Cycling Disaster?

[Ch4rlie]

Hope some of you guys can help me out here.
 
Have had a bad day today!!
 
Was at a friends house yesterday and stayed overnight, came back today only to find had a unplanned water feature in the kitchen!!

 
Due to washing machine leaking water everywhere. Switched water off and cleaned up the mess and sorted problem far as could for today, need new water supply hose to washing machine!! (as well as needing new kitchen flooring and carpets in lounge and hallway to dry out!! *sighs*)
 
Anyway, problem was, the flooding had caused a power cut! No idea how long this lasted for. My 90l, live planted tank filter, lights and heater were off for gawd knows how long due to this power cut.
This tank was just into 3rd week of fishless cycle.
 
Found some plants had 'melted' and algae brown diatoms floating everywhere after switching filter back on, water was slightly green, basically a mess. So had to clean up tank a bit and change water at a minimum, about 10 - 15%.
 
Last readings from 2 days ago was 3ppm ammonia and nitrite 0ppm, was still waiting for nitrite to start peaking and ammonia to drop eventually. After leaving water to settle for a couple hours, did another test on ammonia and nitrite, ammonia has dropped to 2ppm and no change for nitrite at 0ppm. This is unsurprising really due to the small water change I did earlier.
 
What would be the best course of action to take from now?
Leave things as they are and do another test tomorrow to see if any changes?
Would I be best to top up ammonia to up to 3ppm and continue to wait for nitrite to rise?
Or to do a large water change and basically start afresh?
 
I fear this possible disaster has set me back somewhat. 

 
Really, I think all this is down to how the bacteria I need for cycling coped in my filter media, hopefully some or most had survived and just a case of waiting a little while for numbers to rise again. Fingers crossed.
Or worst case scenario, no bacteria left alive and basically having to start afresh.
 
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Hate when things like this happens.........

 

[eaglesaquarium]

The bacteria are far more resilient than you may realize.  They can go dormant in the absence of ammonia, and will reanimate shortly in the presence of ammonia again.

 

[toshapetriji]

Top up the ammonia and continue as normal, it doesn't seem there are any problems.

 

[214jay]

Sorry to hear this, awful news on so many fronts

As long as the bacteria were submerged in tank water they should be fine.  The colder water should make them slow down anyway so when your power comes back you should be right on track (apart from the plants - hope they recover okay!) Any sign of the power coming back on?
 
Jay

 

[Ch4rlie]

Hey, thanks.
 
Well, has been another long day today. Electrics in kitchen being a bit 'temperamental' but got it sorted now! Fingers crossed!
 
And good news, I have now got a used more powerful filter with mature media! An external filter instead of internal.

 
 
Took a while to set things up, had to take out a lot of water from the tank as had to move the tank and cabinet stand as needed a bit more room at rear of tank and stand for the connection hoses to and from new filter. Then needed to make holes on each side of the top of one of the hood cover to accommodate the new hose connections.
 
Then sort of rescaped the decor and plants, took out some of the plants which had 'melted' and a general tidy up to my satisfaction for now.
 
Then refilled the tank, switched on the heater and got the new filter going but was not easy as the primer pump to get water into filter was jamming and had to open the filter up 6 times before finally got it to work properly and close properly to stop leaks. Only took 4 hours!! This is the last time I buy a second hand filter!! 

 
Oh and forgot to add dechlorinter!! Just did that a little while ago, hopefully mature media should cope with al that mucking about!! 
 
So hopefully my tank will now have more beneficial bacteria from the new filter with mature media and kick starts my fishless cycle.
Will do water test tomorrow as am knackered now!
 
Tomorrow will sort out that darned washing machine. My tank took priority much to the annoyance of my GF!! 

 
FYI the external filter is a TetraTec ex1200, a bit overkill for a 90 litre tank I know but is set at lowest flow output and looks good and water has a much better and nicer flow than the Fluval filter.
 
Plan to get a larger tank in the not too distant future then will transfer this filter to the larger one and get a tetratec 700 for the 90 Litre one. AND plan to use the Fluval Filter for a small tank for quarantine/new fish in future, got it all planned out really. Just need cash flow to get this in motion!! lol
 
Think already got MTS before even got any fish!! Must be a record!! 

 

[toshapetriji]

Now fix the washing machine

 

 

[Ch4rlie]

Yup, washing machine fixed, electrics sorted, floors dry and carpets refitted. Back in the good book of GF!!

 
Got hood configured to fit hose, intake and spray bar done. Looks good now and hood easier took off and back on without faffing about too much!!

 
 
Spraybar fitted and got a good flow going into tank, had to adjust flow by about 50 to 60% due to size of filter!! But hey, it works just fine!
 

 
 
Just added ammonia to tank to 3ppm, retested 45 mins later and confirmed ammonia is at 3ppm. Waiting game now to see how long it takes for ammonia to go down and nitrite to start spiking. Fingers crossed cycle goes smoothly this time!

 

[214jay]

Nice work, sounds like you have been very busy!!!  Will be interested how the new filter affects the cycle, in theory you should be done in no time!

 

[Ch4rlie]

Nice work, sounds like you have been very busy!!!  Will be interested how the new filter affects the cycle, in theory you should be done in no time!

 
 
Yup, like to be busy really. I don't do sitting still very well !! 

 
Thats the plan with the new filter to hopefully get cycling done fairly quick if all goes well !! 

 

[Ch4rlie]

Replaced the new external filter as above. Added water, forgot to add dechlorinater until about 2 hours later!! *Groan*
 
Now a bit of update.
 
One day ago.
 
Test readings (no ammonia added yet) :
 
Ph            - 8.0
Ammonia - 0 ppm
Nitrite       - 0 ppm
Nitrate      - 40 ppm
 
Added 3ppm ammonia, tested 45 minutes later, confirmed at 3ppm ammonia.
 
Today, test reading are as follows :
 
Ph            - 8.0
Ammonia - 0.25 ppm
Nitrite       - 0 ppm
Nitrate      - 40 ppm
 
Am I on the right tracks?
Do these readings make sense? ( I have tested twice and followed instructions on API Master Test Kit to the letter)
 
Any advice for what I should do next  would be more than welcome.
 
Tank information :
 
Fluval Roma 90 Litre
Filter - Tetratec EX 1200 (a bit overkill for size of tank I know, but outflow reduced by approx 60 %)
Fluval 100w Heater (temperature kept at 24 - 25C / 75 - 77F)
8x Live plants
Pea gravel
 
No fish.................yet! (although do have a few common snails from the plants!)
 

 

[Garbolino]

I would dose back to 3ppm
turn up your heater to 30c (bacteria love it )
and keep checking for your nitrites to spike & then drop to o
when this happens your nitrates will be off the scale  this is the time for a large water change
turn heater back to your desired temp ( depends on what fish your keeping) refill with declorinated water & retest
 
amm should be 0
nitrites 0
nitrates below 40
 
keep adding amm up to 24hrs before you add fish
 
ive done 2, 240ltr tanks & had no bother
 
r

 

[Ch4rlie]

Lovely! Thanks for that info. Was thinking along those lines but will also raise temperature as you suggest.
Will update when nitrites start to rise.

Thanks

 

[TwoTankAmin]

If your tank cleared 2.75 ppm of ammonia and you show 0 nitrite, you are almost fully cycled still. 2.75 ppm of ammonia should convert to just over 7 ppm of nitrite using API kits. But the test showed 0 for nitrite.
 
Where do you suppose the nitrite is? Some of it should be showing unless there is enough nitrite oxidizing bacteria to handly it.
 
I suppose it is converted to nitrate and the nitrate test is off.
 
My bet is if you redose the ammonia in the amount it took initially to get 3 ppm and wait 24 and test again, you may very well see 0/0.
 
Between the plants and the new cycled media, you are likely close to cycled.

 

[Ch4rlie]

Righto!
 
Got my results now, 24 hours after dosing tank up to 3ppm.
 
Ph - 8.0
Ammonia -  0 ppm
Nitrite -  0 ppm
Nitrate - 40 ppm
 
And I also have just got a GH & KH test kit and have just tested that today as well :
 
(using 1 drop as 17.9ppm)
 
TAP WATER
KH - 8 = 143.2 ppm
GH - 12 = 214.8 ppm
 
CYCLING TANK WATER
KH - 7 = 125.3 ppm
GH - 13 = 232.7 ppm
 
So my understanding of that is the water I have is slightly hard to moderately hard. And plus the fact I have pH at 8.0 will community fish be ok in this water? From what I've read I believe that most fish can adapt to your water parameter as long as the water is steady and does not swing too much, they should be fine.
 
If anyone can confirm or negate this that would be helpful.
 
Also what should my next step be in regards to the ammonia and nitrite tests? Is my tank now cycled?

 

[TwoTankAmin]

You are cycled. Do a big water change and stock your tank.
 
If you can not stock it right away, dose about 1 ppm of ammonia every few days until you can.