ammonia...and then the water testing will show how efficiently, (or inefficiently) the filters can clear the ammonia?

And won't this all change when fish are eventually put in and start dropping their waste products and start using up Oxygen?

Oh boy...what have I started?

 

[Colin_T]

cycling the filters is building up the beneficial bacteria that breaks down the fish food and waste. Then when you add the fish you don't have to worry about the ammonia and nitrite levels going up and down and the fish dieing from poor water quality.
You can still have problems with ammonia spikes but it doesn't normally happen unless you wash the filters out under tap water, or someone pours in a can of fish food.

 

[Quacker]

Ha ha - well I don't know how to link the threads and reply.

@ Amunet - I am a great believer in record keeping - so will probably do tests anyway. The kit has sufficeient and although they might take time, the other tests will do no harm

@ Colin - it is bubbling away merrily - no fear on that score.

@ Gillymore - I like the idea of the humane way. I believe it has sound theory - invented by a scientist - a chemistry major. The theory is excellent, and from what I gather, the practical results are excellent. Yes it might seem daunting - it is to me - but I think once done for the first time, it will be less of a chore with future tanks.

I just think I'm doing too much, adding too much but the idea that the filtration & bacteria can process the high amounts of ammonia augers well for the future tankmates

If I repeat that and believe it then it must be true.

Steve

 

[waterdrop]

I have just started Quacker. And it scares me!!! Is the whole point of this cycle to build up the "friendly" bacteria within the tank and to to be able to load the tank with ammonia...and then the water testing will show how efficiently, (or inefficiently) the filters can clear the ammonia?

And won't this all change when fish are eventually put in and start dropping their waste products and start using up Oxygen?

Oh boy...what have I started?

Yes, Colin has answered you well. It is easy initially to have "cycling the tank", "cycling the filter" and what's happening to the tank water all seem pretty confusing. The two species of good bacteria (one to take ammonia to nitrite, the other to take nitrite to nitrate) can grow and anchor on anything and everything inside the tank and filter but the key thing is that some of the media in the filter will be the largest repository of these good bacteria and nurturing good batches of them there is your goal. You only know if you're doing this via -changes- in your test results, the -trends- in the tests (didn't mean that to sound subtle, as its not, its easy to read the signs and the fishless article describes it well!) You could care less about the bacteria in the water, the water will all be changed out at the end before the fish go in.

Now that you've added your 5-6ppm of ammonia and are monitoring it to see if that level starts going down, another helpful thing is to monitor the pH. For some people with well-buffered water, the pH will be pretty stable. For others, the process may cause the pH to drift down pretty fast. Once the pH reaches 6.0 the advice here is that this usually causes the cycle to stall. A large (75% or more) water change is in order (with dechlor, water rough match) and a recharge of the ammonia to get it back up to 5-6ppm.

OK, hope that helps a little and doesn't confuse more! I've enjoyed all the reading about it I could get during mine, which seems to be nearing conclusion now. ~~waterdrop~~

 

[Quacker]

Well done waterdrop - glad you're "nearly there" so to speak.

FIshless cycling seems scary, but from what I read, there are infinite numbers of ways to get to the same goal. I know I will be a lot more confident when I setup my next tanks than the first

Might even come on here and advise the newbies - what with me being a 1 tank veteran and all lol.