Fishless Cycling our new 55 gallon tank

[AquariumNoobs]

Hey guys,

We’ve been having a small 10 gallon tank for a while now and got our new 55 gallon tank a couple of weeks ago so we’re still pretty new to all of this.

We decided to do a fishless cycle on this new tank. Our nitrite levels are already pretty high and have been staying high for a week now. The ammonia levels tend to fall below 1 every 1 or 2 days so we add additional ammonia. I’m not really sure if it’s okay to keep adding this much.

Also, since a week there have been little worms swimming in the tank, among with the snails that came in with the plants.Are these worms harmful to the cycle and/or later to the fish?

I was wondering if anyone could give me some tips or guidelines to know that we’re doing good or need to do something different.
Here’s a picture of our tank:

Thanks in advance for your comments.

Greetings from The Netherlands.

 

[Jamesthecat]

Hi mate

What levels are your nitrates?

Are the worms white? If so they are probably ‘detritus’ worms. Unless you are literally plagued by them and they are coming out of the gravel all the time then it’s not a huge problem. Regular gravel cleaning and maintenance will keep them at bay. If the tank isn’t kept clean then dissolved oxygen will be reduced and the worms will travel up the water column to seek it out.

In terms of your cycling. The ammonia is being converted into Nitrites by nitrosomonas bacteria which is why you see the ammonia go up and then back to zero and consequently the nitrites will spike. Nitrate forming bacteria don’t begin to form until Nitrite is present in very high amounts so you are going to see your nitrite levels skyrocket. Once nitrates are present in the tank and nitrite / ammonia are zeros then your tank is cycled.

 

[Jamesthecat]

I’ve been converted into a fan of the additives in vials. If you want a bit more info check out my build thread - but it pretty much cycled my tank in 8 hours

 

[AquariumNoobs]

Hi mate

What levels are your nitrates?

Are the worms white? If so they are probably ‘detritus’ worms. Unless you are literally plagued by them and they are coming out of the gravel all the time then it’s not a huge problem. Regular gravel cleaning and maintenance will keep them at bay. If the tank isn’t kept clean then dissolved oxygen will be reduced and the worms will travel up the water column to seek it out.

In terms of your cycling. The ammonia is being converted into Nitrites by nitrosomonas bacteria which is why you see the ammonia go up and then back to zero and consequently the nitrites will spike. Nitrate forming bacteria don’t begin to form until Nitrite is present in very high amounts so you are going to see your nitrite levels skyrocket. Once nitrates are present in the tank and nitrite / ammonia are zeros then your tank is cycled.

Hey James,

-Thanks for the reply. With the test kit I now use, my nitrite levels are >1mg/l which is the highest one on the chart.

-The worms started with a couple of really small white ones. Now there's some bigger (+/- 1,5cm) white and red ones in the tank, I'd say about 5 of them that we can see. We didn't do any water changes yet, since we were afraid this might mess up the cycle. Also since we planted our bottom plants we didnt do any gravel cleaning.

-So for the cycling, it is okay to keep adding ammonia to keep our bacteria "fed" until the nitrite levels drop and we can add fish?

 

[Jamesthecat]

Ive never used the ammonia method so don’t take my word as gospel but its pretty much the same as using fish flake or anything to ‘feed‘ the bacteria. You just need to make sure your adding the correct concentration of ammonia based on your volume of water

 

[Jamesthecat]

But yes, keep adding ammonia whenever it drops to zero to feed the nitrite forming bacteria. When Nitrates start being read by your test and the ammonia and nitrites are zero then the cycle is effectively complete.

 

[Jamesthecat]

In regards to your worms have a look at this site - it might help

Worm ID site

( I’m not sure if I’m allowed to post external links ? Sorry if not I’m new )

 

[Essjay]

Please stop adding ammonia every time it drops to zero. That makes so much nitrite it stalls the cycle.
This is the method we recommend on the forum https://www.fishforums.net/threads/cycling-your-new-fresh-water-tank-read-this-first.421488/

You will see that ammonia is only added when certain targets have been reached. This method was written so that if it is followed, nitrite can never get high enough to stall the cycle.
The bacteria do not starve to death in 24 hours as used to be thought. They can live several weeks with no food, then become dormant, dying only after several months of starvation.

Each 1 ppm ammonia added to the tank is converted to 2.7 ppm nitrite. Stall point is 15 to 16 ppm nitrite. It takes only 6 ppm ammonia to allow nitrite to reach stall point.

 

[Jamesthecat]

I think the main lesson i learnt was to do lots of reading on the web and get as much info from people who have experience. I tried to find people with similar size tanks and read their build threads.

I used to use the below as a cycle, but now I’m sticking with the little vials i was given ..

• Dose to 3ppm
• Start testing for ammonia, If it’s below 3ppm bring the level back to 3. It may take a few days before you see a noticeable drop
• Repeat step 2 every day. This is to start the cycle off (the initial bacterial growth) and keep it alive by feeding at the correct concentrations
• After about a week you can start to test for nitrite, when you can detect it, it means the cycle has started
• Continue testing for ammonia every day. Whenever it drops below 3ppm bring back up to 3ppm.Also test for nitrite every other day.
• Start testing for Nitrate after a few weeks.

Do a water change if ammonia is over 5ppm (overdosed) or if nitrites are over 5ppm (stall)