My Fishless Cycle Log

[waterdrop]

Relax! What you did was probably a GOOD thing! Its generally recommended not to do water changes, much less filter cleans, during fishless cycling, because the bacterial colonies are more fragile and you don't have many of them yet. But in truth, they are constantly building towards becoming the tough, hard to get rid of, mature colonies that are in a filter at about 6 months. Autotrophic bacterial colonies like we are trying to grow are mostly very tightly attached to their media, more like a black or brown stain if you can see them at all (anything you can see is huge by colony standards, 'cause we're talking about microscopic stuff.) All that brown stuff you saw is 98% organic debris I'd guess. Yes, there are some bacteria and bacterial colonies on the debris, but that's ok, that's not mostly what we're after. Of contrasting importance is that the permanent colonies you want need to have plenty of fresh water, ammonia and oxygen brought constantly by their positions on the media and the more clogged the filter gets, the more in danger that situation is!

So that's why a water change and filter clean can be not necessarily a bad thing at all in the later stage of fishless cycling. The filter clean part of course is much more dependent on the size, type of filter and tank conditions on an individual basis but I've -always- heard its basic good advice to clean a filter that's clogged and slowing down, in fact it should just become good common sense for you as an aquarist to do that I'd say. In general we don't want other beginners to take this as "something to do" but in your case here, it was a good thing is the way I look at it.

You will get exactly the small changes in test feedback that you're getting right after doing something like this but by tomorrow or the next day the feedback should be getting back to normal for your stage of fishless cycling and hopefully will be headed to being even better!

~~waterdrop~~

 

[yasinullah]

thanks waterdrop, makes me feel a lot better now, hopefully will be back on track very soon!

 

[yasinullah]

A-bacs recovering nicely, now processing >4ppm of ammonia in 24hours, nitrites remain off the chart. If only these N-bacs weren't so sloooooow! pH is staying at 7.6 (low range test) although the high range test kit says its slightly lower than that.


For future reference, after cyling is complete and I start my weekly water changes, how long can I leave the filter media basket out of water? I shall be leaving it in the filter enclosure (I have Juwel Rekord tank) unless it needs a quick swirl in old tank water, which you're supposed to do once a month?

thanks

 

[yasinullah]

now processing ammonia in 12 hours since y'day, going through the nitrite spike, been off the charts last few days.

 

[waterdrop]

 

[yasinullah]

hmmn having more ammonia blips like last time (pre- water change), last 2 days (at 12hrs) ammonia was at <1.0ppm , yesterday at 24hrs, nitrite was at 1.0ppm

but at least nitrite appears to be dropping now
now gotta work out what day of the cycle I am at!! Haven't kept any proper records since the water change


edit: Day 31!

 

[yasinullah]

nitrites are beign processed in 24hours now, getting closer to the 0ppm mark. N-bac growth is so frustrating, hoping I don't get stuck like before, with 0's at 24hrs, but a constant 5ppm at 12hrs!!

DAY 31 12hrs---------------------DAY 31 24hrs
NH3: <1ppm--------------------------NH3: presumably 0..
Nitrite: >5ppm----------------------------Nitrite: 0.25
pH: 7.6 --------------------------------- pH: 7.6


DAY 32 12hrs---------------------DAY 32 24hrs
NH3: 0.25 - 0.50 ppm----------------NH3: 0
Nitrite: >5ppm-------------------------Nitrite: 0 - 0.25 ppm
pH: 7.6 ---------------------------------pH: 7.6

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, the whole N-Bac thing often seems twice as long as the A-Bacs. WD

 

[yasinullah]

finally looks liek I'm back to where I was before my water change, nitrites are being processed to 0ppm after 24hours.

DAY 33 12hrs---------------------DAY 33 24hrs
NH3: ~0.25ppm----------------------NH3: 0ppm
Nitrite: >5ppm----------------------------Nitrite: 0ppm
pH: 7.6 --------------------------------- pH: 7.6

 

[yasinullah]

right was away from home for a week and had my brother simply dose up the ammonia every 24hours (no other testing carried out). Came back to a pH of 6.4, so I did a large water change, 70-80%, maybe too much but I wanted to take alot of my sand out, as I put too much in. Oh and quite high nitrates, and left the filter media in the enclosure this time, I get paranoid about it drying out whilst changing the water and cleaning, so I occasionally poured some water into it.. how long can I leave it out of water?

Ammonia since water change has gone 3ppm > 0ppm in 24hours (this morning, when I dosed again). Nitrites remain off the chart. Now need to calculate what day I am at again.

 

[waterdrop]

Sounds good. If you -do- do a water change during fishless cycling (like you did) you don't need to worry about it being too big. Smaller percentage water changes are usually all about being careful for the sake of the fish, so when you don't have fish the smaller percentage changes really don't have any meaning.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[yasinullah]

thanks waterdrop, looks like shoudn't be much longer to processing ammonia in 12 hours, was 1.0ppm tonight (12hr test). Looks like I'll have to wait for the nitrite spike to come to an end for the 3rd time!!
did the tests with my 4yr old cousin by my side tonight, he was intruiged by the colours, he helped me match them up to the cards, and the colours on the high range pH card made him lol

 

[yasinullah]

nitrite spike is being a pain, still no change been off the charts since water change, last water change it took 5 days to show a drop, its now the 6th day this time round and no change, hopefully something will happen soon as its driving me mad! ammonia is processing in 12hours still, and am adding 2ppm every 24hours.

 

[OldMan47]

The nitrite spike can be a bit of a challenge. It often takes longer than the initial ammonia took to get a big enough colony established. The hardest thing to deal with at this point is the patience it will take to get the process going as it should.

 

[yasinullah]

have become super impatient now, still no drop in nitrites despite it happening quite soon after my last 2 water changes, so I did another <40% change tonight, nitrites are now still off the chart, but took the drops a while longer to turn purple when they hit the bottom of the test tube.

I have my new job to keep me occupied now, so hopefully I shall return to being more patient once again!