My First Fishless Cycle Diary - 2 Tanks

[CherryDanio]

Hi all. Given how much time i've spent reading everyone elses fishless cycle diaries (I really enjoy reading them, hope thats not too sad ) I thought I'd do one too. We have two new tanks, one is a 28L Betta tank and one is an 85L dwarf puffer tank (we think, this is still up for debate). Just to complicate matters not only have we never done a fishless cycle before but we have never used live plants which we are doing in the DP tank. Eep!
The Betta tank was set up 3 days ago and ammonia was added then. Unfortunatly the water has gone VERY cloudy (i'm assuming this is either a bacterial bloom or something to do with the ammonia?) but I will post a pic of the set up when it clears.
The DP tank was set up last night. Unfortunatly it is cloudy too! I suspect this is because of the substrate (very fine natural gravel).
We are using an API master test kit and so will be adding ammonia to 4ppm rather than 5 as this is what the test will measure. Our tap water is ph 6.8 which I know is quite low. So here goes.

Betta Tank: day 3
Ammonia 4ppm. No suprises there. Have not started testing to nitrite yet.

DP tank: day 1
Not added ammonia yet. Will do later if that water has cleared.

Pic of Betta tank:

Pic of DP tank:

 

[waterdrop]

Was the ammonia itself clear?

Trying to think of the things that make a fishless cycle diary the most clear...

Day of cycle, noting explicitly that ammonia was added and when, noting whether the presented results occurred 12 hours or 24 hours after the ammonia was added. There! I did it! Those are the things most often overlooked in a diary presentation!

~~waterdrop~~

 

[CherryDanio]

Was the ammonia itself clear?

Trying to think of the things that make a fishless cycle diary the most clear...

Day of cycle, noting explicitly that ammonia was added and when, noting whether the presented results occurred 12 hours or 24 hours after the ammonia was added. There! I did it! Those are the things most often overlooked in a diary presentation!

~~waterdrop~~

The ammonia is clear yes. Both tanks seem to be much much clearer today. I will try and remember to do all those thins when updating the diary. It's early days so nothing exciting should happen just yet. Alot of people are talking about raising their ph ... could I get away with not doing that? As I said my tap ph is 6.8 which is quite low I believe (west coast of Scotland has very soft acidic water). To be honest I think if I started messing with the ph i'd be getting into complicated territory.

Betta tank: Day 4
Ammonia still 4ppm. No more added. Haven't tested for nitrites yet. Should I wait until ammonia drops or say leave it till day 7 and start testing for them?

DP tank: day 2
Ammonia added to 4ppm. Cat looks very hurt as the tank is now blocking her way up to a wardrobe she liked to sit on. I have the guilt.

 

[waterdrop]

Creating a "bacterial growing soup" that's the right hardness and pH is not hard at all. Some of us are entertained by chatting about sciency sounding stuff a lot but in the end the actual actions you would take not really much more complicated than putting sugar on your cereal in the morning, well, or maybe prepping a recipe.

With water that soft and acid its going to be better to prepare yourself. You won't have to do anything right away but the odds are pretty long that you won't need to take some action. As I'm sure you've read in other threads the substance you'll need is simple, pure kitchen baking soda (Hey! cheap and simple compared to commercial pH adjusters!) and, ideally, a KH or GH/KH liquid test kit. This kit will be the harder thing to find. They are rarely stocked by average pet shops, so often members report they need to order them over the web.

The GH part is just interesting info, not an action item, but the KH (Carbonate Hardness) is an easy test that will you much more insight into where you stand and what you can expect to happen to the pH of your tank water, which strongly effects the rate of growth of the two species of beneficial bacteria you want in your biofilter.

If I were you I would begin preparing now, so that you can find the cheapest prices before you actually need these two items added to your fishless cycling tools. When the time comes, the members will be able to easily help you with interpreting the test and using the baking soda.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[CherryDanio]

Betta tank: day 5
Ammonia 4ppm. None added, no nitrite test done.

DP tank day 3:
Ammonia 4ppm. None added, no nitrite test done.
Lots more plants added (varigated ones removed) along with 2 terracotta pots as hidey holes. Looks good to me

I assume that by baking soda you mean bicarbonate of soda? Got that in the cupboard so not a problem. Just looking for the appropriate tests on ebay.

 

[LionessN3cubs]

Betta tank: day 5
Ammonia 4ppm. None added, no nitrite test done.

DP tank day 3:
Ammonia 4ppm. None added, no nitrite test done.
Lots more plants added (varigated ones removed) along with 2 terracotta pots as hidey holes. Looks good to me

I assume that by baking soda you mean bicarbonate of soda? Got that in the cupboard so not a problem. Just looking for the appropriate tests on ebay.

Petco (US) stocks gh and kh tests. I actually like the way they stock seperate tests, or you can buy a whole kit with everything in it. I bought a tetra test kit and it had all that, then I bought an API kit so I have everything I need...expensive way to do it tho....I did it that way for a reason LOL

 

[CherryDanio]

Thanks Lioness but I'm in the UK (I promise to get round to putting that on my profile some day ) I have the full API master test kit which I've found to be great. Only problem I can see with it is that I'm going to run out of some tests way before I do the others.

 

[CherryDanio]

NNNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Stupid stupid shop and even stupider me!!!! In my haste to set up the Betta tank I didn't check all the seals thoroughly enough. I just noticed one of the corners is missing a chunk of glass!!!!!!! Cue me running around like a mad woman getting all the water out. I now have my filter going in a bucket of tank water and need a new tank :'( To make matters worse it is going to have to be an identical tank as OH has ordered me a lid for it which cost more than the tank itself. I might cry....

 

[waterdrop]

o dear... hang in there!

 

[CherryDanio]

Huzzah I have the new Betta tank set up and running. The filter was kept running in a bucket of tank water over night so hopefully things haven't been slowed down too much. I also took the oppertunity to squeeze the contents of my oldest running filter (8-9months old) over the filter media from the Betta tank so hopefully we will see some progress soon.

Betta tank: Day 6
Ammonia added up to 4ppm due to total water change. Will test for nitrite tomorrow.

DP tank: Day 4
A really lovely coat of white slime has covered the biggest piece of wood. Mmmm tasty. Ammonia at 4ppm (no more added).

 

[waterdrop]

 

[CherryDanio]

Betta tank: day 7
Apparently I added a little too much ammonia last night... hovering somewhere between 4-8ppm. No nitrites (boo)

DP tank: day 5
Ammonnia 4ppm. Have added a couple more plants that turned up in the post at 7.20 am (boo again).

Any guestimate (I know every tank is different) as to when I might start to see some movement in the betta tank? Not that i'm impatient or anything.

 

[waterdrop]

The first days when your first added ammonia -just sits there- are among the longest and most boring of fishless cycling. Its frustrating to watch some people have ammonia start dropping in a few days if you are one of the ones for whom it takes weeks (yes weeks, usually 2 weeks is considered long for the first drop to zero, but we've had at least one or two that took 3 weeks for that first drop!) I would say its quite common for it to take about 2 weeks actually.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[CherryDanio]

Betta tank: day 8 nothing added
Ammonia 8ppm
Nitrite 0ppm

DP tank: day 6 nothing added
Ammonia 1ppm
Nitrite between 0-0.25 jammy little sod....

Could it be the plants are cyling it faster? I keep finding conflicting arguments online. Some resources even say not to bother cycling a planted tank though I don't believe them. Part of the problem here is that the Betta tank is mine, the DP tank is OH's and he is like a kiddie at Christmas. He wants to add fish NOW and keeps throwing tantrums when I say he can't haha...

 

[Truck]

in the second pic the plants on the right (green leaves with white tips) arent aquatic, they will rot