Fishless Cycling, Going On Holiday And When To Give Up

[fishy55]

Hi all,

I am currently on day 64 of my fishless cycle. It is not going well. I have a separate thread for that.

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/323976-nitite-dropping-when/

I started this process in February thinking that by the time I went away at the end of May for a few days I would have happy fish swimming around and would just have to think about whether to get an automatic feeder or talk a friend into feeding them or using a holiday block.

The reality is that the end of May is now only 5 weeks away, I am still getting nitrite at the 12 hour test so no hope of fish in the near future. And even if this does sort in the next two weeks or so I would be uneasy about putting fish in and then abandoning them two weeks later as I might be needing to do frequent water changes.

What do I do about getting ammonia into the tank when I am away? I don't want to ask a neighbour as making someone else smell that awful stuff is really mean.

I though of the following, which one is going to be best;

1. A normal dose of ammonia before I leave and do nothing more
2. An extra large does of ammonia before going
3. Putting some fish food in and leaving it to create ammonia
4. Using an automatic feeder to dispense the fish food and create ammonia
5. Putting something else (prawns, shrimps?) in the water and leaving it to create ammonia
6. Placing a holiday block in the water, and leaving it to dissolve and create ammonia

At the moment I am favouring 6. Someone in the past must have had this problem though, how did you overcome it?

Also at what point do I give up fishless cycling and just put fish in. I'm thinking that by the time I get back on 5th June, give it a week or so of fishless cycling and then put the fish in. That will be 4 months after I started and two months before I go away again.

 

[fishy55]

Can anyone offer me any advice regarding what to do when I go away, and when to say enough is enough with fishless cycling. Maybe you don't feel 2 months and still not in the qualifying week is a long time, if that is so can you please give me some encouragement.

 

[Ryefish]

not sure what to do whilst your away.
do you know how fast your tank can clear 5ppms of ammonia? in hours or days

i recon when you get back from hols you should go fish-in

 

[toshapetriji]

Where are you living?

Have you thought about mature media from a member?

 

[fishy55]

Thanks for the responses.

Ryefish - the tank will clear the ammonia in 12 hours (on a good day). It is the nitrite I seem to have probs with. A fortnight ago I had 2 days of 0.0 nitirite and 0.0 ammonia at the 12 hour test. But not to be seen again. Have just changed 75% of the water in the hope of getting things moving.

toshapetriji - do you think mature media would help now, 2 months on? I don't know anyone locally with fish so didn't go down this road initially.

Ta again.

Fishy55

Thanks for the responses.

Ryefish - the tank will clear the ammonia in 12 hours (on a good day). It is the nitrite I seem to have probs with. A fortnight ago I had 2 days of 0.0 nitirite and 0.0 ammonia at the 12 hour test. But not to be seen again. Have just changed 75% of the water in the hope of getting things moving.

toshapetriji - do you think mature media would help now, 2 months on? I don't know anyone locally with fish so didn't go down this road initially.

Ta again.

Fishy55

 

[Gary D]

Fishy (can I call you that? )

Give me a call. I might be able to help.

Gary.

 

[waterdrop]

Hi fishy55,

I've been jumping around among your threads trying to figure out where you've hidden the full day by day log but haven't been able to find it. I'm probably just missing it somehow. I remember the better part of one year when most of our fishless cyclers were for some reason taking about 70 days or a little more to finish and most of them were getting really mad around 50 days or so! Then recently we've had a spate of people finishing in the one month range so it makes a 50+ day fishless cycle seem long again! They are so darn unpredictable!

OK, so without seeing a full log I'll try to tell you my thoughts, for what its worth. Cases like yours usually make me wonder about or focus in on 3 possibilities. First I wonder about the filter and wonder if its somehow not quite up to the job (usually this is not the case but I also didn't manage to get back through your threads to figure out what type it is.) Secondly I wonder about the possibility that this is one of those fishless cycles so close to the end that it would really be cycled if the big water change were done and the first stocking was at about 50 or 60% of full. The things I look for in this case are whether we saw a true nitrite spike period that had decent length and whether there have then been lots of days of nitrite dropping well within 24 hours. Thirdly, I wonder about it just being one of those long ones where it really would "all of a sudden" cross over to the zero ppm behavior one day out in the 70 day type range.. those just seem to happen for some reason and we simply don't know why!

How long will you be gone on your trip? I'm so used to having a network of close neighbors (we all took care of each others kids while they were growing up and stuff) that I've never had to face the problem of there not being people who would come over and do whatever to keep your house running while you're gone. We all just sort of naturally take care of each others pets and kids and elderly, well, at least to some extent. Sometimes if the vacation is shorter we can just get away with putting a bunch of fishfood in there to break down. If its medium length we have sometimes advised having someone put a fixed dose of ammonia after several days of nothing, which keeps the colonies going about the same, if not growing. For really long vacations with nobody who would do fishfood or ammonia then its true that one might want to think about switching to fish, but that's not perfect either as sometimes its better to be with them when they are new. Sorry my ideas are so poor. Maybe between all of us we'll think of more things.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[fishy55]

Gary D and Waterdrop,

Thanks for your replies.

Gary D - Ta for the offer. Will do.

Waterdrop - I haven't posted a full log as such, I have just been doing summaries. I will post up a full log, it will be very long. I have got it started. The filter is a fluval u2, the tank contains around 80l of water. We are only going away for 5-6 days in about 5 weeks. So not for a massively long time. At this stage I don't think I want to put fish in there to come back and find them dead, so if they are going to go in before we go I want to do that sooner rather than later. This will allow time for water changing and things to settle before we go. If I leave it I think they should go in pretty soon after I get back as I will be going away again a couple of months later and obviously meet the same problems again. Today is day 66, yesterday I changed 75% of the water. As I said before I had two double 0.0 days on day 47 and 48, and not since. Off to do the tests now!!

Fishy55

 

[fishy55]

Just tested Day 66 - 12 hour test - Ammonia 0.25, Nitrite - looks like 5.0!! PH 7.2. But that was after a 75% water change last night before recharging the ammonia

Ceramic media in filter covered in brown gunge, should I be trying to remove it? I gave this a half hearted attempt last night with my fingers and tank water but didn't do too much not wanting to disturb the bacteria.

Ta again

Fishy55

 

[OldMan47]

Removing the unattached material on the ceramic media would make the surface more readily available to the bacterial colony. I would lightly rinse the media in some used tank water. No scrubbing allowed.

 

[fishy55]

Have cleaned the ceramic media a bit more in tank water using my fingers. A lot of the gungey stuff has now gone.

Have just done the day 66 24 hour tests - Ammonia 0.0. Nitrite 1.0, LRPH 7.2. Temp about 29 degrees.

Will post a log on my original thread.

Thanks for the responses.

 

[Ryefish]

day 66 sounds painful lol

 

[waterdrop]

Agree with OM, light rinse was definately in order, as are weekend gravel-clean-water-changes on this late-stage fishless cycle. Hopefully a little increased flow of fresh oxygenated water and ammonia/nitrite to the N-Bacs will help them move on past the last hump. WD

 

[fishy55]

Thanks for the responses.

Fishy55

 

[greengoddess]

Hi Fishy55

I can't offer any advice as I'm a bit of a newbie but I am in the exact same situation as you. I'm on day 66 and nothing is happening here either. Not only that but I'm going away for 10 days on 14th May so I'm also panicking about the fishless cycle whilst I'm away. I don't really have any friends or neighbours that could help out either. I am going to try and think of a way to automatically add some ammonia. If I can find some tiny capsules with loose lids I was thinking of putting them in an automatic feeder so when they land in the water the tops would hopefully come off and let out the ammonia. It sounds a bit Wallace & Grommit but it may work I suppose (either that or poison everyone on the street).