Fishless Cycle Diary-back From Hols :)

[ellena]

update further down

So here's my diary so far. 25l bowl. pH almost dead on 7. Haven't tested water hardness. 2 live plants.

13.4.09 5pm
Added filter rinsings from mature tank and about 3ml ammonia
NH3-8ppm
nitrates-10ppm

14.4.09 7.30am
NH3-8ppm
nitrite-0.25ppm
nitrate-5ppm (drop attributed to plants)
5pm
Did 50% water change to get NH3 levels down
NH3-4ppm
nitrite-0ppm

15.4.09 7.45am
NH3-4ppm
nitrite-0ppm
6.30pm
NH3-2/4ppm (very difficult to decide between the 2 colours)

16.4.09 8am
NH3-2/4 pmm (still can't decide)
8.15pm
NH3-still 2/4ppm!

17.4.09 8am
NH3-definitely 2ppm now
nitrite-1ppm Yeah!

I now have pet bacteria

 

[rewlyn]

have you tested for ammonia


bacteria

 

[ellena]

Yep, that's the NH3-couldn't be bothered to keep typing ammonia!

 

[waterdrop]

looks like you've got a few pet bacteria in there

 

[ellena]

17.4.09 4.30pm
NH3-2ppm
nitrite-1ppm
nitrate-5ppm

18.4.09 11am
NH3-1 or 2ppm
nitrite-either 1 or 5 ppm (those 2 are v.similar!)
nitrate-10ppm

19.4.09 10am
NH3-0.50ppm
nitrite-5ppm (going dark blue as soon as it hits bottom of tube. In the pinned cycling thread it says when API kits do this, it's off the scale and will go green. Mine doesn't go green-it matches the 5ppm colour quite well-so are they off the scale?)
nitrate-20ppm (Hmmm-are these coming from the breakdown of nitrites?)
Added 1ml NH3-back up to 2 or maybe 4ppm

20.4.09 7.30am
NH3-0.50ppm
nitrite-5ppm
nitrate-5ppm
Added 1.3ml NH3
10.30pm
NH3-1ppm
nitrite-5ppm
nitrate-5ppm
Added 1.5ml NH3

21.4.09 4.30pm
NH3-1ppm
nitrite-5ppm
nitrate-0ppm (have my plants been eating this?)
Added 1.5ml NH3

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, I'd ignore nitrate(NO3), it will just get you confused. You're right, most of the time the nitrite reagent will just sink and look a deep purple, only very occasionally will you get a "weird green/blue look" at certain light angles. It all just means you are "off the chart" and in what we call the "nitrite spike" phase of the cycle.

Glad that initial 8ppm ammonia add came down, clearly the 3ml was too much. At 8ppm the wrong species of bacteria is encouraged. What we want are the species that are encouraged at 4ppm or 5ppm or so.

So you are adding ammonia only at your 24-hour mark, right? And only after ammonia has made it all the way down to zero ppm. Its easier for us to follow if you say "12 hours after" or "24 hours after" (meaning how many hours after the ammonia add).. It looks like your mature media seeded the filter very well.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[ellena]

Yes, after about 24hrs, the NH3 seems to be down to 1/0.5ppm then I am adding more. Finding it a bit difficult to stick to a testing time each day, but roughly 24hrs. It needs to be going from 5ppm to 0 in 10-12 hours eventually though right?

 

[waterdrop]

Right, dropping from 5ppm to double-zeros within 12 hours is the test for starting your "qualifying week" where you just watch it hopefully continue to do that for the better part of a week, prior to getting fish. And its really only those final timings where you'd like to be pretty close on the 12 hours. The timing for when you test can be rougher during all these long weeks in the middle of cycling. What's important is being able to look at your logbook entries and see that the overall trend is moving you to a cycled filter.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[ellena]

So
22.4.09 24hrs
NH3-0.5/1ppm
NO2-5ppm
added 1.3ml NH3

24hrs later, I added sponge from a second filter to cycle that at the same time-the green bits either side in this pic-

23.4.09 31hrs
NH3-1ppm
NO2-5ppm
added 1ml NH3

24.4.09 16hrs
NH3-2ppm
NO2-5ppm
NO3-5ppm

25.4.09 24hrs
NH3-still 2ppm
NO2-5ppm

So almost 2 days with no drop in NH3, after it had been going so well So, after reading on here of pH problems messing up cycles, I checked mine and it's dropped to 6 from 7.
So, any ideas why and could this be what's messed it up? Could the sponge I added have anything to do with it?
Thanks for any help-god knows how I'd cope if there were fish in there!

 

[ellena]

Please can anyone help me with this? I really don't want all the hard work so far to be out the window. And I'd really love to know what causes pH to go down like that-have I done something wrong?
I'm not testing again until 24 hrs (which will be about 5 this evening) but I fear it will be the same

Reading other similar posts, water changes are recommended. I haven't done any so far, following the pinned topic instructions. Should I?

 

[ellena]

Just checked nitrates as another post suggested their acidity could brng the pH down, but they're still only at 5ppm.

 

[minxfishy]

Ph drops are common in fishless cycles, the best way to deal with them is a partial water change to raise the ph back up again, this will not effect your cycle and in alot of cases will actually speed up the cycle towards the end. Just remember to add the correct amount of ammonia back to the water for the amount of water you have removed so the bacteria still have something to consume.

 

[ellena]

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you
So I haven't killed all my bacteria?
I'll do a change now

 

[minxfishy]

No you havent killed it, just the ph drop has stalled it - it happens, often.

You could do a 50% change which should raise the ph again, just remember to dechlor the water and re-charge with ammonia when you have finished, also keep the water the same temp if you can

 

[ellena]

Right, done a 50% change. Added new warm water with dechlor, and 0.5ml NH3. Will check all stats again this afternoon.
Thanks