Cycling a 55 gallon tank fishlessly

[pseud]

*bump*

Added day 10. The nitrites are still not climbing but nitrates are. Didn't expect this, but thinking about it, it's logical! Pleased so far, shouldn't take too much longer!

 

[pseud]

(Day 11 added)

Walt, how is your tank coming along?

 

[modernhamlet]

pseud, have you added any ammonia since day 2?

 

[Walt]

Its jammin!

Im on something like day 19 now....
On Friday, i noticed the NItrItes just starting to drop, and by Sat, they were at 1.0.

So i did a 40% water change on Sat night, and by Sun, i was sitting at:

Ammonia: 0
Nitrites: .25
Nitrates: 10
PH: 6.6

I dropped in 2ppm worth of ammonia and within a few hours, it was gone..
So it looks like the cycle is done!

So i couldnt resist to add in some new 'friends'

I introduced:
2 Siamese algae eaters (just short of 1 inch each)
8 Cardinal Tetras
7 Glowlight Tetras

They are all happy as clams
Right off the bat, the Siamese started working on my rocks n plants...
And the rest hung out together, swimming around, checking out the new 50 gallon mansion they had

Since the tank cycled so quickly, ill keep a close eye on the 'game' to make sure all stays well....

....oh... forgot to mention, prob why it cycled abit faster then normal, i dropped some filter media into my powerfilter from a 10 gallon established tank on about day 7....

Next on the game plan....
Bump my lighting upto 2.5ish WPG, and some more plants

Walt

 

[pseud]

pseud, have you added any ammonia since day 2?

[snapback]873600[/snapback]​

No, I was planning on adding some either tomorrow or the next day. Am I correct in thinking I should be keeping it at about 2ppm?

 

[pseud]

Good stuff Walt

 

[modernhamlet]

pseud, have you added any ammonia since day 2?

[snapback]873600[/snapback]​

No, I was planning on adding some either tomorrow or the next day. Am I correct in thinking I should be keeping it at about 2ppm?

[snapback]873666[/snapback]​

It's a matter of some debate, but anywhere above 2ppm and below maybe 6ppm is fine. Any less and you're not building up enough bacteria. Any more and you actually inhibit bacteria growth. I've always done it at 4ppm.

It's up to you. If you go with 2ppm, it'll finish a few days faster, but you should probably stock a little lighter to start.

Glad to hear things are getting close. And you didn't even have the LOOOOONG Nitrite spike most of us fear and hate!

Good luck!

 

[Walt]

Hey pseud....
what the heck is that youre holding up in your icon? heh

 

[pseud]

Hehe. It's a piece of paper with a big dot on it. LOL. At another forum, we had a 'no writing, just post a dot' thread. It was dumb, and that was one of my contributions.

 

[pseud]

Day 11.5 added

 

[pseud]

Technically, today is Day 10, since the first two days I didn't add any dechlorinator so the cycle couldn't start...

 

[modernhamlet]

Looking really good now! Can't be more than a couple of days away...

 

[pseud]

Yup, thinking this weekend I'll be good to go with fish!

 

[pseud]

Just added day 12.5

 

[pseud]

QuestionOfTheDay: When is a tank considered cycled? When 2ppm of ammonia is converted to 0ppm in how much time?