Fishless Cycle

[chardonnay1000]

Hi,

Can anyone help me out, i am now 16 days into my fishless cycle and my ammonia is sitting at 1.2mg my nitrite is at 4 mg and following the threads it seems to tell you to wait till they come back to zero, then do a massive water change to get rid of your nitrates. I thought the only way of lowering your nitites and ammonia was to do water changes as it wont lower by itself? am i wrong or have i got stuff mixed up along the way. thanks in advance

 

[Miss Wiggle]

the ammonia is converted by your filter bacteria (when it builds up) to nitrite, this is in turn converted to nitrate which you get rid of by water changes.

as far as i understand it you continue adding ammonia until you get no nitrite reading, then add it in the morning, check 24 hrs later, if it's gone down to 0 ammonia and nitrite then you do a massive water change and add your fish that day.

 

[chardonnay1000]

So am i best off adding my 15 drops of ammonia in the morning then not testing anything till the next day?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

nope, just keep testing every day until nitrite comes down to 0.

after that you need to make sure that the ammonia is converted right through to nitrate within 24hrs, so you test 24hrs after.

i think anyway, not my field of expertise really so if someone else could back this up (or just tell me i'm wrong!) that'd be great

 

[chardonnay1000]

Thanks miss wiggle, just one more quick question,,roughly how long does is take to come back down, or does it just depend on tank size etc..like days, weeks, overnight??

ps hope you dont mind me asking but do you have a parrot fish like the one in yr avatar, if so are they agressive, they is a baby one in my lfs for 10.99 and its sooo cute

 

[Miss Wiggle]

it's a very individual thing, some people have had it happen in 2 weeks, some it takes months. i've never known any correlation between tank size (or anything else) and how quickly it happens.

it'd be interesting to know what the factors are but it'd take some work!

yeah that's my baby Polly. she's relativley agressive. not suitable for a community tank really. she's in with an Oscar a catfish and a plec.

 

[chardonnay1000]

Thanks again, im gonna get this tank cycled and not know wot to put in it!! everything i like is either agressive, grows too big or wont get on with the others i like.

ps polly is lovely

 

[Miss Wiggle]

ha ha yeah i know the feeling, that's how you end up with loads of tanks, simply can't get everything you want in 1

 

[BigIan]

Your cycle may have stalled, chec the ph. if its 6 or below then do a 30% water change, and bring the ammonia back up to 5 ppm. this should restart your cycle,
the bacteria dpon`t reproduce as fast in acidic water, and a ph of 5.5 they begin to die off. so a water change should bring the ph back up and the cycle will start again....

the reson for a fishless cycle is to build bacteria up in the filter, this bacteria feeds on amonia and nitrate turning them into niterate, you then rtemove the nitrate with water changes, in a helathy mature tank there should never bee a sign of ammonia

 

[chardonnay1000]

Just checked my Ph and it is at 7 on my scale, perhaps im just impatient. reading the links on fishless cycle most seem to cycle in less than 14 days..ah well, time to browse for more fish..
thanks again.

 

[BigIan]

mne took 2 and a half months.......

if that makes you feel any better

 

[chardonnay1000]

I might get reductions on my fish in the january sales then ha ha..it gonna take for ever!!

 

[BigIan]

Its all worth it in the end

 

[chardonnay1000]

I know, my other tank is a disaster and im not going to make the same mistakes this time..thanks again.