My Fishless Cyle

[riogal_11]

Day 1 - 1/7/2012 at 5:30pm - Added ammonia. Current level is 4-5ppm.
Day 2 - 1/8/2012 at 10:30am - Tested ammonia, looks maybe a tad lighter than yesterday's reading. Hoping the other tank media is doing some good. Venturing out to get some creek bed rocks today, will test them and start re-arranging the tank this week.
Day 3 - 1/9/2012 at 8:30pm - Ammonia remaining between 4 and 5ppm. Nitrites reading at 0. Trying to up the temperature a bit.
Day 5 - 01/11/2012 at 7:00pm - Ammonia is about 3, and Nitrite is between 0.25 and 0.50
Day 7 - 1/13/2012 - Ammonia - 0 - 0.25ppm; Nitrite - 5.0 Added about 11ml of ammonia, and will wait for it to drop again
Day 9 - 1/15/2012 at 11:00am - Ammonia-0ppm and Nitrite Above 5ppm. Redosed Ammonia to 4ppm.
Day 10 - 1/16/2012 - Ammonia dropped back to 0 tonight. Redosed to 4ppm.
Day 11 - 1/17/2012 8:00pm - Ammonia dropped back down to 0-0.25, so I redosed to 4ppm. Nitrite is off the charts.
Day 12 - 1/18/2012 at 4:15pm - Ammonia dropped back down to 0-0.25. Redosed to 4ppm. Nitrite is off the charts.
Day 13 - 1/19/2012 at 5:15pm - Ammonia dropped to 0, redosed to 4ppm. Nitrite continues to be off the chart.
Day 14 - 1/20/2012 at 11:30am - Ammonia back down to 0; Nitrite off the charts. Redosed to 4ppm.
Day 15- 1/21/2012 at 11:00am - Ammonia at 0; Nitrite off the chart. Redosed to 4ppm
Day 16 - 1/22/2012 at 10:30am - Ammonia at O; Nitrite off the chart. Redosed to 4ppm
Day 16 - 1/22/2012 at 9:00pm -Ammonia back to O, redosed to 4ppm
Day 17 - 1/23/2012 at 3:30pm - Ammonia at O; Nitrite off the chart; Nitrate at 10ppm, redosed to 4ppm
Day 18 - 1/24/2012 at 3:30pm - Ammonia at O; Nitrite off the chart. Redosed to 4ppm
Day 19 - 1/25/2012 at 3:30pm - Ammonia at O; Nitrite off the chart; Nitrate 10ppm Redosed to 4ppm
Day 20 - 1/26/2012 at 4:00pm - Ammonia at O; Nitrite off the chart; Nitrate between 10 and 20ppm; Redosed to 4ppm
Day 21 - 1/27/2012 at 5:00pm - Ammonia at O; Nitrite off the chart; Nitrate off the chart; Redosed to 4ppm.
Day 22 - 1/28/2012 at 9:00am - Ammonia at O; Nitrite off the chart; Didn't test Nitrates Redosed to 4ppm.


How could my nitrate be off the chart, with no change in Nitrites? The ammonia is processing in 12 hours, but nothing (and I mean absolutely nothing) is happening to my nitrites. My initial ammonia drop happened after 7 days, so I was really expecting to see more progress by now.
My PH is reading at about 8.2-8.4, so I know there hasn't been a crash to stall the cycle.
Any input is appreciated.

 

[Prime Ordeal]

This is the problem with redosing continually to 4ppm. By my reckoning you've produced (so far) 173ppm of nitrite. So even when the bacteria that eats nitrite gets going it has to clear that lot first. If you want to speed things up, do a massive water change to get rid of that nitrite and then start redosing to 0.25ppm daily. This will keep the ammonia eating bacteria happy and stop producing more large quantities of nitrite. You don't even have to measure the ammonia once you know how much to dose to obtain 0.25ppm, just add that amount each day until the nitrite starts dropping. Then you can up the dose to 1ppm.

 

[riogal_11]

This is the problem with redosing continually to 4ppm. By my reckoning you've produced (so far) 173ppm of nitrite. So even when the bacteria that eats nitrite gets going it has to clear that lot first. If you want to speed things up, do a massive water change to get rid of that nitrite and then start redosing to 0.25ppm daily. This will keep the ammonia eating bacteria happy and stop producing more large quantities of nitrite. You don't even have to measure the ammonia once you know how much to dose to obtain 0.25ppm, just add that amount each day until the nitrite starts dropping. Then you can up the dose to 1ppm.

I am going by the instructions from the forum beginners section on here which says to redose to 3-4ppm each time the Ammonia goes back down to Zero:
"Add and Wait" Method

This is the method I have used to cycle 5 tanks (from 2.5 to 75 gallon) and it has worked perfectly. I think it is the simplest and requires the least amount of work. First add your ammonia to raise the level to 4 to 5 ppm (see ammonia calculator here at bottom of page). Now you simply wait on the ammonia to drop back to around 1 ppm. Spend the time researching the fish you like and see if they are compatible with each other, with your tap pH, tank size, etc.

Test daily to see what the ammonia reading is. There is no use to test for anything else. Nitrite and nitrate won't be present until some ammonia has processed. Ammonia will raise your pH so no use to test it either. Once you see a drop in the ammonia, test for nitrite. There should be some present. When the ammonia drops back to about near zero (usually takes about a week), add enough to raise it back to about 3 to 4 ppm and begin testing the nitrite daily.

Every time the ammonia drops back to zero, raise it back up to 3 to 4 ppm and continue to check nitrites. The nitrite reading will go off the chart. NOTE FOR API TEST KIT USERS: When you add the drops, if they immediately turn purple in the bottom of the tube, your nitrites are off the chart high. You do not need to shake the tube and wait 5 minutes. If you do, the color will turn green as the nitrites are so high that there isn't a color to measure them with. Once the ammonia is dropping from around 4 ppm back to zero in 12 hours or less you have sufficient bacteria to handle the ammonia your fish load produces. Continue to add ammonia daily as you must feed the bacteria that have formed or they will begin to die off.

The nitrite spike will generally take about twice as long to drop to zero as did the ammonia spike. The reason for this is two-fold. First, the nitrite processing bacteria just develop slower than those that process ammonia. Second, you are adding more nitrite daily (every time you add ammonia, it is transformed into nitrite raising the level a little more) as opposed to the ammonia, which you only add once at the start and then waited on it to drop to zero. During this time, you should occasionally test for nitrate too. The presence of nitrate means that nitrite is being processed, completing the nitrogen cycle. The nitrate level will also go off the chart but you will take care of that with a large water change later. It will seem like forever before the nitrite finally falls back to zero but eventually, almost overnight, it will drop and you can celebrate. You are almost there. Once the bacteria are able to process 4 or 5 ppm of ammonia back to zero ammonia and nitrite in about 10 to 12 hours. You are officially cycled. You can continue this for a few days just to make sure it isn't a one time thing and of course, you need to continue to add ammonia up until the day before you get your fish.

At this point, your tank will probably look terrible with brown algae everywhere and probably cloudy water. As I mentioned, the nitrate reading will also be off the chart. Nitrates can only be removed with water changes. Do a large water change, 75 to 90 percent, turn the heat down to the level the fish you have decided on will need, and you are ready to add your fish. You can safely add your full fish load as your tank will have enough bacteria built up to handle any waste they can produce.

 

[riogal_11]

Am I reading those instructions wrong? I have read them probably 10 times, and thought I had a handle on the whole process, but who knows...

 

[Prime Ordeal]

No, you understood them right but you asked why your nitrites have been high for so long and I provided an explanation. The choice is yours as to how you wish to continue with the cycle.

 

[riogal_11]

OK, just making sure. It says that the drop in nitrites should take double the time it took to drop the ammonia, so that technically puts me at today.

Maybe I'm just being impatient. I was hoping to be cycled by today, so maybe I'm trying to speed things up in my head, when everything is going fine.
Thanks for your thoughts.

I just figured I'd see a drop by now. Or, is it literally going to happen overnight, (like the instructions say) instead of a gradual drop?