Fishless Cycle Question

[jmann]

I'm now just over two weeks into a fishless and wanted opinions if its going right. My amonia is .25, Nitrites are spiked and over 5ppm. Nitrates are 20 and PH is 7.2. My question is how long does it take for the Nitrites to go down after spiking?

 

[Tolak]

HTH!

 

[jmann]

Thanks it looks like I'm on the right track.

 

[Squid]

Quick question for you along the same theme..

I have been fishless cycling for 2 weeks now.. within 24 hours the ammonia returns to 0 and it gets to 0.25 after about 12 hours.. the nitrates are at about 2.0 at the moment though, so heading in the right direction, but bit left to do..

How often should i be topping up the ammonia. Do i continue to add it once a day, or should it be topped up every 12 hours when the ammonia gets down to 0.25. I worry that if i dont top it up enough, the ammonia munchin' bacteria will die off, but if i top it up too much then the nitrites will take ages to drop..

And i presume i am waiting for ammonia and nitrates to be 0 within 12 hours and not 24 hours.. ???

Any ideas

Cheers
Squid

 

[Squid]

Any ideas?

 

[bogwood]

I quote 'rdd1952's excellent fishless cycling article:

Every time the ammonia drops back to zero, raise it back up to 3 to 4 ppm and continue to check nitrites. The nitrite reading will go off the chart. Once the ammonia is dropping from around 4 ppm back to zero in 12 hours or less you have sufficient bacteria to handle the ammonia your fish load produces. Continue to add ammonia daily as you must feed the bacteria that have formed or they will begin to die off.

 

[Squid]

thanks bogwood... good old rdd1952.. eh

i must have missed that bit.. didnt see it in the add and wait bit.. maybe i should have looked harder..

Cheers

Squid