Day 1

[dreworz5]

I just started mine today. Unfortanatly my heater broke. that will probably slow it up a s my water is only about 70degress F. I guess im gonna have to buy a new heater.

20 gallon tank

redings after adding 35 drops were...

pH 8.2
Am 1.0

I am trying to recreat this persons cycle as it looks like they did wellfishless cycle

 

[bogwood]

You can cycle without a heater but it will take longer...

...If you are doing a 'fishless cycle' using the 'add and wait' method, you should initially raise the ammonia level to 5–6ppm...

 

[mark.w.jones]

I just started mine today. Unfortanatly my heater broke. that will probably slow it up a s my water is only about 70degress F. I guess im gonna have to buy a new heater.

20 gallon tank

redings after adding 35 drops were...

pH 8.2
Am 1.0

I am trying to recreat this persons cycle as it looks like they did wellfishless cycle

Hi, I am currently doing my first fishless cycle. Hope yours also goes well. From what i've read. You need a higher temperature in your tank to increase the bacterial growth rate altough if you raise it too high you'll reduce the amount of oxygen in the water which may also impact the speed your tank cycles at (An airstone will help cure this). You also don't really need to test your pH in these early stages as your increased levels of ammonia / nitrite / nitrate will completely skew your results. The ammonia eating bacteria grew very quickly in my filter, took about 2/3 days in my 45l (10galUK) tank but ive been waiting almost another week now for the nitrite to drop.

Just out of interest what water test kit are you using? liquid ones are apparantly better than the card strips and are highly recommended if you are seriously interested in fish keeping for the forseeable future.

I only ask as your ammonia level doesn't seem high enough after adding your ammonia hydoxide solution. From what Ive read you should raise it to 5/6 ppm in the first instance and then wait for it to drop back to 0, testing only for ammonia on a daily basis at this time. Once it's done that you should add ammonia only up to around 3/4 ppm this time. Test nitrite and ammonia levels daily from now on until your nitrite drops to zero. During this time, as soon as your ammonia drops to back to zero, re add it up to 3/4 ppm again. Eventually, and it seems like an age, you should have 0 ppm ammonia and nitrite. Once your 3/4 ppm of ammonia is being changed to nitrite and then nitrate in 12hours you have a cycled tank. Don't forget to continue adding ammonia daily until you get your fish otherwise your bacteria will have nothing to feed on and may die. Also your nitrate will be off the scale now so a big 75 - 90% water change is recommended to get rid of it all.

Hope that helps. Let us know how you get on.

 

[dreworz5]

I am using a liguid test kit, fresh watyer mater test kit. I have a 20 gallon(US) tank. I am tring to it the way the other guy did in the link. I dont know if it will work, but i was gonna give it a whirl. I added 35 more drops this morning, and have not tested yet. It should be around 2.0- 3.0 now. I am working on aquiring a new heater, I have the airstone that I plan on putting in when I crank the temp to 80F degress.

do you guys recoment a submesable heater or the kind you dunkl in at the top?

I have manage to get the tamp up to 77F degress now through adding warm water and such.

 

[DebraAustin]

I just started mine today. Unfortanatly my heater broke. that will probably slow it up a s my water is only about 70degress F. I guess im gonna have to buy a new heater.

20 gallon tank

redings after adding 35 drops were...

pH 8.2
Am 1.0

I am trying to recreat this persons cycle as it looks like they did wellfishless cycle

Couldn't get the link to work, but it may have been my cycle you are talking about. I had a 10 gallon tank and had to add 60 drops to get it up to 4-5 ppm. I don't think you are adding enough ammonia for as large a tank as you have. By the way my two dwarf platys are doing great and I'm going to get them a roomate this week.

Debra