My Fishless Cycle Journal

[australopithecus]

I hope its okay to use this forum to post my fishless cycle for my new (and first) aquarium. any help or info would be appreciated.

aquarium: 55 gallon, 48" by 13" by 20", 60 lbs gravel. 4 live plants, lots of fake plants.

06/12/07: put 1 tblspn of "Always Save" ammonia, realized ammonia had surfactant, though did not foam when shaken, so I think the surfactant must be very slight and i will not change water until later (right before putting fish in). NH3 approximately 4-5 ppm. added 4 ounces of Cycle. Went to Ace Hardware and bought Ace janitorial strength ammonia (10%) - no surfactant - added half a cap full (about 3 ml).

06/13/07: NH3 around 4-5 ppm all day. no ammonia added. NO2: 0.

06/14/07: NH3 dropped to between 1 and 2 ppm. NO2: 0. added more Cycle. added 3 ml of Ace ammonia before bed.

06/15/07: NH3 4-5 ppm. NO2: 0.1 (estimation - my nitrite color test is somewhere between 0 and .25)

 

[Rooster]

If you KNOW there WAS surfactant in the original ammonia, and you are SURE the new stuff is ONLY ammonia - then I recommend you do a 100% water change now, clean the tank - then start again !

After adding the ammonia, with heater and filter ON, do NOTHING for about a week.... watched kettle and all that, then take readings every other day for ammonia... when this falls by 50% (may takes weeks) then test for nItrates, its all in the stickys.

Patience is the key...
Good luck, and welcome to the forum.

 

[australopithecus]

what is the effect of surfactant on an aquarium? is it possible that a very small amount will not destroy the environment? i will do the water change regardless, but i would still like to know and i am not finding any specific info online. thanks for the advice.

 

[doresy]

Please read THIS

Also, save your money and forget Cycle. There is no quick way to cycle a tank (other than adding 'matured' media to your filter)

Prepare for 4-6 weeks before fish. Remember, after ammonia starts to drop and nitrIte is formed, it is only AFTER nitrIte has gone off the scale THEN starts to drop toward zero that the cycle is on it's way to complete. By then you should be registering nitrAte in high amounts too

 

[australopithecus]

06/15/07: did a 100% water change to rid tank of tiny amount of surfactant in original ammonia.

06/16/07: added 5ml Ace janitorial strength ammonium hydroxide (10%). NH3 4ppm. NO2: 0.

 

[australopithecus]

06/17/07 (evening): NH3: 6 ppm. NO2: 0 ppm. no ammonia added.

06/18/07 (evening): NH3: 6 ppm. NO2: 0.1 ppm. no ammonia added.

06/19/07 (morning): NH3: 4 ppm. NO2: 0.4 ppm.


Nitrite on the rise! Ammonia declining! Bacteria growing! So far so good.

 

[australopithecus]

06/20/07: NO2 1 ppm.

There are now several baby snails in my aquarium and I don't know how they got there. Maybe they came in on a live plant? Should I get rid of them? Will they disrupt anything? Strange that they can live in such high ammonia levels.

 

[australopithecus]

06/21/07 - NH3: 3 ppm. NO2: 1 ppm.


06/22/07 - NH3: 2 ppm. NO2: 2 ppm.

 

[australopithecus]

06/23/07 - NH3: 1 ppm. NO2: 3 ppm. NO3: 40 ppm. PH: 7.2

I decided to test for Nitrate today and found fairly high levels. The ammonia is low, but I won't add any more until it comes down to almost zero, and then I'll add only a few drops. Now I'm just waiting for Nitrite levels to go down to zero, and then I can do a big water change and get fish!

 

[Lucylou]

sounds like its moving along quickly, mine lasted about 8 weeks, very boring, but I learned alot, by passing the time reading advise on here. One point though, watch your Ph dosen't drop to 6, I had bog would in mine which lowered the Ph and cause the cycle to stop, didn't know what was happening at first, probably why mine took so long. Good luck

 

[australopithecus]

Last night (06/23/07) I checked the NH3 and it was about .25 ppm. I added about 20 drops of ammonia. This morning when I woke up the NH3 level was 0!

06/24/07:

NH3: 0. NO2: 3 ppm. NO3: 80 ppm.

adding a few drops of ammonia.

[edit] I just realized that I have been testing for nitrate incorrectly. I wasn't shaking one of the solution bottles properly. The real NO3 level is 5 ppm.

 

[australopithecus]

06/25/07:

NH3: 0 ppm. NO2: 5 ppm. NO3: 5 ppm.

Well my ammonia levels are consistently at 0. Now I'm still waiting for Nitrite levels to drop. Adding some more ammonia.

 

[fourthtimelucky]

Just thought I would say GOOD LUCK! as people did the same for me when I was cycling mine. Bit boring watching an empty tank for ages but well worth it!

BTW you might want to start getting rid of those snails. There are several other posts on this topic in the forums and apparently you can end up with HUNDREDS in a relatively short space of time. I am picking out four or five a day (came in on a plant) and very annoyed about it too.

 

[australopithecus]

06/26/07: NH3: 0 ppm. NO2: 3 ppm. NO3: 5 ppm. added 5 ml ammonia.

06/27/07: NH3: 0 ppm. NO2: 3 ppm. added 5 ml ammonia.


still waiting for nitrite to drop. waiting waiting waiting.