My First Fishless Cycle

[hellog0odfriend]

Hey all!

I just very recently got into this hobby (a month or so). I am technically new to this forum as I have not posted anything before but I found myself on this forum almost daily reading up on a lot of posts and doing plenty of research. There are TONS of info on this forum and is very beginner friendly. I learned so much about fish and fish keeping in a month than I have my whole life. Anyway, I started up my tank and have decided to do a fish-less cycle for all the right reasons stated on this forum. I'm a couple weeks into the cycle and decided to post my progress on here to get some feedback on the things I'm doing right as well as things I can change or improve on. Thanks in advanced for all the tips and advice in the future. Very glad I came upon this forum.

Some general info about my tank setup and cycle equipments:
- 10 US gallons (38L)
- Tetra Whisper power filter
- 50 watt submersible heater
- no live plants (hoping to change this soon with some advice)
- gravel for substrate
- 10% pure ammonia from Ace
- API Freshwater Master Test Kit

A few questions to start off:
-Is it unusual to get a nitrite reading before the first ammonia drop? If so, was there any mistake that I made that could've caused this?
-Is it advisable to replace filter cartridge(not the media) during the cycling?

Date-----Time-----Temp(F)-----Ammonia-----Nitrite------Nitrate-----PH-----

070310--8:00am-----81---------4-8ppm---------*-----------*---------------8.0---- 1.89ml of ammonia added
070510--8:00am-----81---------4 ppm----------0-----------*------------------*-----
070810--8:00am-----81---------4 ppm----------0-----------*------------------*-----
070910--10:00am---81---------4 ppm----------0-----------*------------------*-----
071110--2:00pm-----84---------4 ppm----------0-----------*------------------*-----
071310--8:00am-----84---------4 ppm---------.5-----------*------------------*-----25% water change
071510--8:00am-----86---------4 ppm----------5-----------5------------------*-----
071610--8:30am-----86---------2 ppm----------5---------5-10---------------*-----
071810--12:30pm---86---------.5ppm----------5+---------20----------------*-----
072010--8:00am-----86---------.25--------------5+---------20----------------*-----1.89ml of ammonia added

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome to the forum hellog0odfriend.
Because each 1 ppm of ammonia is converted to 2.7 ppm of nitrites, a slight change in nitrites is not surprising without being able to detect a change in ammonia.
The filter cartridge is a significant part of your media if it is one like this.

 

[hellog0odfriend]

Thanks for the info OldMan. Yea that is the type of cartridge. How often would you replace the used ones for a new one? Also, when doing water change, is using seachem prime for conditioning the water the way to go? It says that it will remove ammonia, nitrite, and nitrates and I was wondering if this would disrupt the cycling process. Thanks again.

 

[OldMan47]

I do use Prime for my water changes.
The cartridge is replaced when it can no longer be cleaned because it is falling apart. For me that means about once a year. I take the clip off the top, place the old bag inside the new one, to preserve my bacterial colony and reassemble the cartridge. The next time I clean the cartridge, I remove and toss the bag part that I had stuffed inside. I like the tiny packages of carbon in their original container sitting on the shelf. If I ever use medications and need some carbon to remove it, the total amount of carbon in storage from various cartridges may be enough to actually have an effect. A single charge, the way it is packaged, might make a nice dark highlight on a picture or something but it is not enough to have any effect on your water chemistry.

 

[waterdrop]

Agree with OM47. The biomedia portion of filter function consists of material that is especially good at providing surfaces (lots of surface area) on which the bacteria can build their biofilms and grow their colonies. As hobbyists, our concern is to -preserve- these living colonies for all the years we run the tank, continuously. Often, biomedia materials can't hold up in top form all these years and so we figure out various ways to work in new media but allow it to be exposed to the already existing colonies.

OM47 has described a great way to do this the shallow pillow type of biomedia sheet in the picture. Just cut up the old one and use it as stuffing for the new one! That way most of the old colonies of bacteria will be there and will see the new pillow-casing as fresh surface area for colony growth.

I use Prime also. You need not be concerned about the essential nutrients for your bacteria. The conditioner chemically transforms the toxic substance, ammonia for instance, into a non-toxic form, ammonium in this case, that can still be consumed by the bacteria. In fact, Prime and other conditioners are particularly useful during cycling, when the bacterial colonies are at their most vulnerable and could be more completely damaged if your water authority happened to do an "overdose" day where they "clean the pipes." To guard against "chlor overdose days" we recommend you dose conditioner at about 1.5x to 2x the bottle instructions. While cycling though, don't go past a 2x amount because the conditioner itself can then become something that slows bacterial reproduction.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[hellog0odfriend]

Wow thanks for all the info guys, cant wait for this tank to be cycled so I can finally get some fish!

On a side note, my brothers friend was selling his tank and I just couldnt resist so I scooped it right up. Its a little bigger than my current one so im very excited about it. I just have to wait to get some funds to get this new tanks started. Its a 26 gallon bowfront tank btw.

It might be a little bit too early to think of stocking list for these tanks but I couldn't help it. For my smaller 10 gallon tank I was thinking of about 6 or so neon or cardinal tetras and 6 or so pygmy or panda cats. I heard that cardinals are not ideal fish for a tank just starting up, so is it not possible to get these guys on my tanks? For the 26 gallon one, I was thinking of angels but I'm not sure if its large enough, dimensions are 24x15x21 inches.