Fishless Cycling - Reminder Pls

[Schmill]

On the fishless cycle, when the ammonia is dropping to zero in 12 hours do you actually 'top it up' back to 5ppm every 12 hrs, or do you only add it on the 24hr times? It's not obvious in the pinned topic.

Thanks

 

[backtotropical]

Hi Schmill,

Top up your ammonia only once per day.

I assume your ammonia is disappearing in less than 12 hrs? Thats good going!

Once you have observed it processing in 12hrs consistently for a few days, it is a good idea to cut ammonia down to 2 - 3ppm and do a big water change so you can monitor the nitrite, rather than just seeing it is 'off the scale'.

You have cultured the ammonia oxidising bacteria sufficiently now, and your aim now is merley to keep those alive and culture the nitrite oxidising bacteria.

BTT

P.S. How slow is the forum just now?........ It takes about half an hour to post a reply which should take about 2 minutes.

Edit: Maybe you could let RDD1952 know that you find the pinned topic unclear, so he can make amendments?

 

[Schmill]

Thanks, yeah, just about to update my log, we are 'almost' processing 5ppm in 12hrs.
Does the large water change actually help the cycle, or is it just to bring the nitrIte back 'on scale' ?
If the latter I am not too bothered about it, I know I just keep going until the liquid stays blue - lol

I know what you mean about the board, the only way I am half coping is to have a tab each for 'Discussions', 'New to the hobby', 'Illnesses' and any others I want, and then constantly swap between them! Ie. click a link on one tab, then go to another tab, and by the time I've been through them all the first one has usually go around to doing it's thing!

 

[backtotropical]

The water change doesn't help the cycle as such, it just brings nitrite back down to a measurable level so you can actually see what is happening. If its off the scale, all you know is that its off the scale. You don't see any movement in the levels even if processing has started, if you see what i mean?

However, that said, i'm of the opinion that it can actually make the second stage of the cycle faster.

I explained in the other thread that 1ppm of ammonia turns into 2.7ppm of nitrite when oxidised. This as you have seen sends nitrite sky-high very quickly and its almost immediately at an unmeasurable level. It wouldn't be uncommon for nitrite to go, say above 100ppm in the course of the first stage of the fishless cycle (when ammonia oxidising bacteria are colonising and the ammonia is constantly being turned into nitrite).

So when you get to stage 2 (nitrite oxidising bacteria growth), all you see is nitrite off the scale. However nitrite may be processing unknown to you. If the level is 100ppm and the bacteria are processing 10ppm per day(which would constitute a cycled filter), you won't see any movement for over a week by which point the filter may actually be cycled, but just hasn't caught up on the nitrite back-log.

However, if you do the big water change, you can monitor exactly what is happening with the nitrite, and you will be able to see almost immediately if the cycle is complete.

The water change isn't necessary, as such, but it helps you monitor what is actually going on and avoids you sitting with 'off the scale' reading for days on end which can sometimes be misleading. I personally would recommend it.

You will often hear people speak of no movement in nitrite for ages, and then all of a sudden, it totally disappears. This is because the filter is already cycled but hasn't caught up on the nitrite back log. They only see movement in nitrite when the filter catches up and clears it which often happens overnight. In actual fact, their filter has been processing nitrite probably for over a week, but the test kit can't pick it up.

Hope that makes sense.

BTT

 

[Schmill]

Perfect sense, thanks BTT, a good read