My Fishless Cycling Log

[KittyKat]

I think I will do a small one. Also there's a lot of grime and stuff on the gravel, should I do a gravel vac and get rid of it all? I think I read somewhere not to gravel vac during cycling, but I'm not sure.

Given that you don't have an undergravel filter, I can't see any reason not to vacuum.

Listen to waterdrop, of course.

I'll let you in on a little secret: I might be getting a 60 litre tank in about a month and it will be the first fish-less cycle I had ever done on my own tanks (I've cycled plenty for other people) and the first one in a few years that I've overseen/done in person. I'll keep a log and you can laugh at me when I mess it up somehow

 

[Falling Ash]

I think I will do a small one. Also there's a lot of grime and stuff on the gravel, should I do a gravel vac and get rid of it all? I think I read somewhere not to gravel vac during cycling, but I'm not sure.

Given that you don't have an undergravel filter, I can't see any reason not to vacuum.

Listen to waterdrop, of course.

I'll let you in on a little secret: I might be getting a 60 litre tank in about a month and it will be the first fish-less cycle I had ever done on my own tanks (I've cycled plenty for other people) and the first one in a few years that I've overseen/done in person. I'll keep a log and you can laugh at me when I mess it up somehow

I look forward to reading how you get on! (Hopefully better than me ) That'll be great.

And thanks for the advice waterdrop. Well I went and did a water change, and I hovered the vacuum over the gravel to pick up all the stuff from the top. My nitrites are reading a different colour (bright pink/purple) so they are still really high. I must have like 1,000,000ppm of nitrites. About the pH, is there anything that I should do like add bicarb? Or just leave it as it is?

 

[waterdrop]

So you did a down-to-the-gravel water change and the nitrites were still off the scale? I would have promptly deep gravel-cleaned it down to the bottom again if I saw this. The point of doing a water change during fishless cycling (I'm not losing it am I, we're talking fishless, right I look at way too many of these..) is to reset the water back to your tap water parameters, dose it with ammonia again and start the A-bacs dumping nitrites in again. Incidently, it's easy to fall into thinking of it as your fish tank while you're fishless cycling but in reality its just a bucket of water being optimized to grow bacteria, it doesn't need any changes that are partial or the gravel looking pretty or anything.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Falling Ash]

Okay, thanks for that insight. Yeah, it's a fishless cycle, and I only did a 50% water change. I'll do a down-to-the-gravel change tomorrow and re-dose, or just leave it for a few weeks and see. I'm still learning, and as you can probably tell I'm not the sharpest tool in the box.

 

[waterdrop]

I think you're doing great! Keep up the good work. Anybody who cares enough to find a forum like this and participate to find out things is on their way to being a good fishkeeper!

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Falling Ash]

Thanks WD! Well I don't know what's going on, I did a huge water change (there was a little left above the gravel which I couldn't get, and tested my nitrites and they were off the charts still? I tested tap water to make sure the kit is working properly and it showed up as 0.

 

[Falling Ash]

I'm very tempted to re-do my whole aquarium before getting fish. I want to get rid of my large aqua coloured gravel, and green planted background, in exchange for a fine black smooth gravel (which I cannot find anywhere! Any help appreciated) and a black background. I want to remove all my fake decorations and plants, in exchange for natural decor such as wood and rocks, and a nice amount of hardy live plants. I feel like I've wasted a lot of money, though.

 

[KittyKat]

I'm very tempted to re-do my whole aquarium before getting fish. I want to get rid of my large aqua coloured gravel, and green planted background, in exchange for a fine black smooth gravel (which I cannot find anywhere! Any help appreciated) and a black background. I want to remove all my fake decorations and plants, in exchange for natural decor such as wood and rocks, and a nice amount of hardy live plants. I feel like I've wasted a lot of money, though.

Black gravel.. I use standard stuff by Dennerle, who also do a finer version for shrimp. It is available from Swell, for example.

As for the rest, try selling it maybe?

 

[Falling Ash]

I was having a look at that Dennerle stuff earlier, looks decent! Is it OK to gravel vac? One of my friends is getting a tank soon, so I'll see if they want anything, if not then I'll try sell stuff yeah or just hoard it somewhere

 

[KittyKat]

I imagine it would be ok to vacuum, but more like sand than large gravel (so a thinned tube would be better?). I might be able to try to see.. think I have a vacuum *somewhere*.

 

[Falling Ash]

Awesome, well don't worry about that Also, the nitrite has finally dropped! And by dropped I don't mean off the charts this time It was 0.25 today, so shouldn't be long now hopefully!

 

[KittyKat]

Sounds like this is basically it! This is actually the longest cycle I have ever followed.. so well done for sticking with it

 

[Falling Ash]

Thanks for sticking around and offering advice and not just thinking "oh no that guy again, I wonder what he's moaning about now."

 

[Falling Ash]

Okay, went to visit the LFS to check out their gravels and sands. Saw a fine-ish black gravel, 3mm (couldn't feel it though as it was in a bag lolol), it was called Pettex Roman Gravel I think, and it says it's suitable for bottom-feeders and barbed fish. No idea if it is though. WIll do some research.

 

[KittyKat]

I don't know about that one specifically, but all Roman gravels (including the standard sized black) are dyed and at least the black will loose the colour quite quickly. I don't know if the dye if bad for fish, but I always found it safer to assume that it is.