Fishless Cycling With Bio-spira + Filter Media Experiment

[johnnyr]

Day 1:

Ammonia added.

Readings:

Ammonia = 4ppm
Nitrite = 0ppm
Nitrate = 0ppm

Day 2:

Bio-Spira added, filter pad added from established 55g

Readings:

Ammonia = 4ppm
Nitrite = 0ppm
Nitrate = 0ppm

Day 3:

Mature filter media removed due to horrible accident (makeshift HOB came crashing down)

Readings:

Ammonia = 4ppm
Nitrite = .25ppm
Nitrate = 0ppm

Well, I have some Nitrites, which is good news. The ammonia may have gone down a bit, as with the API liquid tests it is hard to tell the difference between ppm when the readings are placed so far apart. (it goes 0, .25, .50, 1.0, 2.0, 4.0, 8.0) It looks to be at 4, perhaps a bit under.

Day 4:

Added Bio-Spira and Filter Media from established tank (again)

Readings:

Ammonia = <4ppm
Nitrite = .50ppm
Nitrate = 0ppm

Well, nitrites are rising....but the ammonia doesent seem to be dropping all that much...is this normal?

Checked again before going to bed:

Ammonia = <4ppm
Nitrite: = 1.0ppm
Nitrate: = 0ppm

My PH reading is off the scale high. Should I do a water change? I'm worried about why my ammonia reading is not going down much at all, yet my nitrites are rising. Ideas?

 

[rdd1952]

When you say off the scale high on the pH, are you speaking of off the low pH scale (higher than 7.6) or off the high pH scale (higher than 8.8)? If itis higher than 8.8, then you definitely need to find out why ithas one so high and do a water change to lower it. Optimal pH range for cycling is between 7.0 and 8.2. If it's just higher than 7.6 on the low scale, I would get a high pH test or take it the LFS to find out what it actually is.

As for the ammonia not dropping but the nitrite rising, it could be that you had the ammonia higher than 4ppm to begin with. For me, it's almost impossible to really know what it is once it gets above about 2 to 4 ppm.

 

[johnnyr]

When you say off the scale high on the pH, are you speaking of off the low pH scale (higher than 7.6) or off the high pH scale (higher than 8.8)? If itis higher than 8.8, then you definitely need to find out why ithas one so high and do a water change to lower it. Optimal pH range for cycling is between 7.0 and 8.2. If it's just higher than 7.6 on the low scale, I would get a high pH test or take it the LFS to find out what it actually is.

As for the ammonia not dropping but the nitrite rising, it could be that you had the ammonia higher than 4ppm to begin with. For me, it's almost impossible to really know what it is once it gets above about 2 to 4 ppm.

Sorry, should have been more specific. I have a PH test kit that goes from 7.6-8.6, and my ph is off the chart on the 8.6 side, meaning it's very high.

Of course, this test is very old, and may not be accurate, so I'm going to try to get another test today and try that to see if I get a different result.

My tap water is about 7.8-8.2 out of the tap aready, but I don't know what would bring my water hardness up, Since all I have in there are lace rock, sand blasting sand, bio-spira, and ammonia.

As for the ammonia, yes, I initially had it at 8ppm (on accident) did a 60% water change and brought it down to as far as I can tell, 4ppm. But trying to tell if it's gone down is difficult, since the next bracket down is 2.0ppm.