Fishless Cycle - Plants Or No Plants?

[Alex.]

Thanks for the replies so far. I started my fish less cycle last Friday by adding ammonia using the calculator on here. I got it up to around 4-5 ppm as instructed using the api master kit to test.

On the Saturday (3rd) I was given some media from a member in the form of ceramic rings which had been used in his tank. I placed all these in the bio section in my filter (they filled it up) so practically had a 1/3 mature filter. There were some spare rings left over which ive just put in the corner of the tank and will take out when I do the last big water change.

Ph started aroud 6.6-6.8 and is in the low 7s since I added ammonia.

A couple of days later my ammonia was down to around 2ppm so the signs were promising but as of today (48hrs later) they are still 1-1.5ppm by the looks of it. It's worth mentioning despite the positive reviews of the api master test kit it's hardly the easiest thing to read and just how you hold the tubes can make a big difference to the colour you see!!

So looks like my ammonia is slowing down, it's still definitely green so I'm going to wait til it definitely starts looking more yellow before I dose the ammonia back up.

I've also tested for nitrite which is showing around 0.25 currently and nitrates at 5-10 ppm. I've tested my tap water and it contains neither of these so it's definitely in the tank. Dont know if this is a sign of anything? I do have some bog wood in there which has released plenty of tannins but it doesn't bother me at the moment tbh. Dont know if that can affect the readings though?

Any feedback guys? Must say having got the donated media and seeing a 2 ppm initial drop quite quickly I was expecting the rest to go but it's definitely slowed down. Saying that only a few days in this may be a sign of severe impatience on my part!!

I'll try to pop pics up of my test kit results to get feedback from soon.

 

[The Taffy Apple]

Hi Alex.. it seems your mature media donation is doing it's job nicely! The donating member deserves a massive for helping out !!!
When i had my media donated i followed a piece of advice that was given to me (i'll try and find the link), the mature media that went into my filter enjoyed water changes. They enjoyed the warm, de-chlorinated, mineral rich water i used to put in it...i guess what i'm advising is don't be afraid of doing a small water change (especially if your PH drop significantly, continue to keep an eye on that), but yes, i wouldn't personally do anything until my Ammonia reached '0'.
It's great to see some NitrItes showing..the next time you see that 'Disney Blue' colour will be a brilliant sight !
Patience is the key here my friend, all the very, very best with it.

Terry.

 

[Alex.]

Ok guys - I've taken some water readings tonight and am not sure what to make of them.

My ammonia seems to be a touch lighter - somewhat around 1ppm although as previously mentioned the test kits aren't the easiest to read!

However nitrites seem to be showing around 0 tonight ? They were 0.25 for the last couple of nights. Now I'm aware the mature media possibly already has some of the bacteria to handle these - but am I not wrong in thinking that if they've been processed my nitrates should be higher?

My nitrates are the same - around 5ppm by the looks of it.

So I'm still going to wait till the ammonia definitely hits 0 so i know it's been processed, which is at least up to a week away I think. I'm just a bit confused as to where the nitrates seem to be tonight (it was definitely light purple the last few nights).

A test tomorrow eve should re-confirm tonights findings, although I did every test twice to make sure I hadn't made a mistake...

Ph is low 7s btw, temp is 30 degrees and im running an air stone and the lights about 7 hours a day each.

Thoughts?

 

[The Taffy Apple]

Hi Alex...

Your next test rsults will, as you said, be of importance. There is the chance it was a faulty test by some manner, a small rise and sudden drop are a strange thing to happen i guess. I believe next time you dose, your Ammonia eating bacteria will get through it within 2/3 days, then you will experience a sudden, sharp rise in your NitrItes. Your donated mature media should become active and (hopefully) spread with that heat and Ammonia 'feed'.
I noticed your PH was 6.6 before you started your cycle, i would also be keeping a close eye on my daily PH readings now...should, for whatever the reason, your PH suffer some kind of 'crash' back to it's original tap level (which was borderline PH for a healthy fishless cycle) then your ever increasing amount of good bacteria can, and probably will, suffer.
Hopefully you live in an area of 'hard' water (with tough 'bufering' capacity) then this shouldn't be an issue..a KH/GH test will prove this should you ever need to know.
I am unclear on how long (if at all) your lights should be on..but i kept them off the for the vast majority of the time when i done my cycle.. i tried to avoid the growth of any algae, which loved the ammonia and light i could have put in there. I would be very interested to know if anything has ever been proven by using lighted and dark fishless cycles though ..!!

Terry.

 

[CezzaXV]

Your pH is a tad low. The bacteria breed best in alkaline water. Grab yourself some bicarb and add some to your water and hopefully you'll see an improvement. I learned the hard way that if the pH gets too low the bacteria will stop processing altogether!

 

[Alex.]

How much bicarb should I add? Cheers for the replies guys - I'll test ph of tap water and tank water tonight, although I didn't think low 7's was bad.

 

[balajake]

low 7s seems fine to me i wouldnt worry about that.

 

[The Taffy Apple]

low 7s seems fine to me i wouldnt worry about that.

Would also have to agree..worry about when to use it if your PH drops back to what it once was.
anything above 6.8, in my personal opinion, is a good range to use.

Terry.

 

[Alex.]

Tested my water again tonight...

PH in tank is 7.2 - tap water is 6.4... This seems quite low to me - although who am i to know?

Does this mean i'll have to do something to keep PH up, or will it be fine once its in the tank as the bacteria, de-chlorinator etc will always bring it closer to 7?

I've uploaded pictures of my ammonia readings from the last few days. After i dosed the tank with ammonia my levels were at 4-5ppm - the latest seems to be around 1ppm but please let me know if you agree with me here as i'm not the best at matching the colours?

The furthest on the left is the day after I added the mature media - where I thought it had gone down to about 2ppm, but maybe higher? Then its pretty much the next day and next as you get towards the 5th which was taken tonight.

My nitrates seem to be between 0-5 and nitrItes still look like 0 tonight... Despite them definitely reading above 0 (i thought 0.25) the last few nights... See the two below images... I'm aware you can have false readings but for 3-4 nights in a row they were showing up on the tests... odd!

Feedback apprecaited...

 

[Alex.]

Ammonia about 1ppm tonight again - no sign of any nitrites or many nitrates either.

Am I wrong in thinking if ammonia has gone from 4 to 1ppm I should at least be seeing some nitrites?? A little confused tbh.

Don't know if it's worth mentioning but I have a few pieces of mopani wood in there that has developed a layer of white fungus on the surface - having read up on it its apparently normal and harmless (although as there's not any fish in there I doubt it'd matter at this stage anyway).

I just don't understand where the ammonia is going - and I'm not sure what if any impact the mature media is having??

 

[Alex.]

Any input from anyone on this?

Ammonia still looked like 1ppm tonight - no nitrites. I've added a small amount of ammonia (2ml) to bump it a touch and see if this generates anything.

Also opened up the filter to check everything was ok and the ceramic media is now coated in brown stuff in patches and same with the sponge sections by the looks of it. Must have free'd some of it up as since I put it back in there's loads of debris flying round the tank!

 

[snazy]

I would not add any ammonia until it tests 0. Patience

 

[Alex.]

Any ideas how long til nitrites are typically seen guys??

It will be 14 days tomorrow - bearing in mind I've used a mature media donation - and I've so far seen zero nitrites and ammonia barely recognisable in terms of being eaten up bar in the first couple of days.

I bought a hardness test yesterday which showed my hardness at roughly 3dKH / 53.7ppm.

The GH test I think is faulty - it was supposed to turn green from orange (as far as I can remember), anyway - it basically just never changed colour. I even went up to 40 drops and it just stayed orange, which can't be right.

Ammonia is currently on 2ppm roughly.

I know this is a waiting game and patience is required but from reading logs on here whenever people's ammonia is dropping they start to get detectable amounts of nitrite. Ive had none of this which is worrying.