Fishless Cycle

[neilevo]

The first week Ammonia just topped up to about 4 nitrite and nitrates off the charts and ph just gone up to about 8.

So by reading a few threads this should be about right hopefully.

Still waiting for my Sumatra wood that will go on the right with loads of plants aswell.

 

[mattyeatsmatts]

its good to do a water change to stop them Nitrates going too high

 

[OldMan47]

It sounds all wrong neilevo.
The nitrites will pop up long before nitrates and it is very hard to have nitrates go off scale at all. That scale goes to 160 on my card.
How much ammonia did you add and how far has it dropped so far?

 

[neilevo]

It sounds all wrong neilevo.
The nitrites will pop up long before nitrates and it is very hard to have nitrates go off scale at all. That scale goes to 160 on my card.
How much ammonia did you add and how far has it dropped so far?

I raised the ammonia to about 5 on Friday last week and yesturday it went down to about 0.3 so i raised it again to about 5 again and then tested for the nitrate and my scale only goes to 110 and it was darker than that.

then i tested for the Nitrite and the scale goes to 3.3 and it was close to that a little bit darker.


I am using the Nutrafin test kits.

 

[tmiller]

It sounds all wrong neilevo.
The nitrites will pop up long before nitrates and it is very hard to have nitrates go off scale at all. That scale goes to 160 on my card.
How much ammonia did you add and how far has it dropped so far?

I raised the ammonia to about 5 on Friday last week and yesturday it went down to about 0.3 so i raised it again to about 5 again and then tested for the nitrate and my scale only goes to 110 and it was darker than that.

then i tested for the Nitrite and the scale goes to 3.3 and it was close to that a little bit darker.


I am using the Nutrafin test kits.

On my large tanks
I have found that, (*** disclaimer this is my approach and has not been critiqued by anyone of consequence***) ..
While dosing that high will produce off the chart results .
I would be dosing lower myself (1ppm to 1.5ppm max but up to you) I would do a water change every 2-3 days.. say aim for 80%.. but while you are draining the tank isolate your filter away into a bucket, or whatever needed to keep un-treated change/dilution water out for a bit as it is easier to stuff a hose in and out than buckets and you have no fish At the moment ..( I close the double taps on my Eheim)** Protect the Filter!!!***
Then pour several buckets of water in as the water drains out ( I drain with garden hose into my yard), I did this to dilute without having to do multiple concurrent changes.. goal = readable tests...
this is a bonus to a fishless.. you can, if you protect your filter be quite aggressive in how you approach things...
make sure on your refill to treat with de chlorination and agitate enough to mix it in b4 you re introduce your filter...

I also would only dose every 24-36 hrs and when exceeding 24 use Prime (to the full capacity of the tank regardless of amount being removed) to detoxify the Nitrates possibly making the digestion and proliferation faster and also possibly avoiding a stall at higher lvls .. (*** disclaimer this is my approach and has not been critiqued by anyone of consequence***)

But it worked for me!!! This cycled my tanks in between 3-4 weeks closer to 4 but not exceeding..

edit: I just realized I replied in wrong post but will leave here for now
Sorry

 

[OldMan47]

If you have off scale readings for both nitrite and nitrate, you may well come to the conclusion that you have a particular nitrite reading. Please mentally walk though your nitrite test with me. You grab a water sample and add your chemicals. At that point you think that you see the maximum reading on your comparison card before you mix in the indicator dyes. Then you do a mix of the chemicals by shaking the sample tube and you find a value that you can read on your color matching card, although it may not be a perfect match. If this all sounds familiar, you have an off-scale reading of nitrites. The test is notorious for giving false on-scale readings when it is really as much higher value.