Fishyless Cycle Log Take 2

[Aqua Tom]

Hey all. I started my fishless cycle 5 days ago.

Things seem to be happening a bit quickly.

The Tank is a Juwel Rio 180 (180 Litres) dimensions 101cm X 40.5cm X 50cm

The filter is an Ehiem Ecco 2236 external, with a big chunk of mature sponge from a mate. It also hs course sponge, fine sponge, ceramic rings & I have just added a bit of activated carbon. Oh Ialmost forgot, it has some gravel from my lfs in it as well.

I am only testing for ammonia at present. Test kit is a nutrafin mini-master

Excuse all the odd times, i work shift so keeping to a consitant time is next to impossible. I actualy have this info on a spreadsheet but have no idea how to add it to here so will just copy.



Day 1 1900hrs Added 9.5ml of Ammonia, this should bring it up to 4.9ppm

Day 2 0830hrs NH3 2.4ppm -------- huh?

Day 3 0800hrs NH3 2.4ppm ----------- Added a further 4ml Ammonia

Day 4 1300hrs NH3 4.9ppm

Day 5 1200hrs NH3 2.4ppm -----------huh?

Day 6 1030hrs
NH3 0ppm
Nitrate Off scale
Nitrite Off Scale
PH 8.2
1045hrs
Ammonia 0ppm
Nitrate Off Scale
Nitrite Off Scale
ph 8.2
Ammonia dosed at 1200hrs

7 hours after last test 5 hours after dosing

Ammonia 0.6ppm (bacteria are realy eating it up fast)
Nitrite Off Scale
PH 8.2
Didnt test for Nitrate
Dosed Tank

12 Hours since last dose

Ammonia 0.6ppm
Nitrite Off Scale
PH 8.2
Didnt test for Nitrate
Dosed tank

14 hours since last dose
Nitrite Off Scale
Ammonia 0ppm
PH 8.2
No Nitrate test

15/11/10
05.30 hrs

24 hours after dose

Ammonia 0ppm
Nitrite off scale
PH 8.2
No Nitrate test

Dosed Tank

 

[Uriel]

Only a beginner so take my advice with a pinch of salt.

I would say 1 of 2 things is happening here either the seeding of the tank from the sponge from your friends tank and lfs gravel was very effective, you started with a large colony of bacteria and once you introduced them to a ammonia rich enviroment they started to multiply quickly turning the ammonia into nitrite or your activated carbon is possibly effecting the ammonia levels in the tank. My advice would be to test the nitrite and nitrate immediately to see if the ammonia is being converted to nitrite and that nitrite is being converted to nitrate. The reason i say to do this asap is if you miss the nitrite spike you might end up wondering why the ammonia is disapearing but your not getting any nitrite reading.

If you test the water and have nitrite and nitrate readings congratulations your in the second phase of fishless cycling.

 

[Aqua Tom]

Only a beginner so take my advice with a pinch of salt.

I would say 1 of 2 things is happening here either the seeding of the tank from the sponge from your friends tank and lfs gravel was very effective, you started with a large colony of bacteria and once you introduced them to a ammonia rich enviroment they started to multiply quickly turning the ammonia into nitrite or your activated carbon is possibly effecting the ammonia levels in the tank. My advice would be to test the nitrite and nitrate immediately to see if the ammonia is being converted to nitrite and that nitrite is being converted to nitrate. The reason i say to do this asap is if you miss the nitrite spike you might end up wondering why the ammonia is disapearing but your not getting any nitrite reading.

If you test the water and have nitrite and nitrate readings congratulations your in the second phase of fishless cycling.

i added the carbon after the test

 

[Uriel]

then i would reccomend testing your nitrite and nitrate as you seem to be cycling nicely.

 

[Aqua Tom]

op edited. please view results for day 6

 

[anon02]

It looks like you`re in the nitrite spike, so I`d cut the NH3 dosing to 2ppm and keep an eye on pH

 

[waterdrop]

Agree, looks like you're probably having a "take" for your mature media. It would be good to express any testing sets in terms of "hours since dosing" (people who post "12 hour test" or "24 hour test" are giving fixed examples of this but if you work shifts and can't hit those fixed hours, then it helps to see "hours since dosing" statements along with the results and it just tanks away the doubts when we look at it.

~~waterdrop~~
(busy here at the AGA conference: have just posted in the planted section re this )

 

[Aqua Tom]

I am excited about this.

Right i have dosed up with ammonia again I read the guide in the beginners resource center & it said to put in enough for 3-4ppm, have I dosed too much? I will put future test results with a "time since dosing" on them.

WD you are correct I cant do the 12 hour between tests because of my shift. I work a 4 day split shift, 2 12 hour days followed by 2 twelve hour nights followed by 4 days off.

As you can see, I couldnt quite believe what I was seeing so I did the tests twice just to make sure p) Probably overkill but I want this to work.

 

[anon02]

I am excited about this.

Right i have dosed up with ammonia again I read the guide in the beginners resource center & it said to put in enough for 3-4ppm, have I dosed too much? I will put test results with a "time taken" on them.

WD you are correct I cant do the 12 hour between tests because of my shift. I work a 4 day split shift, 2 12 hour days followed by 2 twelve hour nights followed by 4 days off.

As you can see, I couldnt quite believe what I was seeing so I did the tests twice just to make sure p) Probably overkill but I want this to work.

The reason for cutting the dosing down is so as to not produce too much nitrate of which about 7% will be nitric acid. There will still be plenty of ammonia to build up the colony of bacteria

 

[Aqua Tom]

Should i do a partial water change to bring down the ammonia a tad then?

 

[Aqua Tom]

Next Test data added

 

[Aqua Tom]

Next Test data added

 

[Aqua Tom]

Just realised I am adding ammonia too often, will remedy that tonight so it will be one dose every 24 hours (ish)

 

[Aqua Tom]

15/11/10
05.30 hrs

24 hours after dose

Ammonia 0ppm
Nitrite off scale
PH 8.2
No Nitrate test

Dosed Tank

 

[Aqua Tom]

15/11/10

1930hrs 14 hours after dose

Ammonia 0ppm
Nitrite off scale
PH 8.2



Seems it is easily cyling the ammonia in 12 hours or less