Fishless Cycle

[craigieboy01]

Hi, I'm 1 month into a fishless cycle on my 23 litre Fluval Edge and i'm getting a bit impatient about how long its taking to cycle, as this is the only tank i have, i'm desperate to see some nice tropical fish swimming around happily in my set up, will defo post some pics when cycle has been done and i get get some nice plants in there. Could anyone near or around the Glasgow area be able to donate me some mature filter media? Thank you Craig

 

[waterdrop]

Hang in there craig, there's also the donor list just up above our regular threads in this forum. At one month you may be just at about halfway or a little more than halfway for lots of cases we see. Are you getting your nitrite spike yet?

~~waterdrop~~

 

[craigieboy01]

Hang in there craig, there's also the donor list just up above our regular threads in this forum. At one month you may be just at about halfway or a little more than halfway for lots of cases we see. Are you getting your nitrite spike yet?

~~waterdrop~~

No, been checking daily with Api kit, keep thinking it will be next day, suppose i will just need to keep checking and hoping. Checked out the donor list, none that close by that are still active. Thanks Waterdrop

 

[AdamM]

im in ayr?

 

[waterdrop]

Maybe AdamM is saying he might be near you geographically, you might PM him.

Even if you can't find MM, the whole reason for the fishless cycle is the very scenerio of beginning your very first tank and not having any mature media. For ever after that as long as you have tanks, you have media to start more tanks!

Its painful, but eventually its a wonderful feeling when you've done it right. The fish are bright and vibrant and you can see them appreciating the good water. Meanwhile, you've often learned a ton of basics during the waiting period, assuming you ask questions and work on learning maintenance habits and stocking plans.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[craigieboy01]

Maybe AdamM is saying he might be near you geographically, you might PM him.

Even if you can't find MM, the whole reason for the fishless cycle is the very scenerio of beginning your very first tank and not having any mature media. For ever after that as long as you have tanks, you have media to start more tanks!

Its painful, but eventually its a wonderful feeling when you've done it right. The fish are bright and vibrant and you can see them appreciating the good water. Meanwhile, you've often learned a ton of basics during the waiting period, assuming you ask questions and work on learning maintenance habits and stocking plans.

~~waterdrop~~

Hi Waterdrop, I was thinking thats the way i should go, be patient and go through the process, yesterdays test was as follows, Ammonia for the last 7 days been 2ppm, Ph 7.4, Nitrite 5ppm, Nitrate 5.0ppm. How do you think im getting on? I was thinking some nice colourfull male only guppies and maybe 1 more species, what you think? Thanks Craig

im in ayr?

Hi, AdamM, dont know how to private message, thanks for the offer for some media, just gonna go through the cycle and be patient. Thanks for the offer mate. Craig

 

[waterdrop]

To use the message system you click on the "x new messages" link in the upper right. I'd jump at any chance to get MM from someone.

I can't see right off why your fishless cycle seems to be somewhat stalled. Your pH of 7.4 certainly seems ok and should not be the cause of things stopping. You've clearly had some A-Bac activity happening as you've got lots of nitrite(NO2) in there. Your nitrites are high and your nitrate(NO3) is still pretty low so you probably haven't got much of an N-Bac colony yet.

There isn't any chance that you overdosed the ammonia higher than 5ppm? If you get it up at 8ppm it encourages the wrong species of A-Bac and its very confusing because those bacteria will indeed process ammonia while the ammonia level is high but then they will die off when it goes low and they will need to decay and give up their space on the biomedia so that the Nitrosomonas spp. can take over.

Sometimes the only thing we can recommend when things seem "stuck" is to do a 90% gravel-clean-water-change and refill with conditioned, 84F/29C water and recharge the ammonia to 4ppm and see if you get any better feedback after 2 or 3 days.

~~waterdrop~~