Green Goddess's First Fishless Cycle (240 Ltr)

[PDSimon]

I'd see what WD says first but hopefully there will be a way to finish this cycle asap!

 

[greengoddess]

It seems my 10 day holiday has indeed had a negative effect on the ammonia processing bacteria. The ammonia level has only gone down to zero every 48 hours over the last few days (see my detailed log on page 1 of this topic). This fishless cycle is easily going to go over the 100 day threshold and may even hold the record for the longest fishless cycle ever

 

[PDSimon]

What are your nitrates? when was the last time you performed a waterchange?

edit: whats your pH in the tank at the moment too? (not tap water)

 

[greengoddess]

What are your nitrates? when was the last time you performed a waterchange?

edit: whats your pH in the tank at the moment too? (not tap water)

Hi,

Nitrates are around 100 and they have been at least this high for the entire cycle. pH is 7.3. The last water change was 22nd April. I suppose that was quite a while ago. Do you think another 95% water change is in order?

 

[PDSimon]

100 nitrates for the whole cycle? I guess your tap water has quite high nitrates then?

pH is also a little low, maybe it would help if it was risen...have you got any sodium bicarbonate/bicarbonate of soda/bicarb?

I'd consider a full waterchange to freshen things up...

 

[greengoddess]

100 nitrates for the whole cycle? I guess your tap water has quite high nitrates then?

pH is also a little low, maybe it would help if it was risen...have you got any sodium bicarbonate/bicarbonate of soda/bicarb?

I'd consider a full waterchange to freshen things up...

Hi PDSimon,

Actually, my tap water has little or no nitrates at all. Waterdrop and I had a theory that the constant very high nitrite level was affecting the result of the nitrate test. Also, the pH of my tap water is very low at just 6.0 so I am already quite used to increasing the pH with bicarb.

I think I'll take your advice and do a complete water change. I'll then try and set the pH to its optimum level to try and get this cycle moving.

 

[PDSimon]

Yeah, I read about it affecting the test, although mine was fairly accurate so i'm unsure... Its up to you.

Personally I can't see all that water being in there for so long being a good thing so I'd want to freshen it up with 100% water change... regardless of whether nirates are reading true or not

If you do put bicarb in put in two tablespoon measures of bicarbonate of soda and hopefully things will speed up.

If its an external filter you have keep it in a bucket of tank water or something

 

[greengoddess]

OK, water change has been done. I put in two spoons of bicarb but the pH is now reading around 9.0 so I may have overdone it. When refilling the tank I accidentally stirred up a lot of the gravel which has made the water cloudy. Perhaps that is affecting the pH reading so I'll check the pH again in a day or two after the water has cleared.

 

[greengoddess]

I re-checked the pH this morning and it was around 7.5 so I think I was right about the stirred up sediment affecting the reading. I added a little extra bicarb and will test again tomorrow.

 

[PDSimon]

Be interesting to see what tomorrows reading will be after the 2ppm today...

 

[greengoddess]

Be interesting to see what tomorrows reading will be after the 2ppm today...

Tomorrow is day 100 and my guess is that it will be right back up to 3.3

 

[waterdrop]

This is very long now. We've had a couple of long cases like this. There was even one guy who went way up over 100 days and I used to site his log as he had a good log style.

I know its a large tank but I'd really like to see more gravel-clean-water-changes now, down to the gravel with a recharge of ammonia and bicarb and a bit more bicarb if our current is now dropping back to 7.5 that quickly after being dosed. I also now think it might not be out of order to do some sort of very light filter clean, to make sure we're not getting any clogging that's messing things up. Not sure whether weekend water changes would be possible but let us know.

WD

 

[greengoddess]

Hello again Waterdrop, nice to see you back on this thread


Yes, I have tried to be as meticulous as possible with this cycle but I suppose it just wasn't meant to be. I did a full water change around 36 hours ago. I am now going to be paying more attention to the pH to try and keep it to the optimum level of 8.0 - 8.4. I still can't get the tank temperature past 26 celcius (even with two heaters) so that will have to stay as it is. I will take the filter apart this weekend to make sure there are no huge lumps of goo blocking up the system. If it doesn't look too bad I will probably leave it alone so as not to disturb the bacteria.

Yes, I should be able to do a full water change once a week from now on. If that's what it takes then I'll just have to get on with it.

 

[the biffster]

hi G G still see you are having
fun with your tank cycling do
you sometimes wish you had done
a fish in cycle instead i find it a lot
less hassle than going the ammonia route
and normally all done and dusted in four or five weeks
it just means water changes every day but anyway good luck this time
hope all goes to plan and let me know how you get on

the biffster

 

[greengoddess]

I didn't fancy a fish in cycle. The tank is 240 litre so daily water changes would have been a huge amount of work. Besides, I did not want to stress my fish.