Fishless Cycling Diary

[jack1]

Hello

Thought I'd give you a bit of background on what I'm setting up and where I'm at with everything.

Stupidly, I purchased 2 beautiful calico goldfish for a small 30ltr tank a few months back, I now realise after researching here, that they needed a bigger tank. I purchased a new 250ltr tank [3.3. ft] a few weeks back for housing the 2 goldfish. Also have a external filter - all pond solutions 1400EF+ with UV steriliser

Thankfully, I learned about fishless cycling from the forum and have had the tank set up with added ammonia since December 14th.

My water stats as of today are...

Amm - 4ppm
Nitrite - 0ppm
Nitrate - 0pp or a slight bit more than 1ppm bt not 5 on the API Water kit.

pH before adding ammonia was 7.6

Hoping to see some reading in my Nitrites soon but one thing might be slowing things down is my decision not to heat the water with heater - my water temp is at 68 for now which I think is ok for the calicos

Will keep you updated on my progression with fishless cycling

Thanks
Jack1

 

[DrSlackBladder]

Which tank are the goldfish in?!!! Hope not the new one. Assuming they're in the smaller one which is cycled (i.e. processing ammonia and nitrite sifficiently), and that you're using ammonia solution to cycle your larger tank; my fishless cycle took a month using some established media to give it a kick start. You're obviously at the beginning; it took about 10 days for me to see my first nitrites. I'd increase temp of your new tank (assuming it does not have any fish) to speed things along, I used 28C for the cycle then reduced to 25C when completed. If you have mature filter media in the smaller tank, take up to half of it and cram in it the new tank filter.

 

[The Taffy Apple]

Could add you move some of the media from the small tanks' filter across to the new filter in the bigger tank...? There's always the chance it MAY speed things along.

Terry.

 

[jack1]

Thanks for the reply - the other smaller tank is cycled and I've added some gravel from the old tank

Will also put heater in to speed things along

Fish are in the older smaller tank <

 

[jack1]

Hello

Little update on my fishless cycle - cranked up the heat in the tank and it has slowly helped

Stats as of today are...

Amm - sitting at between 3-4ppm
Nitrites - 0.25ppm
Nitrates - between 1-3ppm

Should i redose with more ammonia?

Cheers
Jack1

 

[jack1]

Update on Fishless cycling

Ammon - 3ppm
Nitrite - 2ppm
Nitrate - between 1-5ppm - nearly light orange in API test kit

Nice to see nitrites rising slowly since last update 2 days ago

Any thoughts?

Cheers
Jack1

 

[DrSlackBladder]

Good stats, keep doing what you're doing, it seems you have started growing both ammonia/nitrite and nitrite/nitrate colonies in your filter. So you're in the "second" stage; which apparently takes twice as long as the first stage, but was relatively fast for me. Another few days and you should see both nitrites and nitrates rise significantly, and ammonia disappearing faster. Keep at it!

 

[jack1]

Thanks for the message - happy to hear I'm into the 2nd stage of fishless cycling

Will do another water test tomorrow and see how it's going

Thanks
Jack1

 

[jack1]

Just noticed something on my tank glass - as well as algae growing on glass [not too much], I've noticed small thread looking organisms - looks like really small white worms moving on the glass - they are really small - looks as if they are moving but might be them moving to the current.

Is this normal during fishless cycling ?

Any advice would be great

Thanks
Jack1

 

[jack1]

Fishless Cycling Diary - Jan 2nd 2013

Noticed a big change in my water stats today...

Amm - 2ppm
Nitrite - 5ppm
Nitrate - 20ppm

Getting there slowly

Cheers
Jack1

 

[jack1]

Hello

Tested water today - exactly 3 weeks I've been doing the fishless cycle and I've really enjoyed this learning curve as it's my first time fishless cycling a tank and learned so much along the way - thanks to this brilliant forum

Water stats as of today are...

Ammonia - Between 0.25 and 0.50ppm [ should I redose now with more ammonia?]
Nitrite - 5ppm or above - deep purple now
Nitrate - Between 40-60ppm - nearly turning red at 80ppm

Noticed a big difference today from 2 days ago - tempted to leave it for a day or two and see what happens but not sure if I should redose with more ammonia ?

Any advice would be much appreciated
Thanks
Jack

 

[DrSlackBladder]

Definitely heading in the right direction - redose ammonia back up to 3-4ppm.

 

[jack1]

Thanks - redosed tonight and will check the water stats tomorrow

Cheers

 

[jack1]

Checked ammonia level today and back down to 0.25ppm within 12 hours of redosing with ammonia - added more ammonia today and will test levels in 12 hours again

Cheers
Jack

 

[The Taffy Apple]

Checked ammonia level today and back down to 0.25ppm within 12 hours of redosing with ammonia - added more ammonia today and will test levels in 12 hours again

Cheers
Jack

Great work.... you are nearly there for the Ammonia part. Now you really need to concentrate on the NitrIte results... once they starting hitting '0' with 12 hours then you're all but ready to go! Also, it maybe worth your while keeping a close eye on the PH at this stage, any suddent 'crash' may slow down the growth of the beneficial bacteria... depending or not if you know your tapwater KH/GH levels then it may become a problem.
But keep up the good work, it will be all that more satisfying when you add your first fish.

Terry.