My Fishless Cycle Log

[waterdrop]

Agree with sjoliff, plain baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) should not be too hard to find. Lots of UK members have used it so maybe they can mention brands.

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[OldMan47]

It is available in the spice rack of your local grocery store under the name of baking soda. Chemically it is sodium bicarbonate or sodium hydrogen carbonate but often referred to as bicarb or bicarbonate of soda. It is the same thing people use for indigestion problems (called bicarb) or as an ingredient in cooking (called baking soda). Chemically, you are not likely to find it listed this way, it is a compound of sodium, Na, hydrogen (the bi part) and a carbonate ion, CO3. In the US it is made by Arm and hammer, named after the company founder Armand Hammer.

 

[yasinullah]

Thanks guys, spotted some bicarbonate of soda with just sodium carb today, wasn't sure so didn't buy but now I know its ok will pick one up. I use Arm & hammer toothpaste lol I'm pretty sure that also has sodium bicarb in it.

 

[sjolliff]

This is what i use

 

[waterdrop]

great pic, lol. for the first dose on a big tank you could pour in that whole bottle!

 

[yasinullah]

dosed with 2ml ammonia this morning was 0, 12 hours later
this evening i added 2 teaspoons of bicarb of soda, got exactly the same one as you sjolliff! pH up to 8.2 now as >>>
then added 2ml of ammonia as I will be away til sunday, and will get my brother to dose every 24hrs from now, he wont keep to time on morning dosings i don't think so have set it up for evenings nw!!
2ml's should take up ammonia to 3ppm

I know I've double dosed where a single dose every 24hours is suggested, but after yet another cycler (julsifer) also still managed to cycle successfully after double dosing ammonia for a while, i'm thinking maybe it isn't much of a hindrance to N-bac growth, although I remember (think it was OM47) was reading a science paper which may have been suggesting that a diff species grows in a high nitrite environment.

ALSO, did two nitrate tests both came back as below 5ppm, does bicarb of soda affect the nitrate test? am thinking it does.
speaking of nitrates with all my water changes thus far I haven't seen a clear jump in nitrate levels, always been around 10-20ppm. There's no such thing as a nitrate processing bacterial species right?

 

[OldMan47]

There are no nitrate processing bacteria in a typical freshwater setup. If you were running a saltwater tank with deep beds of "live sand" you might actually be able to process nitrates to nitrogen gas and get rid of them that way. It can also happen in a freshwater tank using anaerobic bacteria but it is not a place that we want to try to go. The trouble is that anaerobic conditions more often mean having hydrogen sulfide develop, H2S. The stuff smells like rotten eggs in very low concentrations if you release some into the room and it is quite toxic to fish or people. The best way that we have to deal with nitrogen is to physically remove it as nitrates.

 

[waterdrop]

Another thing to consider is that nitrate(NO3) processing doesn't really buy you anything as an aquarist, even if you were to have it. The water changes are still very much needed. There are dozens if not hundreds of substances in the water that need to be removed or they will build to toxic levels due to the loss of pure water via evaporation. Nitrate just happens to be one of the easier, cheaper ones to test and can serve as a warning flag for all the others.

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[yasinullah]

just wondered as my nitrates haven't risen, but then with all the water changes and the lack of nitrite processing i guess its expected.

still getting the golden browny yellow colour which another user has said is due to the high nitrite levels in my tank, but i did a 4ml tap water with 1ml tank water which gave me a result of around 40ppm (my tap water has 10ppm nitrate level though). Do you think this is a reliable indication of nitrate levels? because I've never had this issue with the nitrate tests before.

Results are still the same, am able to process 3ppm of ammonia in 12hours, but nitrites remain off the chart. pH is staying at 8.2. Am probably gonna do a water change this evening, as last one was on DAY 69 am now on DAY 77.

I've still got both the Juwel filter and the Fluval U2 running, am thinking about turning the Juwel one off, could running both cause any issues? Thanks.

 

[sjolliff]

IMO i would not do a water change as there are benefits not doin,
i would leave the filters untill your cycle is done then every few weeks take some media out, then just have one as there will be alot of bacteria in both filters and if you take one out, you will lose some good bacteria

Also with your nitrites, mine were at 5ppm the in 24hrs suddenly dropped to 0.75ppm
hopefully that will happen to you soon

 

[waterdrop]

yasinullah, I agree with sjolliff. I would not disturb my cycling situation while the process is still going on. I would leave both filters running. Over the course of the cycle the colonies will have been moving toward balancing the colony volume between the two filters and by removing one you could set yourself back considerably, partly because overall they are young colonies to begin with. After you are cycled and the weeks go by you can begin by removing smaller amounts of media from the filter you don't want and then eventually removing it altogether.

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[yasinullah]

thanks, am leaving it be

 

[yasinullah]

Woohoo! Some good news I think, nitrate test is working again and got a deep red color am thinking 40-80ppm. 1st bug jump in nitrates from previous 20ppm, so lookin good nitrites remain off the charts for now

 

[waterdrop]

Sounds like you've got a sign your N-Bac population is kicking in more strongly now. That should be good...

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[yasinullah]

great news once again, first 0 for nitrite tonight!!!!!!! but I only added 1ml of ammonia 36 hours ago,
But have added 1.5ml (about 2.5ppm) tonight and will see what happens tomorrow!!