Few Points Needing Advice On - Fishless Cycle

[kimGeach]

HI

I'm two weeks into a fishless cycle in a trigon 190.


This is actually my mums new tank - she's going to have my 2 angels and 2 gourmis (SP?) - i've not done this before as followed the normal LFS advise at the time and never got on top of the parameters.

She wants to add another two angels and prehaps some others - she mentioned a pleco which i think grows too big but will again be looking into this ( will be doing research in to stocking level for this tank -unless someone can advice off the top of their head!)

My understanding is that keeping the ammoina up to 5ppm will prepare the tank for a full stock when we get there - i'm i understanding this correctly?

the ammonia is now converted within 12hrs - but the nitrite is still off the scale (know we have a wait here) my question is do we keep adding ammonia to raise to 5ppm every 12 hrs until the nitrite drops?

 

[Truck]

HI

I'm two weeks into a fishless cycle in a trigon 190.


This is actually my mums new tank - she's going to have my 2 angels and 2 gourmis (SP?) - i've not done this before as followed the normal LFS advise at the time and never got on top of the parameters.

She wants to add another two angels and prehaps some others - she mentioned a pleco which i think grows too big but will again be looking into this ( will be doing research in to stocking level for this tank -unless someone can advice off the top of their head!) go for a species that will grow no larger than 8 inches

My understanding is that keeping the ammoina up to 5ppm will prepare the tank for a full stock when we get there - i'm i understanding this correctly? yes after the ammonia drops and you have a nitrite spike, then they should both fall to 0 and you will start to get nitrates, then do a 50% WC add ammonia and test in 12 hours.

the ammonia is now converted within 12hrs - but the nitrite is still off the scale (know we have a wait here) my question is do we keep adding ammonia to raise to 5ppm every 12 hrs until the nitrite drops?

 

[rdd1952]

Only add ammonia once a day. Ammonia is converted to nitrite at a 1 to 2.7 rate so for every ppm of ammonia you add, you get 2.7 ppm of nitrite. I would suggest a large water change to get the nitrite back on the scale. What are your nitrate readings? Are they rising? Do water changes about eery 2 or 3 days as needed to keep the nitrite from getting too high. The key is that the nitrates are rising. That means that nitrite is being converted and things are progressing nicely.

 

[kimGeach]

Thanks for the replies guys

The nitrite's are off the scale - i've not tested the nitrates yet as was going to wait for the nitrites to drop then do water change (the tanks only been converting Ammonia in 12 hrs for the past three days)

So my plan of action to make sure!

test for nitrates

water changes to keep on top of the nitrites.

add ammonia to 5ppm once a day -

when 5ppm is converted to zero nitrites and trats in 12 hrs continue for a couple of days to a week to make sure all OK (water changes as necessary depending on trates) then add fish

 

[rdd1952]

Althouh the nitrate level is irrelevent, checking does tell you if nitrite is being processed since you can't tell by the chart. Once ammonia is processing in less than a day and you're adding 5 ppm of ammonia a day you are actually adding 13.5 ppm of nitrite a day considering thats what the 5 ppm of ammonia transforms into. You don't necessarily need that much bacteria to process ammonia. That's why doing a water change will help as it reduces the very high level of nitrite to a level the bacteria can catch up to quicker.