Cycling Tank Help!

[london_kev]

Hey guys/girls,

Need a bit of advice.

Have a small tank 25L. Been cyceling for about 30+ days now using ammonia. Managed to picked up a mature filter spounge and wacked that in. Dropped about 4ppm of ammonia and tested 24hrs later, ammonia was gone however water was spiked with nitire.

Have been doing a 50% water change but still getting off the chart reading of nitrite...

What shall i do....?

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Keep going! That's great. The nitrite is the natural byproduct of the ammonia process. Ammonia is broken down by the A-bacs (nitrosomona and nitrosospira) and processed into nitrite. Then the nitrite is processed by the N-bacs (nitrospira) into nitrate.


You don't need to do a water change if you are doing a fishless cycle, which I assume since you are dosing with ammonia.


You could do a water change to lower the nitrite (I've done that). If you still can't read the nitrites, you can do another water change. It isn't necessary though. I would lower the dose of ammonia daily to 2ppm until the nitrites fall. Then you can start to raise the level back up again. Keep going, you're doing great! The ammonia drop is the end of phase one, which is usually accompanied by a nitrite spike (which is where you are now). Then the nitrite drops to zero. That is the end of phase two. Then in phase three you want the ammonia and nitrite to drop to zero in 12 hours. Then a qualifying week of that, and you're done.



Posting a log in the beginners section allows the experts like waterdrop and OM47 to keep an eye on things and offer advice if anything happens.

 

[london_kev]

Keep going! That's great. The nitrite is the natural byproduct of the ammonia process. Ammonia is broken down by the A-bacs (nitrosomona and nitrosospira) and processed into nitrite. Then the nitrite is processed by the N-bacs (nitrospira) into nitrate.


You don't need to do a water change if you are doing a fishless cycle, which I assume since you are dosing with ammonia.


You could do a water change to lower the nitrite (I've done that). If you still can't read the nitrites, you can do another water change. It isn't necessary though. I would lower the dose of ammonia daily to 2ppm until the nitrites fall. Then you can start to raise the level back up again. Keep going, you're doing great! The ammonia drop is the end of phase one, which is usually accompanied by a nitrite spike (which is where you are now). Then the nitrite drops to zero. That is the end of phase two. Then in phase three you want the ammonia and nitrite to drop to zero in 12 hours. Then a qualifying week of that, and you're done.

Hey thanks for your reply.

Ok so i'll lower the ammonia to 2ppm, ive been doing 50% water changes daily but that still didnt give me a reading (off the chat)... however ammonia seems to dissaprea after 7-12 hours but nitrite still there errgg just want shrimp. Thought this mature filter would kick in instantly


Posting a log in the beginners section allows the experts like waterdrop and OM47 to keep an eye on things and offer advice if anything happens.

Hey thanks for your reply.

Ok so i'll lower the ammonia to 2ppm, ive been doing 50% water changes daily but that still didnt give me a reading (off the chat)... however ammonia seems to dissaprea after 7-12 hours but nitrite still there errgg just want shrimp. Thought this mature filter would kick in instantly

 

[eaglesaquarium]

The fact that 4ppm ammonia is dropping in 12 hours is pretty awesome! That means that your A-bacs are ready to go!



Now, the N-bacs aren't keeping up right now. Not a big deal, that'll come! 1ppm ammonia processes to 2.7ppm nitrite. So, if you have been putting 4ppm ammonia daily, that means you've been getting roughly 11ppm nitrite EVERY DAY. That's why it isn't coming up on the scale yet.

 

[london_kev]

Right, therefore in a small tank that means not good. ok so would you recommend me dropping 1ppm of ammonia until the nitrite drops and then slowly increasing upto 2ppm then 3ppm...?

 

[eaglesaquarium]

No, I wouldn't. It certainly is an option though. 2ppm would keep a sufficient amount of your A-bacs going. You don't want to have any dieback of A-bacs by cutting your dosage too much. Otherwise, as you up your ammonia again, you may not get zero readings after 24 hours, let alone 12.


Keep going though, you are doing well.