Fishless Cycle Diary

[djl08]

Promising set of results today, got my first significant nitrite reading and my nitrates are climbing nicely.

- Dj -

 

[waterdrop]

 

[djl08]

Ammonia has dropped to 0ppm after 28 hours. Im not sure if im experiencing my nitrite spike yet, could someone clear this up for me?


- Dj -

 

[fatheadminnow]

Once your Ammonia is dropping to zero within 12 hours, not 28, you should start to see then a large/larger NitrIte spike.

You should be getting close to the half way point of the cycle.

-FHM

 

[djl08]

Ok cool, cheers.

No tests carried out yesterday, will update my log tonite when i do todays tests.

- Dj -

 

[djl08]

Updated with yesterday and todays test results. Ammonia has dropped to 0 in 24 hrs for the second day in row. Nitrates and Ph seem to have dropped a little. Could it be the plants consuming the nitrates?

- Dj-

 

[waterdrop]

Nitrates dropping could be the plants consuming some or it could just be the nitrate reading fluctuating because the nitrite reading is fluctuating, it gets bounced around some by that.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[djl08]

My Ph has dropped to 6.6!!!! What could have caused this? Do i need to do a water change to bring it back up?

- Dj -

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, perform a 90% (smaller if you're worried about your plants falling over too much and being too disturbed, but as big as you can) water change and recharge with ammonia, the test after an hour and see what you accomplished pH-wise.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[djl08]

Okay, carried out a 90% water change last nite, although it took so long i didnt have time to test the water afterwards. I carried out the test when i woke up this morning and have updated with the results.

Shouldnt the water change have dropped the NO2 and NO3 readings? I would have thought the NO3 would have dropped more significantly considering a 90% water change. Or is the reading showing the ammonia that i added last nite being processed?


Also, im coming the end of my forth week of fishless cycling and im still not seeing a drop in nitrites. Could someone tell me why this is, and how much longer do you think before i finish my cycle. I really dont think i can take much longer of this.

Thanks,

- Dj-

 

[waterdrop]

Dj!

You just don't know how to interpret this stuff!

In my view you are having a "textbook" fishless cycle and that water change seems to have done just about exactly what I would have wanted it to do! The water change, *most importanly* raised your pH from 6.6. into the 7's, which is your main goal for this sort of water change, to counteract those nitric acids that go along with the nitrates building up at the end of the nitrification process. It also took out plenty of nitrite(NO2) but this just showed that your A-Bac population is looking really good because the A-Bacs swallowed up all that ammonia and dumped out a lot of new NO2!

Your fishless process is going fine because during the first 20 days you were working on having the A-Bacs get big enough to start really dropping that ammonia from the 5ppm, which finally the did, and when they did, they've started doing a strong job of it ever since. Actually, the fact that they are doing so well is what's making the N-Bacs look so bad! The poor N-Bacs are munching away and no doubt growing bigger, but the mountain of NO2 out there and available to them is just staying way above any kind of movement your test kit has the ability to show you. But that's OK! That's what we all see in this "Nitrite Spike" phase like you're in.

Hang in there! Your next milestone of course will be when one day the N-Bacs finally break through their mountain of NO2 and suddenly you find that NO2 is not "off the charts." At that point you'll be interested in seeing that NO2 can be processed in 24 hours and then it will take some time for it to work its way down to processing it in 12 hours.

You have a large tank and a big filter, right? Sometimes they have a stubborn feel to them during fishless but the end results are often very robust. Once you start getting those zero readings you've basically "got them for life" unless something messes up. And once you've got those zeros, you've got the basis for a fantastic environment for your tropical fish. (Consider the alternative! Fish in there and getting readings of ammonia or nitrite... you'd have to desparately be doing those large water changes perhaps every day!)

OK, so for now, while the nitrite is spiking, you really don't need to be recharging all the way to 5ppm, you can do 3ppm or so and there'll be plenty of ammonia to keep the A-Bacs maintained ok and not have them pump out quite so much excess "N" compounds. Once the N-Bacs have "caught up" then be sure to ease it back up to 5ppm before the end.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[djl08]

Thanks WD, so would you say im roughly half way there?

Man this does try your patience, i was hoping i was going to be one of the 'lucky' ones and be done by now. Haha, guess not. So in Lehmans terms, i just got to wait for that deep purple of the nitrite test to get lighter, then wait for it to drop to zero in 12 hours?

- Dj -

 

[OldMan47]

You get almost 3 ppm of nitrate for each one ppm of ammonia so a dose of 5 ppm ammonia will be about 14 ppm of nitrates once it is processed. That is consistent with the roughly 16 ppm rise you got after your 90% water change. The nitrites hanging in there and not moving up means that they are being processed well, just not well enough to say you are done yet. If you are at 4 weeks, you can expect to be done by the time you reach 6 weeks as long as you don't get another pH crash.

 

[djl08]

Thanks for that Oldman47, thats great news . That means i better finalise my stock then huh. Are dwarf gouramis and bn plecks ok to add to a freshly cycled tank? And possibly either, a nice shoul of copper harlequins or a type of tetra, maybe glowlight or cardinal and some corrys. Any recommendations? Bearing in mind i wouldnt mind a pair of angels.

- Dj -

 

[djl08]

BIG changes since i tested this morning, NO2 and NO3 have dropped significantly. Added 3 ml of ammonia.

Any thoughts on my fish selection?

Thanks,

- Dj -