Jaynes Fishless Cycle

[LilyRose Tank]

Ok, so I set up my FLUVAL EDGE 46L. Added ammonia and tested,
Result said over 8ppm, so emptied out two thirds of tank and added new de-chlorinated water erected and result at 4ppm. So we start!
Day2 am 2ppm nitrite .25 wow chuffed, already!

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Unless you have done something to seed bacteria in your tank, you cannot have nitrite show up that fast nor have ammonia drop that fast. You should be using the ammonia calculator here to determine the amount of ammonia to add and using the fishless cycling article as your guidline.
 
If you had any of the right types of bacteria in the tank to start, adding 8 ppm of ammonia can kill them.

 

[LilyRose Tank]

Hi There. The filter and tank were donated to me from a friend, and was re set up within a day or so of it being taken apart from one house and put back together in mine. I am willing to believe that maybe a few hardy bacteria survived the trip and have kick started the cycle a little early. I too am surprised that the nitrites have begun to show up so quickly, and therefore am willing to believe a few stray bacteria survived the move.
I am familiar with fishless cycling and have performed this cycling methods on 7/8 different tanks over the last five years. I have re read the article and understand it, and that nothing has changed since I performed the task previously. I have now realised my mistake with the ammonia addition, as I calculated wrongly and put double the amount in, I now know after using the calculator that I must add 2.24ml, not 4.24 ml, lol. Anyway I managed to get the reading back to within 4/5ppm within 12 hours of my mistake. Thanks for the help x

 

[eaglesaquarium]

I'd agree that you have some bacteria, and even with the high levels of ammonia, some could survive since you fixed the problem relatively soon, so it seems to be a proper reading to me.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

I thought so. You neglected to mention that. You are likely underestimating the benefit of the bacteria your have.
 
Wait for both nitrite naa ammonia to get close to zero before you add any more ammonia and also reduce the amount by 1/4 at least. Shoot for 3 ppm not 4 or 5.
 
You should cycle quite fast. The 2 ppm of ammonia you report that it had dropped from 4 should have produced over 5 ppm of nitrite. You had .25 ppm. You have both ammonia and nitrite bacs aplenty.

 

[LilyRose Tank]

Hi there, just tested again, and thought why not do all three tests just for the hell of it
Am 1ppm Nitrite .50ppm Nitrate 5.0ppm.
That last one certainly wasn't expected. At this rate I may be doing second am dose tomorrow!
2ml ammonia this time, what do you think?

 

[eaglesaquarium]

A reasonable course of action.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

I think if you read up a bit I offered a suggestion as for how you should proceed.
 

 
Wait for both nitrite and* ammonia to get close to zero before you add any more ammonia and also reduce the amount by 1/4 at least. Shoot for 3 ppm not 4 or 5.

 
I am a bit nervous when your report 1 ppm of ammonia and only .5 of nitrite. Pretty much nitrite should usually be higher than ammonia during cycling once the ammonia starts to drop. The ammonia bacs grow faster than the nitrite bacs and then, on paper, 1 ppm of ammonia turns to 2.5 ppm of nitrite using hobby kits. So in this case I think it is prudent to wait for both numbers to be at or very close to 0 before you add more ammonia. I would also suggest that once they get there, before you add the next ammonia dose that you first do about a 25% water change. it wont slow the cycle and it will replenish anything used up so far - i.e things that hold KH and pH up etc. Just bear in mind that dechlor contaning ammonia detixifiers can affect ammonia results. This effect tends to be gone within a day or two. Dechlor the new water before adding it as this minimizes the effects of any ammonia detoxifiers on the whole tank.

 

[LilyRose Tank]

Hi there

Results today are as follows
Ammonia 1ppm
Nitrites. 2ppm
Nitrates. 10ppm
Obviously I have some nitrite loving bacteria in there that are converting the nitrites to nitrate, maybe this is why the nitrites level hasn't risen the way it was expected to

 

[TwoTankAmin]

No, you should have equal processing capacity coming in when seeding and when cycling the ammonia ones grow faster than the nitrite ones.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Do the ammonia bacs also die quicker from exposure to high levels of ammonia?  Just a thought I had about it.

 

[LilyRose Tank]

Twotankadmin... I wasn't saying I had more nitrite loving ones, I know they grow slower than the ammoniaphiles. I was just pointing out that I had some nitrite phillies too.....why being so negative!
Retested 12 hours later today and results are
Ammonia 0.50ppm
Nitrites 5.0ppm
Nitrates 40ppm
Also, in response to your post further up Twotankadmin, why should I wait til nitrites have dropped to zero before adding more ammonia, surely if ammonia is at zero, then the ammoniaphiles won't have anything to feed on and will begin to die off...especially if it takes ages for the nitrites to drop to zero too.will do a water change now as nitrates are 40ppm....will re test directly after water change

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Not so LilyRose.
 
The bacteria don't require constant feeding.  As long as you give them a 'snack' feeding every 3 or 4 days, they will be fine.  The bigger concern is adding so much ammonia that the nitrite builds up and up. If it hits 16ppm on the test kit, then the cycle will stall and you'll end up with the wrong bacs.  So, by limiting the amount of ammonia, you can keep the ammonia bacs alive, while giving the nitrite bacs time to catch up.

 

[LilyRose Tank]

Ah, ok thanks guys

 

[AquaPit]

I learned alot today! Haha!

Tks!