My Fishless Cycle Diary

[Kris T]

Okay, for the third day in a row my ammonia is on 0.15ppm...I've never seen anyone else's cycle get stuck on such a small bit of ammonia before. Am I just misreading the colour on the card? It really doesnt look bright yellow.

Or is there another potential cause for the tank not clearing the very last bit? Should I keep waiting fir it to bo bright yellow/zero?

 

[djl08]

When i have read other fishless cycle diaries, people tend to encourage adding more ammonia to bring it back up to 4ppm if they encounter low levels like <0.25. Im cycling my tank at the moment too, mine still hasnt shifted off 4ppm after 8 days, and ive seeded mine with mature media.

I may be wrong in what ive said so dont take it as gospel, i'd wait for the more experienced members to advise you on this subject.


-Dj-

 

[Kris T]

Days 15 and 16 were exactly the same - just a trace of ammonia. So yesterday, Day 17, I added ammonia back up to just above 4ppm again.

Today, my readings were:

Day 18 (24 hours after adding ammonia to 4.5ppm)

Ammonia: 2.0ppm
Nitrite: zero (how is that possible if ammonia is being processed???)
Nitrate: 40ppm
PH: 7.4

I'd love to know what that means that my nitrite is on zero after processing 2ppm of ammonia...

 

[Kris T]

Day 19 (48 hours after adding ammonia to 4.5ppm)

Ammonia: 1.5ppm
Nitrite: 0.5
Nitrate: 40ppm

This is getting seriously tedious now. I've never seen anyone else's cycle go this slowly...The ammonia is taking longer to go this time that it did a week ago...Is that normal? Maybe I put more ammonia in this time by mistake...

 

[Rediahs]

This is getting seriously tedious now. I've never seen anyone else's cycle go this slowly...The ammonia is taking longer to go this time that it did a week ago...Is that normal? Maybe I put more ammonia in this time by mistake...

Haha... you haven't seen my cycle then... 27 days and still haven't hit 0 ammonia once, it's now at 0.25 ppm lol, so almost there. The only time I've added ammonia was at the beginning of the cycle. And I only started with 2 ppm because I couldn't tell between 2 and 4 on the chart!!!

People told me it's no big deal and that it's not a long time???!? Certainly not what I've seen from other threads and what you've said confirmed it, you've never seen anything as long as yours and mine is plenty longer. Anytime it takes more than 1-2 weeks people seem to complain. I've been real patient with mine. lol. Try to be patient.

 

[waterdrop]

I've followed lots and lots of cases where the fishless cycle finally ended somewhere between Day 60 and Day 70.

 

[Rediahs]

I've followed lots and lots of cases where the fishless cycle finally ended somewhere between Day 60 and Day 70.

Looks like that's what's going to happen to mine... if it keeps at this rate... lol..

 

[Kris T]

Thanks, Chrissi! Nice to know I'm not alone! I've seen people with exactly the same set-up as me finish the entire cycle in 19 days!

 

[Kris T]

Day 20 (3 days after adding ammonia to 4.5ppm)

Ammonia: 0.75
Nitrite: 0.5ppm
Nitrate: 50-60 (too hard to tell colour difference - somewhere between 40 and 80)

 

[Kris T]

Day 21 (4 days after ammonia add)

Ammonia: 0.15
Nitrite: zero
Nitrate: 60

My ammonia never ever goes below around 0.15...I tested my tap water tonight, and that is also right on 0.15. Does that mean that 0.15 is as good as zero for me? When I add tap water during water changes in the future, won't it be at 0.15 for some time anyway...?

 

[waterdrop]

The extra little bit of ammonia in your tap won't matter of course because you are not changing water during a fishless cycle. You are still a little shy of a month into your fishless cycle. Some cycles can take up to around 2 months to finally start fully processing. Often its one or the other of ammonia or nitrite that's not quite processing to zero and in the cases I've watched it seems to be ammonia just as often as nitrite, despite ammonia perhaps having done well in the very early stages of the fishless cycle. Your A-Bac population just may be the stubborn one in your case.

Now as far as the slight ammonia in your tap water, once your A-Bac population is really robust, it should process out that bit of ammonia quite quickly after you do a water change. When you have ammonia in your tap water you just have to develop a habit such that when people tell you to do such and such percentage water change, that you will mentally adjust that to a couple of water changes about half the size as ideal. So if a 50% water change is suggested, perhaps two 25% water changes at least an hour apart would be more ideal. You can test all that and see what you think. You have pretty much flexibility in how you handle ammonia amounts less than 0.25ppm but if its hitting that or above then your actions should be more definate to keep it more diluted from that at all times.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Kris T]

Excellent advice as always, waterdrop. Thanks! Does that mean I could also do two 25% water changes each week? Or best to do them same day an hour apart?

Okay, back to the cycle. Day 22 (5 days after adding ammonia) and the ammonia levels were almost zero - about 0.05 I'd say. so I added it back up to 4ppm.

Day 23 (24 hours after adding ammonia to around 4ppm)

Ammonia: 2.0ppm
Nitrite: 0.50ppm
Nitrate: 60ppm

 

[waterdrop]

Well, 0.15ppm is a really tiny trace, so I'm not sure whether the "water change splitting" would really be needed by you, I just wanted you to understand the concept. What you'll want to do is run some tests once you get your tank going where you do a weekend 50% change and do a series of half-hour tests to see how long it takes your A-Bac colony to rid that trace. I suspect once your colonies are really mature, especially by 6 months, it'll be hard to detect that trace even on the first half-hour followup test. Recall that 0.25ppm is our "safety number" we try not to go above for the unfortunate people who get themselves into a fish-in cycle, so 0.15ppm, if it can even be believed, is quite a small trace.

I didn't really answer your question directly there because I don't think it would really matter one way or the other.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Rediahs]

Just a note, two 25% changes does not change as much water as one 50% change.

When you change 25% twice, you changed 25% of the water, topped it back up, then changed 25% of THAT water. Fresh water composes 25% of the water you changed the second time, so you have only changed 25% + 18.75% = 43.75%, since the other % you changed was fresh (tap) water. To change 50% of the water by doing 25% water changes you would need to change three times (it would end up being a 57.81% water change)

The difference from 43 to 50 might not seem like a lot but try doing 10% water changes to reach 50... you'll need to do almost twice as many as the 5 you might automatically think you need to do, probably 9 or 10 changes (haven't done the math yet but just estimating).

 

[Kris T]

Day 24 (48 hours after adding ammonia to 4ppm)

Ammonia: 0.25ppm
Nitrite: 1.5ppm
Nitrate: 60ppm

Finally getting some good movement! 2 days and the ammonia is almost at zero...Hopefully that means the next ammonia add will be gone in a couple of days...