Fishless Cycle 10Days In!

[fatheadminnow]

oh what do you mean by 24 hour mark??

During a fishless cycle you only add ammonia every 24 hours as needed.

So, lets say you added the first batch of ammonia up to 4-5 ppm, like you did, at 8:00 pm. That means you check the levels every 24 hours, or every day at 8:00 pm. If the ammonia is near 0 ppm at this time, this is the only time you add ammonia back up.

Hope this makes sense?

-FHM

 

[GTS_MAD]

ahhhh i see thats great thanks very much

 

[fatheadminnow]

Your welcome!

As your cycle progresses, you will see why this is important.

-FHM

 

[GTS_MAD]

could someone check my filter layout.

in the Rena xp3 there is:

Filter sponges
Carbon Bag
Bio Balls
Black Bio balls
Zeolite
Nitrazorb

could any of this be slowing my cycle down or is everything ok here, just thought id check

 

[OldMan47]

The zeolite and nitrazorb have no place in your filter. Both will remove ammonia artificially and prevent cycling until they become exhausted, which shouldn't take very long if you dose to 5 ppm.

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, this is the problem. Cycle can't start if zeolite and nitrazorb are removing the food for the bacteria.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[GTS_MAD]

so shall i take them out?

do they need to be kept in water?

 

[fatheadminnow]

so shall i take them out?

do they need to be kept in water?

They are not needed so you can remove them from the filter and throw them away.

I would then replace the new empty space with some foam inserts.

Empty space in a filter = a waste.

-FHM

 

[GTS_MAD]

Great, thought this could be an issue, will get them removed later on, would it not pay to keep them for emergencys??

 

[waterdrop]

If you've got room on your fish hobby storage shelf you could go ahead and keep them, no harm. You could refit the space with sponge, as FHM says, or more ceramic rings, not much difference. --wd--

 

[GTS_MAD]

Great thank you very much!

 

[GTS_MAD]

guys do i need the light on while my tank is starting to cycle becuase my ammonia is not dropping,

In there is silk plants, sand and ornamant does this matter

 

[rebrn]

I don't think you necessarily have to have the lights on, but I did find that my cycle picked up when the lights were on, could be just coincidence though. One thing to note though, if you leave your lights on you will most likely have more algae growth during and at the end of the cycle, leaving the light off helps to prevent this somewhat.

 

[OldMan47]

With all the nitrogen in a cycling tank, unneeded lights are an invitation to an algae explosion. I would leave them off unless you need them for real plants.

 

[fatheadminnow]

Yup, since you are adding high amounts of ammonia, which will nearly always be above 0 ppm, you will most likely get an algae out break if the lights are on.

Ammonia + Light = Algae.

-FHM