Jmac's New Fishless Cycle Log

[OldMan47]

It sounds to me as if you have some ammonia and are not seeing any change in nitrites or in nitrates. That means, to me at least, that you have no real development of your beneficial bacterial colony yet and have a long way to go to have a cycled filter. I am guessing you have not made this combination of information available in a single post before or WD would have come to the same conclusion. I have a great deal of respect for his ability to interpret chemistry readings and make sense of them during a cycle.

 

[JMcQueen]

It sounds to me as if you have some ammonia and are not seeing any change in nitrites or in nitrates. That means, to me at least, that you have no real development of your beneficial bacterial colony yet and have a long way to go to have a cycled filter. I am guessing you have not made this combination of information available in a single post before or WD would have come to the same conclusion. I have a great deal of respect for his ability to interpret chemistry readings and make sense of them during a cycle.

Well, all the information I have is in this thread. If what you say is correct, then whats processing the ammonia or more accurately, wheres the waste products from processing the ammonia going to? I am seeing SOME occassional nitrite being generated but its quickly reduced back to zero. Last night was about 0.3 but I expect it to be gone when I test again today.

Oh, tap water is somewhere between 7 and 7.5

 

[LondonguyJ]

Well, all the information I have is in this thread. If what you say is correct, then whats processing the ammonia or more accurately, wheres the waste products from processing the ammonia going to? I am seeing SOME occassional nitrite being generated but its quickly reduced back to zero. Last night was about 0.3 but I expect it to be gone when I test again today.

Oh, tap water is somewhere between 7 and 7.5

Occasional Nitrie being processed in your aquarium back down to 0ppm would mean you have a ton of N-Bacs already present.

I have my fingers crossed for you and if this is indeed the case, I'm going to commandeer the water coolant keg from work (about 200L) empty it and ask if I borrow some of your tap water

Best of luck

*Still keeping a close eye on this thread*

 

[JMcQueen]

lol,

Its not that straightforward im affraid. I think i mentioned earlier in the thread that the substrate and filter had been used in before (in the same tank). The fish had died (one black moor) due to a HUGE bacterial bloom starving the tank of oxygen. This is the only thing we could attribute the fish death to as it had been fine in the morning and dead when I returned home from work but the water was almost white.

I cleaned the filter and substrate with the intention of starting from scracth but it is possible that some of the bacteria survived which is now helping with the nitrites. Apparently the N-Bac colony survive and reproduce a lot more effectively than the A-Bacs

 

[JMcQueen]

Not 2 x 0.0 but close. First time the ammonia has been 0 after 24 hours and the nitrite was just the slightest tinge of pink to it. Nitrates are going off the scale.

 

[JMcQueen]

Day 40 and the first double zero. I intend to try and start testing every 12 hours now.

 

[JMcQueen]

The next twelve hours are going to be interesting. I decided to change the substrate over tonight and it didnt go well. In the end I ended up draining the tank fully in order to get at the substrate pieces and although I made sure to keep the filters under the tank water I had taken out, I really hadnt wanted to do a water change at all.

Just have to wait and see if its set me back at all I guess.

 

[PDSimon]

Its always best to drain the tank completely to do it so I wouldn't worry. Not much bacteria live in the substrate.

 

[JMcQueen]

my main concern is with the water change. Although I used aquasafe, im sure the first bucket went in without me giving it a proper stir first. My concern is that the water hit the filter before being properly treated.

 

[PDSimon]

I wouldn't worry even if it does do something (which is doubtful) its too late now anyway.

 

[JMcQueen]

Very true. Just dont want it to set the tank back when I've started to get some good results.

 

[JMcQueen]

It would appear that it did have some affect afterall. Tested this morning and the ammonia had scarcely shifted. I'll test again tonight but if not, it looks like back to stage 2 and I'll go back to 24 hour testing until the bacteria colonies recover.

I also put some of the old substrate back in the tank (only the larger pieces so its easier to remove) to see if that helps. Its been out of water for about 10 hours but was still damp so whilst its unlikely to make a difference, I thought it worth trying.

 

[JMcQueen]

Im struggling to lock the final bits of nitrite down which is annoying as the nitrite procesing was really strong before. Ammonia is processing fine, well within 12 hours but the nitrite is still showing. Im also going to stop testing for nitrate now as its so purple its impossible to get any deeper.

 

[PDSimon]

The nitrate is off the chart? time for a waterchange + gravel syphon! Mayaswell do a 100% w/c to freshen it all up and it would hopefully kick the nitrite processing back into action. I found that with my cycle it did the same which was very irritating. Yours is going faster than mine was though so stick with it!

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, the last series of days looks solidly in the third stage. It'll either give the "sticking" problem or will go on down to double-zeros now. This is definately the time to be practicing those 90% gravel-clean-water-change details when you feel like on weekends or whenever (with recharge of ammonia afterward.) Its also the time to be seeing what your LFS or other fish sources have to offer and lining that up with your initial stocking plan as things will happen fast once you are in the double-zero qualification week.

OM47 (if you see this) do you ever have the urge to try some process change on the sticking problem thing? Sometimes I wonder if a light filter clean along with the water change might actually be a good thing (even though I think we've traditionally been worried about this just being a "disturbance setback.") After all, the mulm that builds up (I think its an EC filtering here, right?) would surely be collecting a decent amount of nitrate around it in the trapping portion of the filter and even though we do a water change, that might really be what the N-Bacs don't like. Its just kind of an interesting sort of temptation for a thing to experiment with. (Of course, its not my fishless cycle )

~~waterdrop~~