My Fishless Cycle

[waterdrop]

Those green nitrate sponges are so ineffective that it doesn't matter much one way or the other what you do with them. With prior members who had them in without thinking it through, they didn't seem to cause any problems with the cycle. Ideally, one might want to substitute a more mainstream type of biomedia if the manufacturer makes that option easy, but really probably one would be hard-pressed to decide whether some different type of sponge would be more effective as a biomedia than the green nitrate sponge, which I assume would fill up with bacteria just like any other surface...

~~waterdrop~~

 

[tommyg123]

yeah i am using it. listen to waterdrop he knows hes stuff

Results as the same
Day 6

Ph= 8.0
Am=4-5ppm

Two questions should i be testing for nitrAte and NitrIte at this point or when should i?
Also i have some Nutrafin cycle bological aquarium supplement is it worth using it to speed up the cycling?

thanks

 

[waterdrop]

No need to be testing for other than ammonia at this point.

If the cycle product was just a freebie or if you can't get money back then yes, you can just dump it in, most say they never detect it doing anything but be sure it doesn't raise your ammonia level too high.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[tommyg123]

Ok yesterday and todays test results are as follows..

Day 7
Ph= 8.0
Am= 4-5ppm

Day 8
Ph= 8.0
Am= 3ppm

First time the Ammonia has dropped so im happy now

Also i did add some of that Nutrafin cycle supplement, weather it has helped or not im unsure of.

Thanks for reading

 

[Miss Wiggle]

excellent, youre off teh starting block then, wait until it gets right down to 0 (or very close) before you add some more

 

[tommyg123]

yeah i will do Miss Wiggle

Got any more advice maybe when you to start testing NitrIte and NitrAte?

thanks

 

[waterdrop]

MW would probably say that after ammonia starts dropping to zero in 24 hours its a good time to start taking a peek at nitrite(NO2) to see if its starting to slowly rise towards its "nitrite spike" phase where it reaches the highest nitrite testing level and stays there. You can really take your good time about testing nitrate, since its a pain to test anyway.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[tommyg123]

Ok todays tests are looking good already.

Day 9
Ph= 8.0
Am= 0.6 ppm

Is it a good idea to add the ammonia back upto 4-5ppm now or wait another day?

thanks

 

[waterdrop]

Its your call. I don't think it makes much difference one way or the other once it gets down to little traces like that.

 

[gaz gun man]

Its your call. I don't think it makes much difference one way or the other once it gets down to little traces like that.

yeah, what WD said. The test kits we use are'nt lab-accurate anyway, so theres no telling exactly how much ammonia you've got. I say add it today, use the calculator to see how much ammonia you need for 4ppm, then bring it back upto that.

 

[tommyg123]

Ok so last night after i tested 0.6 ppm Ammonia i topped it back upto 4-5ppm.

Todays results
Day 10=
Ph = 8.0
Am= 0 ppm

Great results

That means 4-5ppm has dropped down to zero within 24 hours, should i start taking some tests on NitrIte and NitrAte?
and how long do i have to keep topping the Ammonia back upto 4-5ppm before i can get some fishies?

thanks

 

[waterdrop]

Hi Tommy,

Yes! Great results and I'd say time to start rounding out your daily log line of stats in your notebook by adding nitrite(NO2) for sure and also adding in nitrate(NO3) from time to time.

(Nitrate(NO3) is mostly pretty wacky during fishless cycling because it gets nitrite as well as nitrate mixed up in what it measures and during cycling you've of course got various measures of both and besides that NO3 is a very difficult and flaky test to begin with, so it can just be "off." The reason nitrate(NO3) gets more reliable -after- fishless cycling is that usually nitrite(NO2) is -zero- then and so the nitrate result is more "pure.")

Now that ammonia is dropping to zero in 24 hours your next milestone is to hope that nitrite will start going slowly upward toward the highest readings!

~~waterdrop~~

 

[tommyg123]

Ok then so i tested for NO2 and NO3.
NO2= 3.3 maybe even off the scale to be honest
NO3= 110 again maybe off the scale im going to say.

Will keep you posted tomorrow after the 24hrs.

thanks

 

[tommyg123]

Todays results

Ph= 8.0
Am= 0.6ppm
NO2= 3.3+

Topped ammonia back upto 4-5ppm

 

[tommyg123]

when you say the highest reading for nitrite do you mean 3.3 or above or as in zero?