Fishless Cycle

[redevilman]

I would just like some advice on my fishless cycle im on day 13 and my ammonia seems to be processing rather quickly

probably going down to 2mg/l from 4mg/l in an hour,Is this normal

80L TANK

PH 7.8
NITRITE 5.0MG/L
NITRATES 60MG/L

 

[Miss Wiggle]

has it been a steady increase, like started processing in 12 hrs, then went down to 10, then 8 etc or is this a bit of an anomly in your test results?

whats happening with the nitrite, does it stay steady or drop down over the course of a day?

if you've got the historic results of each days testing that would be very helpful to us

 

[redevilman]

has it been a steady increase, like started processing in 12 hrs, then went down to 10, then 8 etc or is this a bit of an anomly in your test results?

whats happening with the nitrite, does it stay steady or drop down over the course of a day?

if you've got the historic results of each days testing that would be very helpful to us

It has just shot down all of a sudden nitrite was at 2.0mg/l yesterday now at 5.0mg/l

I posted my results so far apart from todays on acouple of days ago

 

[redevilman]

has it been a steady increase, like started processing in 12 hrs, then went down to 10, then 8 etc or is this a bit of an anomly in your test results?




It has just shot down all of a sudden nitrite was at 2.0mg/l yesterday now at 5.0mg/l






80L TANK

TAP WATER
PH 7.8
NITRATES 20-40


22 MAY
DAY 1
PH 8.0MG/L
AMMONIA 8.0 DID A 50% WATER CHANGE NOW AT 4.0MG/L
NITRITE OMG/L
NITRATE 40MG/L

23 MAY
DAY 2
PH 8.0MG/L
AMMONIA 4.0MG/L
NITRITE 0MG/L
NITRATE 20-40MG/L

24 MAY
DAY 3
PH 8.OMG/L
AMMONIA 4.0MG/L
NITRITE 0MG/L
NITRATE 20-40MG/L

DAY 5
PH 8.0MG/L
AMMONIA 4.0MG/L
NITRITE 0MG/L
NITRATES 20-40MG/L

DAY 6
PH 8.0MG/L
AMMONIA 2.0MG/L TOPPED UP TO 4.0MG/L
NITRITE 0MG/L
NITRATE 20-40MG/L

DAY 7
PH 8.0MG/L
AMMONIA 2.0MG/L TOPPED UP TO 4.0MG/L
NITRITES 0MG/L
NITRATE 20-40MG/L

DAY 8
PH 8.0MG/L
AMMONIA 2.0MG/L TOPPED UP TO 4.0MG/L
NITRITE 0.25MG/L
NITRATE 20/40MG/L

DAY 9
PH 8.0MG/L
AMMONIA 2.0MG/L
NITRITE 0.50MG/L
NITRATE 20/40MG/L

DAY 10
PH 8.0MG/L
AMMONIA 1.0MG/L TOPPED UP TO 4.0MG/L
NITRITE 1.0MG/L
NITRATE 20-40MG/L

DAY 11
PH 8.0MG/L
AMMONIA 0MG/L TOPPED UP TO 4.OMG/L
NITRITES 2.0MG/L
NITRATES 60MG/L

DAY 12
PH 8.0MG/L
AMMONIA 0MG/L TOPPED UP TO 4.0MG/L
NITRITE 5.0MG/L
NITRATE 80MG/L

DAY 13 TODAY
PH 7.8MG/L
AMMONIA 0MG/L TOPPED UP TO FOUR TESTED 2 HOURS LATER AND IT IS BACK DOWN TO 0MG/L NITRITES ARE STEADY AT 5.0MG/L

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, Hi redevilman,

Your data looks very normal and clear (and lucky for that matter!) You look like you may have come through the first stage very quickly (another positive data point for pH of 8.0!) and seem to be beginning the second stage of fishless cycling. Basically, you have built up a solid population of Abacs (Ammonia Oxidizing Bacteria) and they are processing your 4ppm of ammonia down to 0ppm in a day now. And you are seeing your "Nitrite Spike" as we like to call it when you start getting readings of NO2=5.0 (probably higher, but that's the top of the test reading) after previously getting NO2=0 and then .5 and then 1 etc. Also, we can observe that your pH of 8.0 has been very steady, leading us to conclude that you probably would have a pretty high KH reading if that was measured, all pretty good for fishless cycling.

Keep making careful entries in your log book, continuing to measure ammonia, nitrite and pH and re-read the rdd1952 article if you need to or ask questions of the members here in your thread.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[rdd1952]

As mentioned, it sounds like things a progressing nicely. I think the fact that your pH has remained at or near 8 has helped as you haven't seen the pH crash that most people see. I think it is responsible for the problems other have. Since the ammonia is processing so well and nitrite is obviously being processed (nitrate is increasing), I would suggest doing a large water change before you add ammonia the next time. You want to get the nitrite as low as possible so you can see it climb again and hopefully, there is already enough bacteria present to process the nitrite produced by 4 ppm of ammonia in a day or less.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

As mentioned, it sounds like things a progressing nicely. I think the fact that your pH has remained at or near 8 has helped as you haven't seen the pH crash that most people see. I think it is responsible for the problems other have. Since the ammonia is processing so well and nitrite is obviously being processed (nitrate is increasing), I would suggest doing a large water change before you add ammonia the next time. You want to get the nitrite as low as possible so you can see it climb again and hopefully, there is already enough bacteria present to process the nitrite produced by 4 ppm of ammonia in a day or less.

i agree


sounds like it's all going smoothly

 

[redevilman]

As mentioned, it sounds like things a progressing nicely. I think the fact that your pH has remained at or near 8 has helped as you haven't seen the pH crash that most people see. I think it is responsible for the problems other have. Since the ammonia is processing so well and nitrite is obviously being processed (nitrate is increasing), I would suggest doing a large water change before you add ammonia the next time. You want to get the nitrite as low as possible so you can see it climb again and hopefully, there is already enough bacteria present to process the nitrite produced by 4 ppm of ammonia in a day or less.

i agree


sounds like it's all going smoothly

DAY 14 tested at 11.00am
PH 7.8
AMMONIA 0 RAISED TO 4.0MG/L
NITRITES 5.0MG/L
NITRATES DIDNT TEST

How much of a water change should i do and should i wait till the ammonia goes back down as i had topped it up this morning before i read your comments

 

[waterdrop]

You can do a water change during fishless cycling (whatever is convenient, 75%, 90%, whatever) anytime, as long as you condition the replacement water and re-charge it with ammonia. In your case, now that you are in the "nitrite spike" phase, you could re-charge at a more minimal maintenance level of 2-3ppm each day until your nitrite is dropping, thereafter easing your ammonia-adds back up to 4ppm for the final full-fish-load level.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Miss Wiggle]

do yourself a great big water change (80/90%) and then top the water back up to 2/3ppm of ammonia. what you want to do is clear the backlog of nitrite so the more water you change the better.

 

[redevilman]

do yourself a great big water change (80/90%) and then top the water back up to 2/3ppm of ammonia. what you want to do is clear the backlog of nitrite so the more water you change the better.

could i do a 40% now and a 40% later as im off to work shortly

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yes

 

[waterdrop]

yes

 

[backtotropical]

yes

yes

yes!

 

[redevilman]

yes

yes

yes!

I have done about 80% water change and nitrites are down to less than 2.0ppm its hard to tell at night.

So do i keep topping up ammonia to 4ppm