New Tank, New Fishkeeper

[saturnal]

Hello all,

I'm setting up my first aquarium, and I just wanted to get some veteran thoughts on my progress so far. This is an Eclipse Hex 5.5 gallon tank. I filled it with gravel, a few deocrations, heater, and dechlorinated water about 2 weeks ago. I let it run for about 5 days and just let it sit. During this time I found out about fishless cycling, and decided it was the right thing to do. So about 10 days ago, I added some ammonia (just plain 10% household from Ace Hardware). I did an initial ammonia test about an hour after adding it, and it was off the charts so obviously I put too much in. So I did a series of 2-gallon water changes to get the ammonia level down to about 5ppm. During the past 10 days I've done 2 more 2-gallon water changes because I was concerned the ammonia level was still too high to get the bacteria growing. I haven't added any ammonia since the first time when I tried to get the initial spike.

Also during this time, I added a bubble wand for extra aeration and moved the decorations around. I have the water temp at about 84F because I read that this can help the bacteria grow. When the tank is cycled, I plan to lower the temperature back to 78-80F before adding fish.

My concern is that the ammonia level hasn't changed at all after 10 days (except when I did the water changes obviously), and the nitrite readings are still zero. So I'd like to know if that should be expected. Maybe I just need to be more patient, but after reading about how tanks can be cycled in 1-3 weeks with this method, I'm wondering if I'm doing something that's hindering the bacteria growth. I realize that messing with the tank decorations might be one problem (so I've decided to just let it sit from now on), but I'm wondering if there's anything else I'm not thinking of.

Any thoughts/suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[bogwood]

Quoted from 'rdd1952's article:

First add your Ammonia to raise the level to 5 to 6 ppm and raise the temp.

Now simply wait on the Ammonia to drop back to near zero ppm.

Test daily to see what the Ammonia reading is.

There is no use to test for anything else: Nitr'i'te and Nitr'a'te won’t be present until some Ammonia has processed (although you may find your tap water contains a small amount of Nitr'a'te). Ammonia will also raise your pH reading so no use to test this either at this stage.

Once you see a drop in the Ammonia, test for Nitr'i'te; there should be some present.

When the Ammonia drops back to about near zero (usually takes about a week but not cast in stone), add enough to raise it back to about 3 to 4 ppm and begin testing the Nitr'i'te daily.

Every time the Ammonia drops back to near zero, raise it back up to 3 to 4 ppm and continue to check Nitr'i'tes. The Nitr'i'te reading will go off the chart.

Once the Ammonia is dropping from around 4 ppm back to zero (clear) in 12 hours or less, you have sufficient bacteria to handle the Ammonia your fish load produces. Continue to add small amounts of Ammonia daily (as you 'must' continue to feed the bacteria that have formed, or they will begin to die off) whilst you wait for Nitr'i'tes to drop.

The Nitr'i'te spike will generally take about twice as long to drop to zero as the Ammonia did. The reason for this is two-fold. Firstly, the Nitr'i'te processing bacteria just develop more slowly than those that process Ammonia. Secondly, in effect, you are adding more Nitr'i'te daily (every time you add ammonia, it is transformed into Nitr'i'te - raising the Nitr'i'te level a little more). During this time, you should occasionally test for Nitr'a'te too. The presence of Nitr'a'te means that the Nitr'i'te is being processed - completing the Nitrogen cycle. The Nitr'a'te level will also go off the chart but you'll take care of this with a large water change later. It will seem like forever before the Nitr'i'te finally falls back to zero but eventually - almost overnight - it will drop and you can celebrate!

Nitr'a'tes can only be removed through water changes. Do a large water change - 75 to 90% - turn the heat down to the level the fish you have decided on will need (77f) and you are ready to add your fish.

With this method you can safely add your full fish load as your tank will have enough bacteria built up to handle any waste they can produce... *personally though, I would still add your fish slowly*...

 

[saturnal]

That's funny, I actually sent him a message earlier because I found another thread where he had a similar issue. I realized yesterday that I hadn't added nearly enough water conditioner to my water, so I did a huge water change and put in the right amount. The ammonia got down to about .75ppm after the water change, so I added 2 drops of ammonia to get it back up to between 2.5 and 5. I checked it this morning and it looked like it had gone down a little bit. So I'm hoping the cycle is starting to ramp up finally.