Fishless Cycle Day 23: Nitrites At 14ppm Help!

[jnms]

Yeah totally. The problem is that different place give different opinions / information. This forum seems to be the best I have found - it is very solid and reliable information and posters which is great. I will take a look at the science forum as you suggest.

Got another question - sorry heh - when is it ok to add bogwood into the tank? I have heard that putting it in during a cycle can cause problems as it may 'absorb' baterica from the water and leach it back out at a later date. I am not convinced of this - but remain unsure. The bogwood I have as been soaking for about 3 weeks and just about all the tannis that is going to come out is about...I will let the filter handle and water changes the rest once it is in the tank. So should I put it in the tank now...or wait until it is cycled?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

well personally i think this forum's great, no one person or site can ever know everything about every circumstance, but between us we've got most of the bases covered and I think we're fairly level headed for the most part!

never heard that one about bogwood before! It's perfectly fine to add bogwood to a cycling tank and shouldn't interefere with the bacteria.

The only issue that it can cause is with pH. Bogwood can lower pH, the process of cycling (the nitrification) also lowers pH. The bacteria that we're trying to develop can't live at a pH below 5.5 so if these both drive the pH down then it can stall the cycle. It doesn't happen to every tank, it depends on the chemical make up of your tap water a lot.

It's nothing to be desperately concerned about though, just monitor the pH, if it slips much below 7 then do a water change to bring it back up, if it keeps dropping down then stick a post up and we'll advise you on stabilising it.

 

[backtotropical]

basically what happens is every 1ppm of ammonia that's processed makes about 3ppm of nitrite.

Good information as ever Wiggly, but i'd like to make it more specific if i may, for anyone who is interested?

1ppm of ammonia will yield 2.7ppm of nitrite, which will in turn yield 3.7ppm of nitrate.

As an example, a common ammonia concentration in fishless cycling is 5ppm.

5ppm ammonia = 13.5ppm nitrite = 18.5ppm nitrate.

You won't often see this exact pattern in a tank because of things like live plants feeding on the ammonia or nitrate, but you can see quite clearly why nitrite, and even more so nitrate, fly off the test kit chart so quickly.

Cheers

BTT

 

[jnms]

Ok great, I have now added the bogwood into the tank. Thanks!

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Thanks BTT, I can never remember the exact ratio for it.... just know it's roughly 1 - 3 ppm