Fishless Cycle Diary

[Jonty]

Tested again - good news!

Ammonia 0ppm
Nitrite >5ppm
Nitrate 10ppm
PH 8.0

Added ammonia - back up to 5ppm

 

[waterdrop]

OK, that's great! Looking like you've definately got some A-Bacs coming along now. You're showing some speed and it may be due to your goldfish mature media and to your nice pH of 8, which is quite optimal.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Jonty]

OK, that's great! Looking like you've definately got some A-Bacs coming along now. You're showing some speed and it may be due to your goldfish mature media and to your nice pH of 8, which is quite optimal.

~~waterdrop~~

Really?! I thought the high PH was bad. Is a high PH ok if I want African Dwarf frogs and maybe a betta?

 

[waterdrop]

classic beginner thinking there jonty! You're fishless cycling water and your fish water are two separate worlds! When you are fishless cycling you want to focus on creating the perfect "bacterial growing soup" (eg. 84F/29C temp, 8.0 to 8.4 pH, some Ca in the water, some Fe in the water, ammonia added only to 5ppm, plenty of surface movement for oxygen and nice clear flow through the filter and not too much NO3 buildup)

Then, once you are cycled, you throw out the bacterial growing soup and "start a whole new life!" That's when you think about the relationship of your desired species to your tap water and tank water parameters and quite often, the typical community fish we purchase from our LFS will be so acclimated to life in our local tap water that some of the farther out parameters we read about them liking in the wild will simply not be a concern.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Jonty]

Wow, I'm learning a lot. My brain can't take in!

Todays results, 24h after adding ammonia

Ammonia 0ppm (I think I did too little yesterday)
Nitrites >5ppm
Nitrates 10ppm
PH 8.0

I'm just waiting for those Nitrite to Nitrate bacteria to grow

 

[waterdrop]

You've gone from ammonia not wanting to get down to zero in days to some days of it getting down to zero in 24 hours and from no nitrites showing up to a clear nitrite spike. This is good and is rapid progress.

The A-Bacs will process each 1ppm of ammonia into 2.7ppm of nitrite(NO2), so 13.5ppm of NO2 each time you add ammonia. What typically is going on is that the N-Bac population is developing almost like the A-Bacs but they've just got a lot more substance to process. They are, though, a llittle slower to grow too I believe.

Now that you are in the "Nitrite Spike" phase of the add&wait method, you can actually lower your ammonia adds to only 3ppm instead of 5ppm if you want. This will help the A-Bacs to not produce quite as much nitrite and will not hurt their population development at all. Later, when you see nitrites dropping to zero within 24 hours, you can ease this amount back up to 4ppm and then 5ppm. Anyway, right now I'd probably ease it down to 4ppm for a few days and then 3ppm, as long as nitrite is testing at 5+.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Jonty]

Todays results - 24hours after ammonia add

Ammonia 0ppm - yay
Nitrite 4ppm (looks between 2 and 5 but surely it couldn't go down that quick? The colours are quite hard to distinguish)
Nitrate 10ppm
PH 8.0

Bumped Ammonia back up to 4ppm

 

[waterdrop]

 

[Jonty]

Today - 24 hours after add

Ammonia 0.25ppm
Nitrite 5ppm
Nitrate 10ppm
PH 8.4

Is the high PH a problem? Also, should I bump the PH up to 4ppm now or wait for it to go all the way down?

Thanks

 

[waterdrop]

You are still in the nitrite spike phase, so you can continue to stay on the low side for your ammonia adds, say about 3ppm for now. After your nitrite(NO2) starts dropping to zero inside 24 hours you can think about easing the add amounts back up to 4ppm, then 5ppm (should always be 5ppm for the finish of fishless cycling.)

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Jonty]

Day 10 (24 hours after Ammonia add)
Ammonia 0ppm
Nitrite 2ppm
Nitrate 10ppm
PH 8.2

I don't know whether the Nitrite should be that low if the Nitrate is still at 10ppm - but the colour definatly looked right...

 

[waterdrop]

You should rarely let any sort of nitrate(NO3) reading influence your thoughts about your ammonia and nitrite(NO2) readings.

I'm afraid with nitrate(NO3) readings we usually consider them to be unpredictable enough (both from the testing reliability point of view and from the "what's going on in the tank" point of view) that we tend to point to them happily as a reassurance when the perform as expected and yet we tend to ignore them when they don't! In many ways the thing they are best for comes later after we have fish and want to check up on how our long-term maintenance is going.

You look to be already reaching the end of your nitrite spike phase there, but we'll see...

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Jonty]

24 hours after ammonia add:

Ammonia 0ppm
Nitrite 2ppm
Nitrate 5ppm
PH 8.0

I don't know why the Nitrate has gone down - I've got silk plants, no live ones. As you say WD, I guess it may be inaccurate.

 

[Jonty]

Was bored so I did an Ammonia test after 13 hours - 0.25ppm

 

[Jonty]

24 hours after ammonia

Ammonia 0ppm
Nitrite 2ppm
Nitrate 30ppm
PH 8.3

Finally, some nitrate!

Ammonia back up to 3ppm