Fishless Cycle - Progress Or Not?

[krisb60]

Into the 11th day and my last 3 readings are static:
Ammonia 5
Nitrite 0.5
Nitrate 15 (yesterday)

I added 2ppm Ammonia 4 days ago as I believed the ammonia level had fallen. Nitrite then rose from 0.3 to 0.5.

I am finding it pretty difficult to guage the levels against colour charts in the Nutrafin test kits.

Why are the ammonia and nitrite levels remaining static, when there appeared to be the start of activity on the 7th day?

 

[Colin_T]

if the ammonia levels get too high it will stop the cycling process. Generally anything above 5ppm can cause problems but it doesn't normally slow down until you hit 6-7ppm.
Try doing a 50% water change and increasing the aeration/ surface turbulence.

What is the PH of the tank?

 

[krisb60]

PH is 8 and has been throughout.
I believe I already have ample aeration, from both an airpump and from the outlet at the top of the filter.

Can you explain why a 50% water change might help?

 

[Colin_T]

you might have too much ammonia in the water and a water change can dilute it and help get the bacteria going again.

 

[krisb60]

I'm using the Nutrafin liquid test kits but finding the colour guages very difficult to read. Are all kits like this or are there any that are better/easier to use?

 

[Rubyuk]

I'm using the Nutrafin liquid test kits but finding the colour guages very difficult to read. Are all kits like this or are there any that are better/easier to use?

I'm having exactly the same problem so I sympathise.

I'm on day 13 of my fishless cycling and it sounds like my progress is mirroring yours.

I find the nitrite colour differences on the Nutrafin Mini Master test easy but the Ph and in particular the ammonia which lets face it is the most used one during the stage we're both at is a nightmare to differentiate between the two almost identical orange shades that can mean you either have 2.4ppm of ammonia or 4.9ppm.

Most on here seem to prefer the API test and I must admit I'm thinking of getting one just to see if I find it any easier to read.

I could do with seeing the colour charts in the API tests before buying as I dont want to jump out of the frying pan into the fire and find that their colour charts are just as bad but perhaps trying to work out the differences between say shades of green as opposed to orange!

 

[waterdrop]

Its hard to tell whether you guys would find the API ammonia test shades of green any easier to read. What people say about it being easy or hard varies quite a bit, so us saying one is better than another is pretty subjective too.

I'll tell you, my hunch is that both of you are suffering from "early impatience" syndrome ... This fishless cycling is a very slow business and you really need to kick back and not worry about it in such detail until its had the first couple of weeks to get those A-Bacs up into the millions so they can start doing some things your kits can detect!

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Rubyuk]

Its hard to tell whether you guys would find the API ammonia test shades of green any easier to read. What people say about it being easy or hard varies quite a bit, so us saying one is better than another is pretty subjective too.

I'll tell you, my hunch is that both of you are suffering from "early impatience" syndrome ... This fishless cycling is a very slow business and you really need to kick back and not worry about it in such detail until its had the first couple of weeks to get those A-Bacs up into the millions so they can start doing some things your kits can detect!

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yup the colour readings on test kits are a PITA, I've discovered this even more so recently, i had some problems with my eye at the end of last year and i've lost some vision and I'm also slightly colour blind now. did my first test with my 'new' vision the other day, ammonia and nitrite were fine as those are quite clear if you have 'none' or 'some' which is the important distinction when you're past the cycle but i'm buggered if i could tell you what the nitrate content of my tank is.

so no they're all a bit hard to read, just do the best you can! with ammonia it's better to err on the side of caution, beter to cycle with 3/4ppm than risk it going up to 6-8ppm and stalling the cycle so if you're not sue then a water change to drop thelevels down can help.

 

[krisb60]

Its hard to tell whether you guys would find the API ammonia test shades of green any easier to read. What people say about it being easy or hard varies quite a bit, so us saying one is better than another is pretty subjective too.

I'll tell you, my hunch is that both of you are suffering from "early impatience" syndrome ... This fishless cycling is a very slow business and you really need to kick back and not worry about it in such detail until its had the first couple of weeks to get those A-Bacs up into the millions so they can start doing some things your kits can detect!

~~waterdrop~~

Thanks
It doesn't help that I have green/brown colourblindness, though I get the missus to second-check and she struggles as bad as me!

yup the colour readings on test kits are a PITA, I've discovered this even more so recently, i had some problems with my eye at the end of last year and i've lost some vision and I'm also slightly colour blind now. did my first test with my 'new' vision the other day, ammonia and nitrite were fine as those are quite clear if you have 'none' or 'some' which is the important distinction when you're past the cycle but i'm buggered if i could tell you what the nitrate content of my tank is.

so no they're all a bit hard to read, just do the best you can! with ammonia it's better to err on the side of caution, beter to cycle with 3/4ppm than risk it going up to 6-8ppm and stalling the cycle so if you're not sue then a water change to drop thelevels down can help.

How big a water change? 50% ?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

that'll do!

 

[OldMan47]

A 50% change is fine to get the ammonia down into a safe range fr fishless cycling. As far as color charts, there is a picture of the API ones here if you scroll down a bit. http/www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Downloads.html