Leanne's Fishless Cycle

[PDSimon]

Hmm maybe theres something I don't know. I thought it would be fine to just top it up... as long as it was dechlorinated

I best stop giving advice but you're welcome

 

[gaz gun man]

yeah just top it up with dechlor water, then to be safe, check the ammonia levels about an hour or so later, so you know what the concentration of ammonia is. If its around 4 or 5, then leave it be, if its around 3 - top it up, wait an hour then retest (if over, do a water change, if under add alittle more). Eventually you'll be able to work out that for every 'X' top up, you'll need to add (if any) 'Y' amount of ammonia to maintain the same ammount of ammonia.

Also, 6ml seems alot for a 24L tank. I added 6ml for my tank (125l) ... Are you sure thats right?

 

[OldMan47]

You are right Leanne. If you have fish in tank, you want to take some water out before adding water back in. During a fishless cycle that is not really necessary.

 

[leannethenewbie]

Thanks guys...

Phew *wipes forehead*

Thank goodness you noticed my type-o ... hee hee

I have amended ... it's 0.6ml (I added that and after waiting 20 mins it tested at 4.0)


My tank and I thank you again

 

[leannethenewbie]

So I went all the way down to Zero... Hurrah!

I added it back up to 4.0

Now: I have to wait until the nitrites drop to zero as well dont I?

However, while I am waiting for this do I need to bring the ammonia levels back up to 4, everytime they drop to zero?

Thanks muuchly

 

[PDSimon]

So I went all the way down to Zero... Hurrah!

I added it back up to 4.0

Now: I have to wait until the nitrites drop to zero as well dont I?

However, while I am waiting for this do I need to bring the ammonia levels back up to 4, everytime they drop to zero?

Thanks muuchly

You're still waiting for the ammonia to drop in 24 hours, so keep adding ammonia like you have been.

Once your ammonia processes completely in 24 hours, you can then start adding 3ppm everytime ammonia is 0 (which will be everyday unless something goes wrong!). This is the 2nd stage - nitrite spike and you'll then be waiting for nitrites to process within 24 hours too.

 

[OldMan47]

Do not add just because the ammonia drops to zero. It will start doing that in 12 hours or less but a once a day addition is plenty.

 

[leannethenewbie]

Do not add just because the ammonia drops to zero. It will start doing that in 12 hours or less but a once a day addition is plenty.

My ammonia is processing almost to zero in 24 hours...

So regardless of this should I be adding 0.6 ml every day ?

xx

 

[PDSimon]

You only need to be testing the tank ever 24 hours, and adding 4/5ppm (= 0.6ml ) if the ammonia reading is 0 on the 24 hour mark. 12 hour testing is the last stage...you're still in the first stage.

 

[leannethenewbie]

What a doughnut I am....

I did mean 24 hours... have amended question as such... that'll teach me to type fast without checking!!

Thanks

 

[PDSimon]

Yep, all oldman was trying to say (i think) was that don't just add ammonia whenever, add it at the set time I do mine at 10pm everynight so that when it comes to 12 hour testing on the third stage I can get up for 10am, I prefer the lie in and it'll probably change to 11 over time

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, dosing the ammonia at a consistent time of the 24 hour day accomplishes two things:

1) It helps restrict how much overall nitrogen you are inputting to the system. (If you add ammonia any time you see that its zero, you could end up putting a lot more ammonia in and creating a lot more excess nitrite and eventually nitrate. So the behavior of being quick with the dosing bottle can end up actually slowing down your cycle.)

2) By sticking with a pretty consistent time, you help to make the eventual results you are reading behave in a more consistent way. The "dose" of ammonia can be thought of as the initial "pulse" that starts a sine wave of ammonia and then a sine wave of nitrite going across the following 24 hours, kind of like waves in the ocean. If your pulse is more consistent, your waves are somewhat more consistent later when you come back to test at 12 and 24 hours. This sometimes helps your multi-day trend to jump around a little less.

~~watedrop~~

 

[leannethenewbie]

Ah ha!!

I see...

Thanks peeps


My 'add hour' is going to be 7pm.. so I will put in 0.6ml of ammonia in everyday at 7!!

Gotcha

Thanks

 

[waterdrop]

IF it tested at zero ppm within the previous 24 hours!

 

[leannethenewbie]

My nitrite seems to be getting lighter each time I test it...

That seems quite quick... I was expecting that the Nitrite processing Bacteria would take ages to grow and have an effect.

Don't get me wrong it's not light purple, but it's def nowhere near as dark as it was...

Although I suppose this is all good!

Do I now wait until the Nitrite is down to 0 before I start testing it every 12 hours to see if it processes in that time frame?

Thanks