Dan-Cr4 Fishless Cycle

[Dan-CR4]

Hi All

well its day 22 and this mornings 8am ammonia test was 0 as usual.

tonights 8pm test as follows....

ammonia : 0 (as usual)
nitrite : 0 (woohoo nitrite has gone down to 0, hope it stays this way )
nitrate : 40
ph (high range): 8.0 (up since yesterday)

lets hope that the nitrite and ammonia start staying low, keeping me fingers crossed but what will be, will be. Lets see what the next few days brings. I have updated the tables on the first post as usuall

Danny

 

[Dan-CR4]

Hi all

today is day 23 and tonights results are as follows.....

ammonia : 0
nitrite : 0.25 (up 0.25 from yesterday, but down from 5.0 from this morning)
nitrate : 80 (up 40 from yesterday)
ph (high range) : 8.0 (same as yesterday)

I spoke too soon yesterday about the nitrite being 0, well tonight it was 0.25, but i did test it this morning and it was 5.0 so its gone down since this mornings test which must be good??? i Hope.

would be nice if i can get that 0.25 down but at least im not off the chart at the moment.

I have updated the tables in post one if you want to look at my full cycle so far.

Danny

 

[OldMan47]

It sounds like you are in the home stretch. You are now growing the nitrite processors from an immature colony to one that can move the nitrites through a little faster. Keep up the good work.

 

[Dan-CR4]

Thanks OM. lets hoping im in the home straight but not taking anything for granted yet.

well this mornig i did an ammonia test and a nitrite test, the ammonia was 0 and nitrite was 5.0, so although ammonia was processed over night the nitrite was not all processed overnight.

Tonights results are as follows.....

ammonia : 0

nitrite : 0 (down to 0 from last night and this mornings tests)

nitrate : - (did not do nitrate as i would expect it to be high)

ph (high range) : 8.0 (did both high range and normal tests, see below)


ok the ammonia is still 0, the nitrite although was not processed over 12 hours, it was processed down to 0 in 24 hours, as tonights results is at 0 when it was at 5.0 on this mornings test. Nitrate i did not bother as said above i expect it to be high. PH, i did both normal test and high range, the normal test was saying 7.6 and the high range was saying 8.0

so nitrite has been processed in 24 hours now, i am going to continue doing ammonia and nitrite tests every 12 hours now. is there anything else i need to be doing or just carry on as i am?

im hoping this could be the final phase im heading into, but i have read so many fishless cycles on this forum and i am taking nothing for granted. be glad though when i can stop messing with ammonia, the smell is horrid i always look forward to putting the cap back on the bottle

The cycle table has been updated on the first page/post if you would like to see a history of my cycle.

thanks

Danny

 

[Dan-CR4]

Day 25......

this mornings 8am ammonia was 0 and nitrite was 5.0

tonights results.....

ammonia : 0

nitrite : 0

nitrate : 80

ph : 8.0

the ammonia again went to 0 in 12 hours but the nitrite again took 24 hours to reach 0 thats 2 days in a row that it took 24 hours to clear. nitrate and ph stayed steady.

table as usual updated on page one.

Danny

 

[waterdrop]

Congrats Danny, you are finishing up the 2nd stage (the nitrite spike) and moving on to the 3rd stage, the final one. The thing to watch now is that 12 hour nitrite result. It should start slowly going down. All this time the ammonia has been doing a good job dropping to zero in 12 hours, don't worry if it stumbles a bit.. that sometimes happens near the end. Eventually you will have zero ammonia and zero nitrite at 12 hours and when that happens you can start your qualifying week. During that last week you just want to watch it continue to achieve double zeros at 12 hours after adding ammonia each day. If it stumbles you have to start over.

WD

 

[Dan-CR4]

Hi WD, yeah im hoping that soon the nitrite will be 0 in 12 hours, this morning the ammonia was 0 and the nitrite had dropped to 1.0 in 12 hours so it looks like its nearly getting there but dont want to get too excited in case it all goes pear shaped on me.

Day 26 : tonights 8pm results are.......

ammonia : 0

nitrite : 0

nitrate : 80

ph : 8.0

thanks

Danny

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, unfortunately, most of the third phases I see start out with the 12 hour number dropping pretty fast 2,1,0.5,... but then slow way down and sometimes get stuck OR go right down to zero quickly but "bounce" and spike nitrite again after faking you out.

Your overall time, at 26 days, is pretty fast so we want to be careful if the 12 hour drops to zero ppm really quickly.

But overall its great how well its proceeding and showing all the right signs.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Dan-CR4]

Hi WD, yeah i have read a few cycles and seen a couple of them stall, thats why im not banking on it yet as 4 weeks seems pretty fast compared to some cycles.

Well its day 27, 1 day short of 4 weeks since i started. this mornings ammonia test was 0 again and the nitrite was 1.0 which was the same as yesterday.

tonights results are......

ammonia : 0

nitrite : 0

nitrate : - did not test

ph : 8.0

so results were the same as yesterday. i have updated the table on the first post as usual. see you all in 24 hours time

Danny

 

[OldMan47]

I am going to differ from WD on this last bit of advice. Although we often see threads from people who have troubles at 3 or 4 weeks of progress, that is the reason for the post, not the typical cycle. I am rather convinced that we never see a post from most people about their cycle because it just clicks off like clockwork. The ones we do see demand a lot of our help because they are from people who are really having trouble. You are getting fairly close Dan. I would definitely not throw up my hands in despair yet.

 

[waterdrop]

Well I'm sure you're right, its good to work together so you can "keep me honest." ... I do tend to get too focused on all the ones that have various troubles and forget the ones that just go by quickly and smoothly -- if we truly collected data it would probably show us that! I also probably repeat the little negatives too much more as a way of remembering them rather than just letting them come out when needed, which would be better.

Probably there's a greater chance your cycle will just zip through than that you will see what I described Dan, so no need to worry about something that hasn't happened!

WD

 

[Dan-CR4]

Thanks om47 and WD, without you two im sure most people on these forums would get stuck, i know i would have not known what i have picked up here if it was not for you two helping me and others out.

I agree that we always hear about things that go wrong but very rarely hear of things that turn out ok, its like if people use a bad online company, they will complain more than if they were to find a great online company and praise them, i thinks its the same sort of thing when people are having trouble with there cycles.

Day 28 : this mornings results : ammonia at 0 and nitrite had dropped to 0.25.

tonights results are......

ammonia : 0

nitrite : 0

nitrate : did not test

ph : 7.8 (down a little from yesterday)

I did not test nitrate as i think it will be high but i will test it tomorrow night. The nitrite had dropped to 0.25 in 12 hours so thats down from 1.0 on the previous day. Ammonia is holding steady and ph has dropped a little and the temperature is as steady as always.

Its the weekend and i may take a walk over to my local maidenhead aquatics (lfs), its only a 5 minute walk, always like to have a look round the fish knowing that someday i will be able to bring some home, im hoping my qualifying week would start sometime this week as i get paid next friday and it would be an ideal time, but im not counting on it.

ok i will be back tomorrow with an update, in the meantime i have updated my tables on the first post of this thread

Thanks

Danny

 

[Ryefish]

getting close now!!

 

[Dan-CR4]

getting close now!!

yes its getting real close but still no cigar yet. hopefully soon.

------------------------------------

Hello all,

back again with todays update and today is Day 29.

this mornings results for ammonia were 0 and nitrite was 0.25.

tonights results are as follows.......

ammonia : 0

nitrite : 0

nitrate : 80+ (it was a little darker than 80 but not quite 160)

ph : 7.8

well all of todays results were the same as the previous day except the nitrate which was near 80 but a little darker but not quite as dark as 160. i have updated the first post with todays results as well if you want to see a history of my cycle.

been looking at some of the fish on youtube today as not had much to do, as it passes the time and gives me ideas on how i want this tank to look eventually.

ok will see u all in 24.

Danny

 

[Dan-CR4]

This mornings 8am ammonia test was 0 as always. The nitrite was 0.25 using the api kit and 0.1 using the nutrafin kit(both the lowest on their respective charts), which it has been after 12 hours for 3 days running, so i did another test at 11am just to see what time the last little bit of nitrite would be clear.

I tested with both the api and nutrafin master test kits and both say at 11am my nitrite is at 0, so it took 15 hours for the nitrite to clear from when i added the ammonia at 8pm last night. i think its real close to the 12 hour mark. keeping my fingers crossed that it continues to fall and i can soon start my qualifying week.

I dont normally test using both kits, but as i got both i thought i would see what each are saying, and it seems they are backing each other up with their results

Danny