My Fishless Cycle Log, *updated Daily*

[sjolliff]

Cheers yasinullah
Been to my LFS today to look at fish hopefully next time i go they will be coming back with me

 

[sjolliff]

Just had a thought, when im in my qualifying week im goin wanting to set my tank up
which will be plants, stones, bogwood, CO2 system etc, im also goin to rinse through my sand again,
but when i do this i will be doing a 90% water change, so my nitrates will come down, but while im still adding ammonia my nitrates will carry on goin up
does this mean i will need to change the water still a day before adding fish?

will this affect my qualifying week?

 

[bob9009]

The qualifying week just simulates a full fish load. You will be generating nitrate all week, so it's necessary to do your normal weekly water change to get the levels back down.

It will not affect your qualifying week. I've done a few big water changes while cycling, and it hasn't affected the bacteria in a negative way.

 

[sjolliff]

 

[sjolliff]

Day 16 *Updated*

 

[OldMan47]

It looks like you are making nice progress towards being cycled. In the meantime you are building about 3 to 3 1/2 ppm of nitrates for every 1 ppm you add of ammonia. By the time you are done with the cycle you will have several hundred ppm of nitrates to deal with. If you do a 90% water change and maybe get down around 40 ppm or a bit less, the 5 ppm per day of ammonia will bring the levels back up by another (5*7*3.5) 125 ppm so you will need another big water change. The 5 ppm we use to cycle is much larger than a typical fish load that only raises levels about 20 or 30 ppm each week.

 

[sjolliff]

Is 5ppm of ammonia needed or can i drop it lower?

 

[bob9009]

From what I understand, you can't have too many bacteria but you can have too few. If you don't have enough, you risk a mini cycle when you stock the tank. Stick with 5ppm.

 

[coldcazzie]

From what I understand, you can't have too many bacteria but you can have too few. If you don't have enough, you risk a mini cycle when you stock the tank. Stick with 5ppm.

I agree - I asked the same Q about my QT which will only have a few fish in it at a time. Better to be safe than sorry!

 

[sjolliff]

Ok will do
just done a quick nitrite test and it came back 5ppm,

 

[sjolliff]

Day 17 *Updated*

First 24HR Ammonia 0 And Nitrite 0

I will be starting 12HR test now 8AM and 8PM but still only adding 5ppm of ammonia at every 8PM

 

[glolite]

Nearly there

 

[sjolliff]

I know hopefully this time next week im be on my qualifying week

still not sorted out my stocking list,

I really like the pearl gouramis probably get 1 male 2 female

 

[bob9009]

The race is on!! I'm getting double zeroes after 24 hours too. The ammonia is processed in a few hours but I think the nitrite is taking about 18 hours. Whoever gets fully cycled first, wins!

 

[sjolliff]

The race is on!! I'm getting double zeroes after 24 hours too. The ammonia is processed in a few hours but I think the nitrite is taking about 18 hours. Whoever gets fully cycled first, wins!

LOL
I tested today at 2PM and my nitrites were in between 0 and 0.25