Day 5 Of Fishless Cycle

[Christi_22]

Hi Guys

I am on day 5 of a fishless cycle

Tank is 36 US Gallon - and has so far......

Tetra Complete Substrate and Argos Play sand.
I have added some gravel and plants from my (mature) 75 Gallon which has an UG Filter
Filtration is Eheim external 2324. (second hand, but out of water for a few weeks)
PH 7.4

Tap water 50+ NitrAate

Day 1
Added 7.3 ml of Sainsbury's Ammonia
Ammonia reading 5+ppm

Day 2
Ammonia 5+ppm

Day 3
Ammonia 4.9ppm

Day 4
Ammonia 2.4ppm
NitrIte 10ppm
NitrAte 250+ppm

Day 5
Ammonia 0
NitrIte 25ppm
NitrAte 250+

Happy with progress so far, but where is all the NitrAte coming from. Any ideas?

Thanks for reading
C

 

[fatheadminnow]

Your Nitrite is way too high, and especially your nitrates.

I would do at least a 50% water change to bring your nitrites down, just for the fear that too high nitrite may slow your cycle down,

My guess is that you added too much ammonia in the beginning, and since you have mature filter, you are processing all of the ammonia to nitrite, and alternately nitrate.

Do a water to get nitrite down to about 5ppm, and nitrate down close to 70ppm (20 more than your trap water will be okay).

Bacteria that process ammonia colonize faster and that is why your ammonia reading is at zero, while the bacteria that process nitrite colonize slower, causing a spike in nitrite. But you still had some bacteria from your mature filter media to process the nitrites to nitrate, causing a very high reading in nitrates.

-FHM

 

[Christi_22]

Thanks FHM that makes sense.

OK. So water change is required in order to ensure that the cycle is not stalled. I have re-read the thread on Fishless Cycling and it says to expect nitite and nitrate to go off the scale, and that a water change would take care of that once the tank had finished cycling. (well the Nitrates anyway).

I used the ammonia calculator on this forum to calculate how much to add (i.e. for the tank volume).

I guess it cant do any harm to do a water change now, and then make sure that the Ammonia is dosed up to about 4 ppm afterwards. I didn't expect things to move so fast, even though I added some mature gravel to the tank!!

 

[fatheadminnow]

Yeah, when you add mature filter media, depending on how much you have added, a tank can be pretty much cycled right away.

I would just do a water change, anywhere from 20% to 50% would be okay, and you should be good to go.

-FHM

 

[Christi_22]

Water change it is then.

I will keep monitoring until processing Ammonia and Nitrites in 12 hours.

Hopefully not too long till I can transfer my fish into their new home!! Still got to plant up yet though!

Thanks FHM

 

[fatheadminnow]

Your welcome Christi_22!

Keep us updated on how everything works out for you!

And good luck setting up your plants!

I love live plants in aquariums!

-FHM

 

[Christi_22]

Will do

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome to the forum Christi.
The nitrate test is often thrown way off by high nitrites so ignore that test for now.

Your 5 ppm of ammonia could be expected to produce about 13 ppm of nitrites if you only added ammonia once. My nitrite card only goes to 5 ppm so you must have a very different test kit than I do. For a fishless cycle, there is no need to worry about high nitrites. A fish-in cycle is another matter entirely. A filter / tank that has been out of water a few weeks has nothing alive in it to help you cycle it. The gravel from your established tank may be giving a lot of help though. If your initial 5+ ppm of ammonia was close to 10 ppm, you have almost exactly what you could expect for nitrites.
I would bump the ammonia back up to only 5 ppm or a little less and monitor nitrites. When the nitrites come crashing back down is soon enough to sample for nitrates. You can expect to see about 3.5 ppm of added nitrates for each 1 ppm of ammonia added over time. I know your present value is much higher than that but it is being distorted by the nitrites so it is an unreliable reading. Each day that you find ammonia at zero, it is time to bump it up again. The nitrates that are produced are easily dealt with by a huge single water change when the cycle is complete. Water changes will not disturb the cycle at all but will make it necessary to add back more ammonia. The bacteria grow on surfaces so water changes don't matter to them in terms of their growth. If you have gotten too much ammonia using the calculator, try adding half as much and test soon after. That will tell you how much you really need to add to get to 4 or 5 ppm without overshooting much.

 

[Christi_22]

Welcome to the forum Christi.
The nitrate test is often thrown way off by high nitrites so ignore that test for now.

Your 5 ppm of ammonia could be expected to produce about 13 ppm of nitrites if you only added ammonia once. My nitrite card only goes to 5 ppm so you must have a very different test kit than I do. For a fishless cycle, there is no need to worry about high nitrites. A fish-in cycle is another matter entirely. A filter / tank that has been out of water a few weeks has nothing alive in it to help you cycle it. The gravel from your established tank may be giving a lot of help though. If your initial 5+ ppm of ammonia was close to 10 ppm, you have almost exactly what you could expect for nitrites.
I would bump the ammonia back up to only 5 ppm or a little less and monitor nitrites. When the nitrites come crashing back down is soon enough to sample for nitrates. You can expect to see about 3.5 ppm of added nitrates for each 1 ppm of ammonia added over time. I know your present value is much higher than that but it is being distorted by the nitrites so it is an unreliable reading. Each day that you find ammonia at zero, it is time to bump it up again. The nitrates that are produced are easily dealt with by a huge single water change when the cycle is complete. Water changes will not disturb the cycle at all but will make it necessary to add back more ammonia. The bacteria grow on surfaces so water changes don't matter to them in terms of their growth. If you have gotten too much ammonia using the calculator, try adding half as much and test soon after. That will tell you how much you really need to add to get to 4 or 5 ppm without overshooting much.

Thanks OM47.

Well........Have done approx 40% water change.

Ammonia is about 2ppm, (after dosing up to 4ppm before the water change)!

Nitrites are Off the scale (test is Tetratest reagent test). It goes up to 33mg/1 (as stated on the colour chart)

Have not measured Nitrates at this point due to your advice.

Should I top up the Ammonia levels at this stage (to 4ppm)?

 

[OldMan47]

If you start topping up only to 2 ppm at this stage, it will keep your ammonia eaters going and it will let the nitrite converters begin to develop. Once the nitrites start coming down is soon enough to ramp the ammonia back up to 5 mg/l.

 

[Christi_22]

Cool. Thanks again.