Entire Cycle Finished In 6 Days? No Way!?

[twistedlink]

Okay, after 3 day it was taking 10-12 hours to deplete 4ppm of ammonia to 0

I did a nitrite test last night, it used to be off the chart, it came out as 0.50, i thought "random anomoly, il check in the morning" as i was tired and only just got in from a night out.

Ive just checked again, my ammonia is 0 like every morning now and before i poured more in i did another nitrite test, and its a faint blue, mix between 0 and 0.50

No way can my cycle be done yet, and if so, what the hell?

My plants have been growing like wildfire too, i had a group of leafs budded up, and in 2 days 3 of them have come out, and ones nearly 3" long, ive been keeping the lights on 24 hours a day, and i have bogwood galore in there, big pieces.

This is amazing, ive topped up the ammonia, in 8-10 hours im going to check the nitrite again, if its blue, does this mean im cycled?

Oh also, i killed off many plants from the heat, i think i accidentally bought some coldwater plants....but hey...reckon there degrading made a perfect organic use for the bacterium to really get growing?

 

[twistedlink]

One strange fact however is that my Nitrate test shows no change, my nitrate tests have always come up as 5-10ppm

However if i leave them for 30 minutes, they go into the 40's, but it says only 5 minutes....

 

[twistedlink]

lol okay i figured it out, i use API test kit, its actually blue/green, meaning im just off the chart still but beyond the purples it was showing, so my cycle hasnt finished, aww i got excited then haha

 

[waterdrop]

So you're saying you somehow had the 1st bacterial population already present or something such that it began processing ammonia almost immediately you think. And after about 3 days your NO2 API test drops began changing to dark blue/green right away after being dropped in (ie beyond purple), right? So you feel you are at the second stage now and waiting for the 2nd bacterial population to develop and be able to process the Nitrite, right? Just trying to follow along and see if I understand you correctly...

 

[dthoffsett]

One strange fact however is that my Nitrate test shows no change, my nitrate tests have always come up as 5-10ppm

However if i leave them for 30 minutes, they go into the 40's, but it says only 5 minutes....

If I remember correctly, because you have live plants your nitrAte may not rise very much as the plants will convert some of it into food. That also may be why your cycle is going a little faster than normal.

 

[AngelOfDeath]

if nitrate is present....doesnt this mean the cycling process is complete?....

 

[twistedlink]

Very little ammonia on 5 minutes after test, but very high if i wait 30 mins or so, but thats from leaving it in the test tube.

my tests are becoming more quickly very green now, which API tests do when theyre off the chart, goes purple at the bottom and if you wait the 5 minutes it goes green.

My cycle isnt done, still got 2 more weeks i reckon if everything goes smoothly

 

[waterdrop]

if nitrate is present....doesnt this mean the cycling process is complete?....

I thought mere presence of nitrate didn't tell you much about whether you are at the end of the cycling process. The processing of ammonia from 4ppm to 0ppm in 10-12 hours and the processing of nitrite from high ppm to 0ppm in 10-12 hours is the definitive sign of a well-operating cycled filter, right?

Presence of nitrate can happen all along because there will be very small amounts of various species of bacteria processing through to nitrate all along, and they might even be the wrong species (whether wrong bacterial species are the cause of a cycle process stalling is speculative, but there ineed have been scientists finding evidence for it.) Plus, its always to be aware of any possible nitrate in the tap water and take that into account. Seeing the 4ppm to 0ppm in the correct time frame and also of course the similar nitrite processing is more the best thing to be looking for.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[waterdrop]

Very little ammonia on 5 minutes after test, but very high if i wait 30 mins or so, but thats from leaving it in the test tube.

my tests are becoming more quickly very green now, which API tests do when theyre off the chart, goes purple at the bottom and if you wait the 5 minutes it goes green.

My cycle isnt done, still got 2 more weeks i reckon if everything goes smoothly

Hi twisted!

I assume you're just having a laugh about the colors, right? The only meaning one is meant to draw from the API ammonia test is the reading one takes at the 5-minute mark after the end of 5-second shaking in the tube. Reading the color prior to or after the 5-minute mark has no meaning. (That's not to say that when you see it heading in the green direction that you know you have ammonia. Obviously you do and you could go ahead and rinse your tube if that's all you wanted to know and not the numerical number to record.)

Likewise, RDD tips us off in his fishless cycling article that when we see the reagent drops turn into dark stuff we don't really have to wait the 5 min because the nitrites will be "off the chart" and the test can't give us a usuable ppm number anyway in that case.

Probably you know all that, as forum messages are such a poor way to detect the twist of a person's real thought, I'm probably just am not on the same wavelength with you, lol. I've enjoyed hearing your cycling progress of course, since I'm cycing at the same time and it helps with the boredom to listen to fellow cyclers.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[twistedlink]

Oh i know the 30 minute one is useless, i read them all at 5 mins and take them down, but sometimes on occasion i leave them as they are as im a busy busy man and i noticed my nitrates go very high after more than 5 minutes, and i remembered that section of article on "purple on the bottom" about 20 mins after making this thread, and then i read it to make sure, and it all clicked.

Nitrite still off the chart unfortunately, ah well

 

[AngelOfDeath]

if nitrate is present....doesnt this mean the cycling process is complete?....

I thought mere presence of nitrate didn't tell you much about whether you are at the end of the cycling process. The processing of ammonia from 4ppm to 0ppm in 10-12 hours and the processing of nitrite from high ppm to 0ppm in 10-12 hours is the definitive sign of a well-operating cycled filter, right?

Presence of nitrate can happen all along because there will be very small amounts of various species of bacteria processing through to nitrate all along, and they might even be the wrong species (whether wrong bacterial species are the cause of a cycle process stalling is speculative, but there ineed have been scientists finding evidence for it.) Plus, its always to be aware of any possible nitrate in the tap water and take that into account. Seeing the 4ppm to 0ppm in the correct time frame and also of course the similar nitrite processing is more the best thing to be looking for.

~~waterdrop~~

thanks =)