Help With Fishless Cycle!

[Malawakiwhite]

Hi,
O.k this is my first tank a Fluval Roma 240. I bought ammonia from Boots after starting the tank with Aqua pure accelerator and balls from LFS and realising despite the guys advice that my tank was too big for the dose given and reading up on here enlightened me - thanks! I read I believe a knowledgable piece on cycling and once using the ammonia added 3-5 drops per 10 gallons until I got a nitrite reading and then dropped to 2-3 drops per 10 gallons i.e 10 drops. Hope this is correct? I have the nutrafin test kit and haven't tested every day but have dosed every day. Here's the results:
DAY 4 - PH 7.5, AMM - 0, NITRITES - 0.1, NITRATES - 7
DAY 7 AMM - 0.6, NITRITES -0.1/0.2 NITRATES 6
DAY 9 PH NEARLY 8, NITRITES 0.6
DAY 11 AMM - 2.4, NITRITES 3, NITRATES 90!
DAY 13 AMM - 0, NITRITES 3.3 PH - 7.8
DAY 14 AMM-0, NITRITES 4
DAY 15 AMM-0, NITRITES 4
DAY 16 AMM-0, NITRITES 5+
DAY 17 AMM-0, NITRITES 5+
DAY 18 AMM-0, NITRITES 5+
DAY 22 AMM-0, NITRITES 5+
DAY 23 AMM-0, NITRITES 5+
DAY 27 AMM-0, NITRITES 0.8
DAY 28 AMM-0, NITRITES 0.1

BEGIN 12HR TESTING
DAY 29 AMM-0, NITRITES 0 INCREASED AMM DOSE FROM 2 TO 3PPM
DAY 29 (PM) AMM-0, NITRITES 0.8

DAY 30 (AM) AMM-0, NITRITES 0 DOSED AMM TO 4PPM
DAY 30 (PM) AMM-0, NITRITES 0.05 (VERY VERY SLIGHT PINK TINGE)

DAY 31 (AM) DOSED AMM TO 4PPM TEMPERATURE DROP FROM 29 TO 28
DAY 31 (PM) AMM-1, NITRITES-1

DAY 32 (AM) AMM-0, NITRITES-0 DOSED TO 4PPM
DAY 32 (PM) AMM-0, NITRITES-0.8

DAY 33 (AM) DOSED TO 4PPM
DAY 33 (PM) AMM-0, NITRITES-0.25

DAY 34 (AM) DOSED TO 4PPM
DAY 34 (PM) AMM-0, NITRITES-0TEMPERATURE DROPPED TO 27

DAY 35 (AM) DOSED TO 4PPM
DAY 35 (PM)AMM-0 NITRITES-0

DAY 36 (AM) DOSED TO 4PPM
DAY 36 (PM) AMM-0 NITRITES-0

 

[Morri]

I am not an expert just going through this myself mine took a week for ammonia dropped to 0 daily,
my nitrites have been of the scale for 2 weeks now waiting on these to drop
Nitrates are going up and up once my nitrites drop to zero I will keep feeding ammonia until the day before I get my fish
do a 90% water change to dump the nitrates out then job done

 

[Malawakiwhite]

Also I filled the tank initially with untreated water as no fish which I know is o.k as the chlorine depletes but when I do a water change still with no fish do I need to treat the water? Will chlorine harm the bacteria?

 

[Morri]

I have used dechlorinator on first fill will also use it on second I would guess it might slow the intial process down but guessing it will be fine by now

 

[Malawakiwhite]

Thanks Morri for your reply.

 

[Owen386]

Chlorine Kills Bacteria Always Condition Before adding to tank If your not trying to kill the bacteria Which I Assume your not. Good Luck!

-Owen

 

[Malawakiwhite]

O.k thanks Owen, I'm just reading another post and should I stop with the ammonia until it reads 0 ?? getting confused now!

 

[Morri]

Hehe nope you need to keep adding ammonia to feed the ammonia bacteria else they will die off

 

[Malawakiwhite]

So do I need a water change or just leave it as is???

 

[Morri]

Dont do a water change

Keep adding Ammonia everynight

Wait for ammonia and nitrite to hit 0

Nitrates will go off the scale but ignore it

keep feeding ammonia until just before you get your fish then do a 90%+ water change job done

 

[Malawakiwhite]

O.k thanks Morri, will do....I'll keep plodding on

 

[waterdrop]

Now that you're seeing a lot more nitrite and nitrate you will want to keep an eye on pH. High nitrate can cause the pH to drop in those cases where the water happens to have low carbonate hardness. At a pH of about 6.2 the bacterial grow stalls and often stops altogether at 6.0 (although it would eventually start growing slowly again, but basically once your pH is dropping close to the 6's you've slowed your cycle tremendously.) One of the reasons to measure ammonia regularly is so that you don't accidently exceed the 5-6ppm range. Once the ammonia gets into the 7-8ppm range and stays there steadily for a while it can encourage the wrong species of ammonia-eating bacteria and create a later setback.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Malawakiwhite]

Thanks Waterdrop that's good to know, I'll check it tonight. I think the water is fairly hard and I have lots of ocean rock in there so hopefully that'll help. The results I'm getting using the nutrafin tests I assume are in ppm is that right? so at 2.4 ammonia it's still o.k???

 

[waterdrop]

Oh, well you're not going to suffer a pH drop if your water is like that. The KH is probably sky high, so the pH won't go anywhere. That's great for growing bacteria but there may be some concern for keeping fish... wait, this is all part of your lake cichlid plan, right? I should read all your threads and put it together better, sorry! WD

 

[Malawakiwhite]

Yes thanks Waterdrop. It's going to be Tanganyikans! Can't wait to get them in! But definately making sure it's safe for them first, loving the project so far