My Fishless Cycle Diary

[Kris T]

I started my fishless cycle last week, and I thought it would be a good idea to keep my results in a dedicated thread: for my own records, and so that some of the experts here can point me in the right direction if I lose my way!

I had dodgy start because my heater broke midweek, but I'm back on track now:

Day 7 (7 days after adding Ammonia to about 4.5ppm)

Ammonia: 1.5ppm
Nitrite: 1.5ppm
Nitrate: 0
P.H. 7.4 (tap water is 7.2)

Day 8

Ammonia: 0.5ppm
Nitrite: 1.0
Nitrate: 10 (might have been 10 yesterday too, hard to read the colour)

Considering I had half a week of having to turn my heater off at night and when I was out, I'm pleased with how fast ammonia is getting back down to zero this first time. Now that ammonia is so low, do I add more today to get it up to 4 or 5ppm, or do I wait until ammonia reaches zero?

Based on my readings so far, how long is it likely to be before I'm at the "adding fish" stage? I'd like to start planning plants and fish etc, and having some idea of when this cycle will finish would help a lot!

 

[waterdrop]

Your reporting style is good. The other bit of essential info with each testing entry is how many hours it was between the "ammonia add" and the time the test was taken (ie. was it a "12-hour test" or a "24-hour-test" is typical and rougly rounding to 12 or 24 is better than being too specific at least until the last week or two.)

Fishless cycle overall times are extremely unpredictable, which is one of the reasons you see so many seeking help here to bolster their patience. Your's could be as fast as a few weeks or take as long as a couple of months. You just never know until the end when 5ppm of ammonia can be dropped to zero ppm ammonia and nitrite in 12 hours or less.

Its really better to just wait until ammonia drops to zero and then add ammonia at your "24-hour-mark", people who add prior to it reaching zero are just being impatient and that tends to just overload nitrite in there, making it harder to see process on the second bacterial species.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Kris T]

Day 9 (9 days after adding ammonia up to 5ppm)

Ammonia: 0.25
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 20
PH: 7.4

Should nitrite be at zero so soon...? Wasn't expecting that!

 

[OldMan47]

It is possible if you have used some mature media to jump start your cycle. That looks like what I would call a slow cycle on one of my new tanks but I always borrow media from established tanks to get me going. Another thing that can give results like that is a heavy planting of fast growing plants.

 

[Kris T]

There are no plants in there at the moment - just substrate and rocks. But I did add some Safe Start on day 3. Might explain it?

 

[Kris T]

Day 10 (10 days after adding ammonia to 5ppm)

Ammonia: 0
Nitrite:0
Nitrate: 20

Finally at zero!

I added ammonia back to about 4ppm. I'll see how much progress it makes after 24 hours...

 

[Kris T]

Good progress being made now!

Day 11 (24 hours after adding ammonia to 4ppm)

Ammonia: 1.5ppm!
Nitrite: 0.5ppm
Nitrate: 30ppm
PH: 7.4

So a drop of 2 1/2ppm for the ammonia in 24 hours. Better than I expected for today

 

[waterdrop]

 

[Kris T]

Thanks for that, waterdrop! Sometimes I think it's going well, but until someone who knows what they're doing confirms it, I'm really not sure about anything

 

[Kris T]

Day 12 (48 hours after adding ammonia to 4ppm)

Ammonia: 0.35ppm
Nitrite: 1.0ppm
Nitrate: 40ppm
PK: Not sure...

A problem with my PH...On the normal test ph range test, it didn't match any of the colours on the card...So I tried the high range test. I've tried the high range test before, but it's never changed to any colour on the chart. But today it looks to have gone to the colour that's 8.2...That's a big jump!

Do I need to do anything? Is this still okay for this cycle?

Would love your input, waterdrop!

 

[waterdrop]

If your pH has gone a little higher (ammonia is basic and will drive it upward somewhat) then that's just making a better bacterial growing soup!

Your fishless cycle looks to be giving normal feedback for the stage when ammonia is dropping but the nitrite spike has not yet really gotten underway. It all looks quite normal and good and I don't see anything that needs to be altered.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Kris T]

Thanks for the info. It's nice to have some reassurance from someone who knows their stuff!

 

[Kris T]

Day 13 (3 days after adding ammonia to 4ppm)

Ammonia: 0,15ppm
Nitrite: 0.0ppm
Nitrate: 40ppm
Ph: 7.6

Annoyed that the last little bit of ammonia is hanging around for another day! And the PH seems to be different every single day. Still as long as it doesn't drop below 7 I think I'm okay...

 

[waterdrop]

Those details are way too tiny to be worrying about. You're only on Day 13, which is way at the beginning, so just relax and go off studying other things in the hobby. Just add some more ammonia on your 24-hour mark if ammonia got all the way down to zero somewhere in the previous 24 hours.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Kris T]

I just took my readings again for today, Day 14. Ammonia is exactly the same as yesterday, somewhere between .15 and .25...Any reason it gets stuck on this last tiny bit? It did this on the first lot of ammonia too, and I ended up adding more when it got to about 0.10...

Nitrite is still on zero too, so no ammonia is being processed. I'm starting to wonder if I'm waiting for a shade of yellow that never comes! Be patient and wait for zero?