Fish-Less Cycle

[waterdrop]

Yes, you're ridiculously ahead of where we thought you'd be at this time anyway, lol. Just leave it be while you're gone. WD

 

[dissimulo]

I think algae is beginning to grow! I can see rather small, circular brown patches all over the front panel. And only Thursday will my tank go without Ammonia so I'm sure things will be fine. I'll post up to date readings sometime during Friday evening.

Take care,

Luke.

 

[waterdrop]

I can't remember if you've got plants in there Luke..? Often we go with the minimum (4 hours) light to get the plants started if that's the case. If there are no plants then there's no need for light except when you're working in it. The bacteria themselves are inhibited by light but usually they are growing inside a dark filter box.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[dissimulo]

My lights are operated by a digital timer and are on for 4 hours a day in 2 hour intervals, morning and night, purely for lighting purposes. Other than that, I have nothing in my tank but a sand substrate and two very small pieces of slate.

Cheers,

Luke.

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, then, save your timer system for after you've got plants and fish. During the cycle just turn them on manually when you want to work in the tank or for a bit if you just want the feel of the tank in the room with you (I know, a dark tank all the time can really make the waiting even worse, lol.) Or, if others are going to give you an even harder time then play with the timers but try to get less light. And of course scrape that algae off, algae is easier to deal with if you keep after it. WD

 

[dissimulo]

Hi all,

Sorry for the late reply, I've been tied up with school issues. Below is my log so far.

As you can see, I have started 12 hourly testing. Also, my pH looks t be on the fall again but I know how to deal with it this time.

So how am I doing? Oh and I've altered my timer to allow for 20 minutes of light, dawn and dusk, for when I'm testing.

Cheers,

Luke.

 

[waterdrop]

Looking great. A very rapid fishless cycle. You don't need to be running the lengthy nitrate(NO3) tests twice a day at all, you're already maxed out on the NO3 test and that's not going to change until you either do the final big water change or get into a sticking situation with the 3rd phase and need a water change for that, either way you don't need to bother with those slow tests. All you really care about is trying to get a series of tests where both ammonia and nitrite are zero at 12 hours so you can start your qualifying week.

Have you eased your ammonia dosing back up to 4 and then 5ppm? I think I remember you were down at 3ppm for the nitrite spike?

~~waterdrop~~

 

[dissimulo]

It does seem to be going quite quickly, yes. And I haven't been taking NitrAte readings each and every time. Rather, continuing to fill the cells anyway. And yes I have increased the dosage back to 5 ppm.

Cheers,

Luke.

 

[waterdrop]

Luke,

Over time I have come to feel that a fishless cycle ending in less than a month carries a small danger with it that it might come back on you and cause spikes or mini-cycles after you do the big water change and get fish. We used to often quote the estimate for a fishless cycle to be 3 to 6 weeks or so but what I've noticed is that nearly all the ones where we get unexpected post-cycling spikes are ones that (often anyway) finished up in less than a month. What this says to me is that if one has an especially fast fishless cycle then it might be better to be a little suspicious and patient with it at the end, perhaps letting it just run longer before putting fish in - sometimes people have things like adding plants that could use up a little more time.

Now that's not to say that yours is ending in less than a month. There's no predicting how long it will take for the nitrite that's currently showing at 0.50ppm at 12 hours to drop to showing zero ppm at 12 hours, but I thought I'd just throw that out there for you.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[dissimulo]

Well that's definitely something to bare in mind, yet I can see the process lasting a small while longer. And I had already thought of keeping the cycle going for a few more days. Regarding my last post, the pH appeared to have taken another south turn, ending up at 6.0 (or lower). I dosed the tank with your recommended 5 tsps of bicarb to find the pH had risen back to 7.8. However, this mornings 12 hourly test revealed a 0.25 ppm increase in NitrIte, from the previous days 0.25, to 0.50. Could this be due to the bicarb?

And at this point, I'd also like to thank you immensely for the advice and fellowship you've offered. All of which has been extremely valuable.

Cheers,

Luke.

 

[waterdrop]

Traces of nitrite just come and go in the 3rd phase of fishless cycling. I never particlarly thought about whether bicarb/pH changes would be very directly related. I suppose the pH rise could differentially stimulate the A-Bacs a little more than the N-Bacs and result in a little excess nitrite shortly after the add, don't know.

Remember that the maturing of the biofilter (the collection of the 2 colonies) is going full tilt for the first 6 months of tank life. Our little system of qualification based on a week of double zeros at 12 hours is just a point along that continuum. A few people like to wait for 8 to 10 hour double-zeros and certainly there are some who haven't waited for the qualification week but instead have stocked after only a brief appearance of double-zeros. The qualification week of 12-hour double-zeros though is a middle-ground that seems to have been working quite well overall, usually landing us at an initial stocking at about the 2-month point on the 6-month continuum.

When I was a kid, if you wrote to someone in a far-away country it was called having a "Pen-Pal." Forums, when they're good kind of feel like Pen-Pals on steroids.

~~waterdrop~~