Cycling

[littlenemo]

Do theses look normal. I made some log sheets lol

and if anyone would like any log sheets let me no lol

 

[Tizer]

pfft, thats what google docs or ms excel is for, who uses a pen these days?

cant really say if it looks normal, as you've not explained what you are doing on a daily basis.

 

[littlenemo]

just testing ammonia and nitrites and nitrate. ammonia seems to be dropping from 4 to 0 in 12 hours but nitrite is still purple api test and nitrate is about 10. what you think mate temp is 30 degrees have about 8 plants in there and some drift wood. and im running a sump with pads then wool; then bio balls then bio balls then bio and carbon

 

[Tizer]

no reason to have carbon in there, plants "might " use some of the ammonia you are putting in, which is why we never cycle with plants in the tank in case of false readings. dropping from 4 to 0 in 12 hours is good, just carry on as you are and eventually the nitrites will start to process. Its a waiting game, can take ages, just plod on.

 

[CezzaXV]

All looks to be in order. It'll be a good idea to do half doses of ammonia until you start getting 0 on nitrite though, as the science boffs around here will tell you that having too much nitrite will encourage the wrong type of bacteria, and it'll give the N-bacs a chance to catch up.

 

[Prime Ordeal]

I'd check your pH level again as it was 6.6 and that's already low for cycling. You'd do better by boosting it up with bicarbonate of soda, ideally you want it at pH 8. And make sure you have really good aeration going on. Can't see temperature anywhere so whack it up to 30C if it isn't already.

 

[Aqua Tom]

I'd check your pH level again as it was 6.6 and that's already low for cycling. You'd do better by boosting it up with bicarbonate of soda, ideally you want it at pH 8. And make sure you have really good aeration going on. Can't see temperature anywhere so whack it up to 30C if it isn't already.

+1, Get some bicarb of soda from the homebaking aisle in your prefered supermarket. Chuck a teaspoon in the tank, leave for an hour & test. Keep dosing untill you get to 8.2 ish.


Tom

 

[littlenemo]

okie dokie will do plus i thought that when the ammonia dropped to 0 you had to dose it back up to 4??? so am i now suppose to do half the dose so there is not as much ammonia???
plus also am i best taking plants out???

also if i wack my ph up to around 8 will it drop back dwn ok when i do water change and put fish in???

 

[Jamie24]

Just to add to this subject guys I've just got home from work & tested my tank. After 11 days the ammonia has dropped back down to 0.05ppm so I dosed about 4ml of ammonia & tested for Nitrite, the reading on my colour chart only goes to 1ppm purple (JBL test kit) but the nitrite colour was definitely darker than the colour meaning it's higher them 1ppm but I have no way of finding out just how high.

Does this matter or do I simply just wait for the Nitrite to drop back to zero hence it's then being processed ?? Also as mentioned above is there actually such thing as "the wrong bacteria" as I think I does ammonia a bit to high when I started the cycle ??

 

[Prime Ordeal]

okie dokie will do plus i thought that when the ammonia dropped to 0 you had to dose it back up to 4??? so am i now suppose to do half the dose so there is not as much ammonia???
plus also am i best taking plants out???

also if i wack my ph up to around 8 will it drop back dwn ok when i do water change and put fish in???

If you're doing it the way this forum suggests then yes you redose to 4ppm but if you want a shorter cycle redose to no more than 1ppm.

Plants aren't a good idea because they mess with the readings but you don't have to take them out.

You need to dose the water you are changing to match the pH of the tank water so that you don't shock the bacteria. When you finish the cycle you can just do a large water change with normal tap water undosed to bring it back to normal.

 

[littlenemo]

prime. im not doing any water change untill cycle finished. so if i boost ph to 8 then when cycle finish i just put tap water in so ph around 6.6 will that be ok?? plus not sure what to do now should i dose back up to 4 or 1 in your opinion

 

[Prime Ordeal]

Just to add to this subject guys I've just got home from work & tested my tank. After 11 days the ammonia has dropped back down to 0.05ppm so I dosed about 4ml of ammonia & tested for Nitrite, the reading on my colour chart only goes to 1ppm purple (JBL test kit) but the nitrite colour was definitely darker than the colour meaning it's higher them 1ppm but I have no way of finding out just how high.

Does this matter or do I simply just wait for the Nitrite to drop back to zero hence it's then being processed ?? Also as mentioned above is there actually such thing as "the wrong bacteria" as I think I does ammonia a bit to high when I started the cycle ??

You can dilute the tank water with tap water (if it has no nitrite, and it shouldn't) or with distilled water if not to get a reading. So if you dilute 1part tank to 4 parts water your nitrite will be five times what the nitrite test says. However as your test only goes to 1ppm and the nitrite will be in the tens of ppm you may need to dilute at say 1:49 when the true reading will be 50 times your nitrite reading.

Does it matter? Well depends who you ask. By the forum's method, no it doesn't matter, you just let the nitrite rise to stupidly high levels and eventually it sorts itself out. Or you can dose ammonia low so that not as much nitrite is produced and make water changes to keep it at a reasonable level say 5ppm max and that should knock anything up to a week off the cycle.

There are several types of nitrifiers but only a couple that are useful at the ammonia and nitrite levels our aquarium work at, so yes there definitely are 'wrong' types of bacteria. Dosing to 4ppm encourages the wrong ammonia eating bacteria and inhibits the nitrite eating bacteria.

By the way how do you like the JBL kit?

prime. im not doing any water change untill cycle finished. so if i boost ph to 8 then when cycle finish i just put tap water in so ph around 6.6 will that be ok?? plus not sure what to do now should i dose back up to 4 or 1 in your opinion

If you don't intend to make any water changes (to control the nitrite, replenish KH and renew nutrients for the bacteria) then dose to 1ppm to reduce nitrite as much as possible.

pH 6.6 is fine if it's stable.

 

[littlenemo]

PRIME(to control the nitrite, replenish KH and renew nutrients for the bacteria ENGLISH LOL newbe
[font="Verdana][color="#222222"]forum cycle process said no water change needed
[/color][/font]

 

[Prime Ordeal]

Yeah the forum cycle process is wrong, but it doesn't really matter, it'll cycle eventually either way.

 

[Jamie24]

By the way how do you like the JBL kit?

Erm... mixed reviews for me, You get a good detailed booklet about how/what to do & you get plenty of equipment as in test bottles & such like, the colour chart is really easy to understand & I like how you can narrow down your results for example test for PH between 3-10 but also between 6-8 & all the equipment can be bought alone so you can just replace what you don't have.

On the other hand the results log isn't big at all so created an excel sheet on the laptop & there are tests I can do which I'll never have a need for, would say 4 or 5 of the tests I've not needed to look at & probably never will so you have to ask yourself is £87 worth it for what I need ???

Overall is does a great job but I think there are some on the market that could do an equally good job for probably £30 cheaper, you pay for the name JBL & for the equipment/tests your never going to need.