My Fish Less Cycle

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I can't help but wonder if raising the temp 2 days ago did something. Maybe just coincidence. I just realised I've forgotten to test my glass of water for pH that I put out yesterday. I was too preoccupied with the good news lol.

The way I look at it Daize is that regardless of what stage we are at, we are a day closer to having fish. :)

David
 
Hi all,

Here are today's test results:

4/1.
Ammonia: between 1-2ppm (same as yesterday)
Nitrite: bright luminous purple/pink not resembling any of the chart. Much brighter than the highest one one the chart.
Nitrate: 40ppm.
Added: nothing

I was surprised that the ammonia hasn't dropped again since yesterday. I am concerned that the nitrite is maybe way high, off the chart, and wonder if I should do a water change??? Could the high nitrite levels be stopping the ammonia from dropping??? The nitrate colour matched exactly on 40ppm on the chart, doubled since yesterday.

Thanks,

David.
 
Sometimes the last bit of ammonia won't go away for whatever reason... You could do a water change to bring the nitrite down. The nitrite colonies prefer much lower levels than the chart will measure, so it won't hurt. But, it may not really help.
 
Hi

Today's results:


5/1

Ammonia: 0.50ppm.
Nitrite: off the chart high.
Nitrate: bet. 80-160ppm (colour is traditional red. Pretty sure its lower than 160ppm)
Added: 2.5ml Ammonia
2nd Ammonia test 10 minutes after adding 2.5ml Ammonia: bet. 2-4ppm.

Great result on the ammonia as i know the cycle hasnt stalled. Obviously the nitrite and nitrate are rising. Going by the info on the sticky in the beginners resource centre I won't do a water change yet. I'll continue to test daily and add ammonia to bring it back up to 3-4ppm until the bacteria processes 4ish ppm in 10-12 hours.

PS: I decided not to do any water change yesterday. Still not done any water change since starting the cycle on 28/12.

David
 
There's no need to do a water change yet. ;-)
 
Hi again,

Today's results:

6/1

Ammonia: 0-0.25ppm.
Nitrite: off chart high.
Nitrate: 80-160ppm.
Added: 3.5ml.
2nd ammonia test 10 minutes after dosing: 3-4ppm.

I decided to add more ammonia today than I did yesterday because the test I did yesterday after adding came back as between 2-4ppm Ammonia but it was probably closer to 2ppm than 4ppm. As you can see, today it is between 3-4ppm but it looks closer to 4ppm than 3ppm.

I'll now try and do tests every 12 hours but. Will post the 2 sets of results in the evening. The downside to this is I now need to get up before 6am so I have time to do it before work :(

David
 
There's no reason to test every 12 hours until your nitrite drops to zero too. THEN start 12 hour testing. You'll just be wasting your testing solution by testing every 12 hours now.
 
Glad to help... enjoy the sleep.
 
Hi

Today's test:

7/1

Ammonia: 0,
Nitrite: off chart high,
Nitrate: 80-160ppm,
Added: 2.5ml Ammonia, 2nd test 10 mins after adding 2.5ml Ammonia: 1-2ppm,
Added a further 1.5ml. 3rd test: 4-5ppm.

First time I've seen a zero reading for Ammonia which is great.

David
 
When the ammonia drops to zero in 24 hours, you have graduated to Phase two of the nitrogen cycle - nitrite spike.


Generally, it is suggested that you drop your ammonia dosing to 2ppm daily, to keep the ammonia bacteria colony healthy, but also to keep the nitrite levels from jumping to ridiculous levels. If the nitrite gets too high, it can either stall the cycle or promote the wrong bacteria...

Keeping the ammonia dose small, will keep the A-bacs (ammonia processing bacteria) happy, while not overwhelming the N-bacs (nitrite processing bacteria).

I'd suggest that if the nitrites remain off the chart for another 5-7 days, doing a water change would be helpful. This will help you get a handle on exactly how high they are as well. (Another option for determining the actual nitrite level is to fill the test tube with 1 mL of tank water, and 4 mL of tap water. Add the test solution as normal and read the level. Multiple your result by 5 to get the actual value. If this is STILL off the chart, I'd suggest a water change immediately, because 25 ppm is just way too high! And there is no benefit to waiting that out.)
 
Hi

Test for 8/1

Ammonia: 0.25ppm,
Nitrite: off chart high,
Nitrate: 40-80ppm,
Added: 2.5ml,
2nd test: Ammonia: 4ppm ( I tried to just raise to 2ppm but got it wrong )

As you can see, the nitrate level has dropped. How can this be? I was under the impression that the only way you can lower nitrate is to do a water change. The only thing different I can think of is that yesterday I raised the Ammonia level to 4-5ppm whereas the day before I raised it to 3-4ppm but I can't see this making any difference.

Should i be concerned?

Thanks,

David
 
No. The truth is that nitrates can come up as false lows quite often. I assume you are using the API test kit... With that in mind, if you don't do as much (and more) shaking and banging of the 2nd bottle than it suggests, then you may not have added sufficient reactant to get the deeper color. Personally, I don't think its that important to test nitrate during a fishless cycle, but its good to practice. This helps you not give yourself a false low when you have fish and mislead yourself.


I'd run the test again and make sure to bang bottle two on the table a few times, plus shake it as much as you possibly can for a full minute (maybe even 90 seconds) before adding it to the tube.
 

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