Cycling a 55 gallon tank fishlessly

[pseud]

Thought I'd post my recordings on a 55 gallon tank I just started cycling.
I'll update this thread daily, and edit this post to add results.

Day 1:
Filled tank with sand and water

Day 2:
Installed filter and heater. Added two stockings of gravel from a cycled 20 gallon. Added used filter cartridge from 20G. Added approx' 5 gallons of water change water from 20 gallon.

Added ammonia. Tested ammonia: 8+ ppm

Question: Should I be adding dechlorinator, even for a fishless cycle?

Day 3:
Decided ammonia level was not good. Performed approx' 80% water change.
Added dechlorinator.
Immediately tested water for ammonia: 4ppm
Added two pieces of driftwood, a plastic plant, two new stockings of gravel, and 2 gallons of water change from 20 gallon.

Day 5:
Ammonia - 4 (might be slightly less, maybe I'm just hoping)
Nitrites - <0.25
Nitrates - 0

Day 6:
Turned temperature up to 85 degrees. (can't get it any warmer). Leaving light off constantly.

Day 7:
Ammonia: 3
Nitrites: <0.25
Nitrates: 2.5 (color was between 0 and 5ppm)

Day 10:
Ammonia: 2
Nitrites: 0
Nitrates: 7.5

Day 11:
Ammonia: 1.75
Nitrites: 0
Nitrates: 10

Day 11.5
Added ammonia to increase levels. Did it properly this time and took 1 gallon of water, did a few tests, ran a few numbers. In case you're wondering, if you're using the walmart ammonia 'great value' stuff, that comes in a purple label you need 1/20th of a drop per gallon of water to get it to 1ppm.

So for a 20 gallon tank you need 1 drop for 1ppm. 4 drops for 4ppm.
55 gallon - 3 drops per 1ppm. 12 drops for 4ppm. (actually, 2.75 drops per 1ppm, but that's impossible to measure)

Don't forget to let your filter run for a while before testing water. My filter runs 360gph. So it takes about 10 minutes for it to go through the entire tank of water. That was the first mistake i made and caused me a huge water change.

Ammonia: 3.5

Will test again in about 5 hours to see what the levels are at.

Day 11.5 v2.0:

Ammonia: 2

Day 12
Ammonia: 1.5
Nitrite: 0.25
Nitrate: 10

Added ammonia to bring it up to 3.5

Day 12.5 v1.0
5 hours after adding 2ppm of ammonia the tank level is back down to 1.5.
Will test again late tonight, and add ammonia as necessary. Will also test for Nitrites and Nitrates later.

Day 13
Ammonia: 0
Nitrites: 0.25
Nitrates: 20

Added 2ppm

Day 14
Ammonia: 0
Nitrites:0
Nitrates: 30

I declare this tank officially CYCLED!

 

[cheesemaker]

er.... YES in short.

 

[pseud]

Yeah, I'm a dumbass. Nevermind.

 

[aquatic-Bizkut]

lol nice, make sure you post up some picks

and i recomend using a cycler liquid like Cycle, or bacteria starter....

makes the proccess go faster

 

[pseud]

I've heard good and bad things about cycling chemicals... not sure if i want to use them... i'm not entirely sure exactly what they do....

Here's some pics:

 

[Walt]

Pics look good, pseud!

Im on day 10 now with my 50 gallon tank(neighbor told me it was a 55 when he gave it to me, but a quick measurement the other day tells me its actually a 50 gallon), and ammonia levels have now dropped to 0...infact, i add ammonia to bring it up to 2ppm, and within 4-5 hours, its back at 0.
Nitrites are now screaming pegged... and nitrate is just a tad above 0.

Im thinking 2-3 weeks and ill have the first few fish in there

Here's how its looking so far.... added a few plants around day 5 and they are looking real good so far... roots are exploding outta em
The red ones (cant really see good in the pic...look kinds brown/orange in the pic) are real pretty once ya move up close to the tank
Have a new 5-6 inch shooter on the sword already

Walt

 

[aquatic-Bizkut]

wow both tanks look great, i recomend real plants, or lots of fake ones....

but im down with lots of real plants, just make sure you cover the WPG rule and study what your plants needs are

keep it up and update once in a while...

 

[pseud]

That stuff is only in my tank while it cycles, as it's from an already cycled tank. I'll be adding rocks and maybe just one or two pieces of wood. Probably no plants too.

 

[pseud]

*bump* - added Day 5 results

 

[pseud]

Added day 6 and day 7 results.
Anyone find it weird that my nitrites are 0 but my nitrates are 2.5 ?

 

[modernhamlet]

2.5 nitrates could be a testing error, honestly. That's really minor.

Optionally, you could actually have some nitrospira bacteria converting the small amount of nitrite formed so far into nitrate. That would be great, since it means both types of bacteria are developing.

 

[pseud]

I don't think it's a testing error, but maybe I'll test again.

The latter is more likely I think, since I seeded the tank with bacteria from an already cycled tank.. ie both types of bacteria are present in that tank and have now been transferred to the 55 gallon.

Well that's cool, I hope I don't have to wait too long!

 

[Walt]

Your ammonia should drop within the next day or 2, im thinking....
Im on day 15 now, and my ammonia drops like a rodk now...infact, its hard to keep it at 2+...everytime i add abit, within hours its back at 0...
Nitrites, on the other hand, is off the scale... heh
Nitrates are around 80-100 as well...

After reading another thread where Nitrites stayed up for a long time, ill prob do a 25% water change this weekend, just too see if the Nitrites are 'falsely' high.....

From the pace so far, im thinking i should be done cycling in 5-7 days...making it a total of about 3 weeks....

 

[pseud]

3 weeks is a pretty good time! I remember my 20 gallon took 5 weeks to completely cycle, that was with fish!

I do remember reading a thread somewhere about nitrites being way high and not coming down, and doing a big water change helped. I think it was vivienne's thread titled '4 weeks and counting' or something...

 

[modernhamlet]

3 weeks is a pretty good time! I remember my 20 gallon took 5 weeks to completely cycle, that was with fish!

[snapback]870026[/snapback]​

Cycling with fish always takes longer than fishless. The bacteria need the 4ppm ammonia as food to support fast colonization. Fish can't survive 4ppm of ammonia. Simple.