You are doing fine Anniekins. Once you get the nitrites dropping to zero in 12 hours, you ease the ammonia addition back up for the qualifying week.
My Fishless Cycling Readings (update)
- Thread starter Rubyuk
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THank you my Jedi master
Qualifying week?...is that where you keep topping up with ammonia and making sure both nitrite and ammonia reduce to zero each day for a week so you can be sure u can stock?
Hypathetically speaking if my nitrite dropped to zero say Monday/Tuesday and then both ammonia and nitrite continued dropping to zero within a day after that,would I be able to continue like that for say only 3/5 days before stocking? I'm just thinking any stocking will only happen for me on a weekend so depending on when 'qualifying' starts I could end up qualifying for nearly too weeks.Is too long a qualifying week a bad thing?
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Hi Ruby,
Yes, that is correct. Theoretically, you could stock as soon as ammonia and nitrite both hit 0 within 12 hours, however this has caused problems in the past, where the tank would be stocked with fish and then an ammonia spike would occur. The bacteria can have what we call 'blips' when the colony is new. The new colonies don't seem to have the same consistency as established ones. The qualifying week simply provides assurance that the bacteria can consistently deal with the ammonia and nitrite and so an ammonia spike isn't going to happen, so it is highly recommended.
The qualifying week is simply a recommendation as I explain above. If you want to "qualify" for 5 days instead of 7, then so be it. Obviously, the longer the qualifying period, the more assurance you have that everything is ok.
There is no upper time limit for the qualifying period. The longer the qualifying period, the more established the bacteria colonies will become, and the stronger and more consistent they will be. We usually recommend 1 week as a comprimise between potentially stocking too early and sitting for months with no fish.
Good luck.
BTT
Yes, that is correct. Theoretically, you could stock as soon as ammonia and nitrite both hit 0 within 12 hours, however this has caused problems in the past, where the tank would be stocked with fish and then an ammonia spike would occur. The bacteria can have what we call 'blips' when the colony is new. The new colonies don't seem to have the same consistency as established ones. The qualifying week simply provides assurance that the bacteria can consistently deal with the ammonia and nitrite and so an ammonia spike isn't going to happen, so it is highly recommended.
The qualifying week is simply a recommendation as I explain above. If you want to "qualify" for 5 days instead of 7, then so be it. Obviously, the longer the qualifying period, the more assurance you have that everything is ok.
There is no upper time limit for the qualifying period. The longer the qualifying period, the more established the bacteria colonies will become, and the stronger and more consistent they will be. We usually recommend 1 week as a comprimise between potentially stocking too early and sitting for months with no fish.
Good luck.
BTT
Day 32 update
Topped up with 4.5ml of ammonia last night
Ammonia reading now back to zero as has been the case for a week now
Nitrite reading now is as close to clear water as i've had it. I thought it was clear but my partner thinks possibly still in the 0.1 but only very slight. Its definitely the lowest reading i've had.
Does it sound as if i'm very close to,if not already on the starting blocks of my qualifying week?
If I am,what do I do now with Ammonia dosing? Keep the same or top up higher?
Since I had my high nitrite spike I've only been topping up ammonia to give a reading of between 2-3ppm as that seemed to be the concensus of opinion and although some have said ammonia needs to be constantly topped up to 5ppm I notice that Back Tropical in Miss Wiggle's 'What do you think' thread on fishless cycling has also suggested that the common thought now amongst TFF members is to cut the ammonia dosing down to get a reading of 2-3ppm in this latter stage.
So am I/have I been doing right and do I continue along the same lines or because i'm now in/nearly in my qualifying week do I now need to start upping to give ammonia reading of around 5ppm after dosing?
Topped up with 4.5ml of ammonia last night
Ammonia reading now back to zero as has been the case for a week now
Nitrite reading now is as close to clear water as i've had it. I thought it was clear but my partner thinks possibly still in the 0.1 but only very slight. Its definitely the lowest reading i've had.
Does it sound as if i'm very close to,if not already on the starting blocks of my qualifying week?
If I am,what do I do now with Ammonia dosing? Keep the same or top up higher?
Since I had my high nitrite spike I've only been topping up ammonia to give a reading of between 2-3ppm as that seemed to be the concensus of opinion and although some have said ammonia needs to be constantly topped up to 5ppm I notice that Back Tropical in Miss Wiggle's 'What do you think' thread on fishless cycling has also suggested that the common thought now amongst TFF members is to cut the ammonia dosing down to get a reading of 2-3ppm in this latter stage.
So am I/have I been doing right and do I continue along the same lines or because i'm now in/nearly in my qualifying week do I now need to start upping to give ammonia reading of around 5ppm after dosing?
You do want to get the ammonia back up to 5 ppm gradually for that qualifying week. Remember each 1 ppm that you add in will mean a build that day of about 3.6 ppm of nitrates. If you repeat that multiplier for a week at 5 ppm, the nitrate levels will be (5 x 3.6 x 7) plus whatever you started with. That is the reason for the huge water change at the end. The nitrates will be right out the top before that water change.
waterdrop
Enthusiastic "Re-Beginner"
We're all in agreement Ruby. The period of adding only 2-3ppm of ammonia is only during the time when nitrite results are "off the charts high" and now that you're past that, its time to ease the ammonia-addition-amount back up to 5ppm just as OM47 in the post above.
~~waterdrop~~
~~waterdrop~~
Miss Wiggle
Practically perfect in every way
big as you can, 80/90% is normal.
Hi all
Not sure if a set back or just been a bit premature yesterday
Day 33 Update
Ammonia zero but Nitrite has increased to 0.3
Only explanation I can offer is that yesterday I topped ammonia up by 5ml instead of the 4.5ml i've been adding every day for the last week.
Does this sound like its the reason or could something have gone wrong for nitrite to be nearly clear yesterday (before adding the 5ml of ammonia) and now 0.3 just now (that said it might be lower if i test tonight but I've been doing my daily tests this last week or so in the afternoon,although I only add the ammonia about 7-00pm)
From tonight onwards as a result of the advice from the guys (Oldman/Backtropical/waterdrop) I plan to start topping up with 7.11ml of ammonia to get to a reading of 5ppm (figures from the ammonia calculator)
Good job I didn't stock yesterday,not that I was ever going to despite pressure from my partner who has even less patience than me (stop laughing Miss Wiggle 
)
Not sure if a set back or just been a bit premature yesterday
Day 33 Update
Ammonia zero but Nitrite has increased to 0.3
Only explanation I can offer is that yesterday I topped ammonia up by 5ml instead of the 4.5ml i've been adding every day for the last week.
Does this sound like its the reason or could something have gone wrong for nitrite to be nearly clear yesterday (before adding the 5ml of ammonia) and now 0.3 just now (that said it might be lower if i test tonight but I've been doing my daily tests this last week or so in the afternoon,although I only add the ammonia about 7-00pm)
From tonight onwards as a result of the advice from the guys (Oldman/Backtropical/waterdrop) I plan to start topping up with 7.11ml of ammonia to get to a reading of 5ppm (figures from the ammonia calculator)
Good job I didn't stock yesterday,not that I was ever going to despite pressure from my partner who has even less patience than me
(stop laughing Miss Wiggle )
Miss Wiggle
Practically perfect in every way
moi 
at this stage there can be a little bit of variation, don't panic over it, the difference between 0.1 and 0.3 is pretty minimal, can be as little as reading the test results in a different light.
just hold off until you know it is 0 and it stays at that for a few consecutive days
at this stage there can be a little bit of variation, don't panic over it, the difference between 0.1 and 0.3 is pretty minimal, can be as little as reading the test results in a different light.
just hold off until you know it is 0 and it stays at that for a few consecutive days
moi
at this stage there can be a little bit of variation, don't panic over it, the difference between 0.1 and 0.3 is pretty minimal, can be as little as reading the test results in a different light.
just hold off until you know it is 0 and it stays at that for a few consecutive days
When you say 'just hold off.....''' what do you mean Miss W
Do you mean hold off with adding ammonia as aren't I supposed to start increasing it now to get upto 5ppm ammonia after dosing?
Miss Wiggle
Practically perfect in every way
oh no no no, keep adding ammonia, hold off on adding fish.
I thought as much...just wanted to check though in case you were having a mad moment
Fish were never on the agenda,i'm hoping or at least was for this upcoming weekend but todays slight increase in Nitrite could temper that
Miss Wiggle
Practically perfect in every way
that would be a sane moment, mad like 95% of the time at the moment,
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