My 1St Fishless Cycle Log

[KezJona]

Hello,

Well I have set up my tank today, please see the picture below

It is the Marina 160 litre tank complete with stand, 2 filters (Marina Slim S20) and I didn't like the heater it came with so I bought this one, Tetratec HT 150.

This thread will serve as my fishless cycle log for all to observe and if anyone has any advice then please feel free to give me some, I am new to the cycle and would love to hear any thoughts.


Day 1: 29/07/2011

Tank is set up nicely, I was surprised with the lack of cloudy water but I washed that sand out so many times I am happy with the result! The two filters and heaters are going and I have set the temperature to 28 C, hope this is ok. I heard it is best to have it hotter so the bacteria can thrive more.

I have added API Stress Coat + to remove the chlorine from my water, but should I also add API Stress Zyme + or leave that out for now?

These are the readings on my tank at the moment:

PH: 7.2
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0

I will be putting some Ammonia in my tank tomorrow, just going to give it the rest of the day / night to work through the water and get it heated up to my desired temperature. I have done the calculator to test how much Ammonia I need to add, and to get it to 5ppm I need to add 8.42ml of Ammonia. Don't know I am going to measure this yet, but I have a pipette so will work something out.

Thanks in advance for all who drop in and lets hope this goes nice and smoothly

Kez

Edit: Day 1 29/07/2011

Well, the tank has warmed up to my desired temperature of 28 C so I took the plunge and added my 8.4ml of ammonia! I didn't have anything to measure it with pipette wise so used a spare test tube and did it through this way. Will take a reading before I go to bed and let you all know what is in there! Tank has begun the cycle!

Just took a reading and they are as follows:

PH: > 8 - is this normal?
Ammonia: 5ppm
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0

Picture of tests after Ammonia has been added:

 

[Tizer]

can always boil the kettle to get it up to temp and start now good luck with your cycle!

 

[KezJona]

can always boil the kettle to get it up to temp and start now good luck with your cycle!

I don't mind waiting, the heater is really good so it might do it quickly and I may be able to add Ammonia tonight, but may do it after work tomorrow. We shall see which gets the better of me!

I also forgot to add, in my filters I have these filtration pads that came with the filters.

This is for one filter:

2 x Marina Slim Filter Cartridge Bio-Carb
2 x Marina Slim Filter Cartridge Bio-Clear

Are these good filter pads to use?

Kez

 

[nehpets81]

can always boil the kettle to get it up to temp and start now good luck with your cycle!

This is probably going to sound like a stupid question but doesn't boiling water kill off bacteria? I know the suggestion wasn't to fill the tank full of boiling water but might it reduce the number of bacs available if some boiling water was used?

 

[jen31972]

Add as many aeration devices as you can. The beneficial bacteria love oxygenation.

I added a pinch of pulverized fish food (flake) in addition to using ammonia, just to cover any nutrient needs the BBs might need in addition to the ammonia.

Heating the water well is good.

Don't forget to wash and rinse, rinse, rinse your hands before putting them in the water.

Good luck and keep us posted.

 

[KezJona]

Add as many aeration devices as you can. The beneficial bacteria love oxygenation.

I added a pinch of pulverized fish food (flake) in addition to using ammonia, just to cover any nutrient needs the BBs might need in addition to the ammonia.

Heating the water well is good.

Don't forget to wash and rinse, rinse, rinse your hands before putting them in the water.

Good luck and keep us posted.

Some good tips here, thank you very much I was going to leave my air stones out until I began to plant my tank, but will definitely add them in before I add some Ammonia to the tank. I got a starter kit from my LFS where it has two pipes so may just add the two tubes into the tank to get some aeration in there.


Kez

 

[KezJona]

can always boil the kettle to get it up to temp and start now good luck with your cycle!

I also forgot to add, in my filters I have these filtration pads that came with the filters.

This is for one filter:

2 x Marina Slim Filter Cartridge Bio-Carb
2 x Marina Slim Filter Cartridge Bio-Clear

Are these good filter pads to use?

Kez

Still looking for an answer to this if anyone can help? Just want to make sure I am using the correct filter pads that will work best for my tank before starting process.

Kez

 

[Dieses Madchen]

can always boil the kettle to get it up to temp and start now good luck with your cycle!

This is probably going to sound like a stupid question but doesn't boiling water kill off bacteria? I know the suggestion wasn't to fill the tank full of boiling water but might it reduce the number of bacs available if some boiling water was used?

It's a brand new tank. The bacteria hasn't even started to colonize yet because there is no food in the tank for it to grow off of.

 

[KezJona]

Updated my original post with the new happenings of my tank:

Well, the tank has warmed up to my desired temperature of 28 C so I took the plunge and added my 8.4ml of ammonia! I didn't have anything to measure it with pipette wise so used a spare test tube and did it through this way. Will take a reading before I go to bed and let you all know what is in there! Tank has begun the cycle!

 

[KezJona]

Sorry for the double post, but I have edited my original post with my recent water test. Please take a look as there is a picture there. I am not sure if the PH shooting up to over 8 is normal or not??

Kez

 

[XeroTolerance]

It's perfectly normal because ammonia increases th pH level .