Fishless Cycle

[waterdrop]

Hi Skins, Were you able to judge about how much of your media you donated? Normally we like to hold that to no more than 1/3 of the available media but of course sometimes its hard to judge those fractions. And of course media donation is usually only recommeded from -mature- filter, especially not from fishless cycling filters or we see what has happened here, which is a pretty significant setback in the the progress.

Its a nice thing you have done for your friend however and you'll be back to where you were before too long. As long as your pH is holding up its just more of the same. Remember, its rarely a very linear process - it will generally make sudden little jumps in progress.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Skins]

Hello WD,
Yes your right about there being a set back in my fishless cycle. I gave my friend 1x bag of carbon from my fluval 305 which i thought at the time would not hinder the fishless cycle by a great deal, how wrong was I. I have not spoken to him in a while so i would assume things are going ok his end.
Will keep posting my water parameters, will keep a close eye on the pH levels.

Kind regards, Skins

 

[Skins]

Hello all,

My water parameters:

15th(0930hrs)24hr test
ammonia 0ppm
nitrite 0.25ppm
nitrate o/c
pH 7.4
H/H ammonia added 8.84ml(4ppm)

For the time being going to perform 24hr tests only.
Will keep you posted, Skins.

 

[Timmy_Bee]

well if your friends tank is now filtered, why dont you ask for your carbon back

 

[Skins]

I just might do that T_B, after he told me last night his water parameters are lot more stable now.

Skins.

 

[Skins]

Hello all,

My water parameters:

16th(0930hrs)24hr test
ammonia 0ppm
nitrite 0-0.25ppm
nitrate o/c
pH 7.4
H/H ammonia added 8.84ml(4ppm)

For the time being going to perform 24hr tests only.
Will keep you posted, Skins.

 

[waterdrop]

There's a huge difference working with media that's still cycling versus "mature" media. Mature media contains many times over the number of bacterial cells and the biofilm secretions on the media have built up structure. When you pass immature media back and forth you may get a little benefit but mostly you are just disturbing the cycling process for a few days and getting little setback timewise I feel.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Skins]

Theres got to be some kind of living organism or natural substance that would speed this process, Maybe it just needs to be discovered. Tomorrow would go down a treat lol
Skins.

 

[Skins]

Hello all,

My water parameters:

17th(0930hrs)24hr test
ammonia 0ppm
nitrite 0-0.25ppm
nitrate o/c
pH 7.4
H/H ammonia added 8.84ml(4ppm)

For the time being going to perform 24hr tests only.
Will keep you posted, Skins.

P.S Thinking about performing a 50-75% water change to get the nitrate level down.

 

[waterdrop]

Yeah, personally, when you're in the third stage and feeling like you just want to be doing something with your tank bacause you have time on your hands and really wish you had fish then I don't think there's anything wrong with doing a big gravel-clean-water-change down to the substrate and then refilling with conditioned, temp-matched water and re-dosing the ammonia. It gets the nitrates down and it is good practice for all the logistics of doing weekly water changes.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Skins]

Hello all,

My water parameters:

18th(0930hrs)24hr test
ammonia 0ppm
nitrite 0ppm(trace)
nitrate 160+ppm
pH 7.4
H/H ammonia added 8.84ml(4ppm)

For the time being going to perform 24hr tests only.
Will keep you posted, Skins.

P.S As always WD many thanks, will do a down to gravel+vac water change.

 

[Skins]

Hello all,

My water parameters:

19th(0930hrs)24hr test
ammonia 0ppm
nitrite 0ppm(trace)
nitrate 160+ppm
pH 7.4
H/H ammonia added 8.84ml(4ppm)

Will keep you posted, Skins.

P.S will do a 12hr test tonight to see where i'm at and a down to gravel+vac water change over the weekend.

 

[Skins]

Hello all,

My water parameters:

19th(2130hrs)12hr test
ammonia 1ppm
nitrite 2ppm
nitrate 160+ppm
pH 7.4

20th(0930hrs)24hr test
ammonia 0ppm
nitrite 0ppm(trace)
nitrate 160+ppm
pH 7.4
H/H ammonia added 11.05ml(5ppm)

Will keep you posted, Skins.

 

[Skins]

Hello all,

My water parameters:

21st(0930hrs)24hr test
ammonia 0ppm
nitrite 0.25ppm
nitrate 160+ppm
pH 7.4
H/H ammonia added 11.05ml(5ppm)

Will keep you posted, Skins.

 

[Skins]

Hello all,

My water parameters:

22nd(0930hrs)24hr test
ammonia 0ppm
nitrite 0-0.25ppm
nitrate 160+ppm
pH 7.4
H/H ammonia added 11.05ml(5ppm)

Will keep you posted, Skins.