Cycling Advice Please (technical Stuff)

[OldMan47]

If it has dropped back to 3 ppm it should be fine. Even if it went to 8 ppm one time, that shouldn't cause a very big setback. You do want to be sure to do this right if your time is short for the stocking to start.

 

[waterdrop]

Agreed, one day does not a setback make... its the people who steadily put in 8ppm who are hit by the wrong bacterial species problem.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[LauraFrog]

Just retested. NH3 ~6ppm, NO2 0.5ppm!

 

[waterdrop]

well at least that makes it appear -something- is happening although you can't get too excited about any one test

 

[LauraFrog]

Checked about twelve hours ago and it came up NH3 ~4ppm, NO2 slightly darker than 1ppm. I'll check again now. It's school holidays so I have time for some frantic reagent shaking... I'll be able to check nitrate as well. There MIGHT be some, since the nitrite is processing slowly now.

 

[LauraFrog]

Just tested. NH3 2ppm (topped it up), NO2 5ppm+ (test only goes to 5ppm, it was its darkest colour), NO3 between 5 and 10 ppm, tapwater reads zero for all three.

 

[LauraFrog]

It's progressing really well. NH3 1.5ppm (topped it up again) NO2 5ppm+, NO3 around 20ppm.

 

[waterdrop]

fingers crossed for you as all these observations sound like the mature media has stayed alive and is greatly accelerating your cycle

 

[LauraFrog]

Thanks, that's what I'm hoping too. I'm so glad I found the ammonia when I did. A lot of the filter wool layer underneath the mature media and quite a few of the bio rings (mostly near the outlet of the water pump) are turning brown - is this bacterial multiplication?

I'll go and test it again.

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, the beneficial bacterial colonies appear as brown stains on media.

 

[LauraFrog]

Brilliant. I definitely think I'm getting somewhere: NH3 slightly less than 1ppm (topped it up again), NO2 5ppm+, NO3 20ppm+

 

[LauraFrog]

Same readings as the last post - topped up the ammonia again. It's processing 4ppm ammonia a day now, but the nitrite is still stuck against the top. How long do you think it will be until it starts dropping?

 

[OldMan47]

It may already be dropping Laura, but with your off scale readings you just can't see it. One way to go is to do a huge water change to bring the nitrites on scale where you can see what is going on. Of course that would mean re-dosing the ammonia but you are doing that daily anyway so it's not much extra work.

 

[LauraFrog]

Well I've got to top up the evaporation today anyway, some of the media's starting to stick out of the water... I didn't know that you COULD do a huge water change when fishless cycling!

I'll try diluting the sample to get some accurate readings (like 1mL test water and 4mL pure water)

 

[OldMan47]

No problem doing huge, like 90%, water changes during a fishless cycle. The good bacteria are becoming established on things in the water flow, mostly the filter, but there are virtually no bacteria that we want to keep in the water. You do want to dechlorinate the new water but it is no problem doing a very big change.