Now Ready To Start My 1st Fishless Cycle

[kbod]

mon 27

amonia = 4 , nitrite = 0.50 , ph = 8.2 , and whoppie nitrate = between 5.0 & 10

 

[waterdrop]

Its all just going to be slow in the beginning. The kinds of results that get people excited take millions and millions of bacteria and you've probably only got hundreds in there right now, so its just the first round of various stages of patience you'll need I expect.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[kbod]

patience i can do as got so much going on with other tanks at present ..
infact i didnt expect to even see nitrate for days yet .
gives me chance to work out what i will eventually stock it with .

thanks for guidence xx

 

[kbod]

readings today thur 30th

ph 7.8
amonia 1.0
nitrite 5.
nitrate 20.

looks like im cycling

do i wait till amonia goes all way to 0 ? and then top up again ?

 

[waterdrop]

The issue of whether to wait all the way to zero is not really critical, once you get below 1ppm of ammonia its not really going to hurt to top up to 5ppm again at the 24 hour mark, its all just rough.

I tend to advise to just wait though, until its all the way to zero, even if it means another 24 hours goes by, because the fledgling bacterial colonies (both of them) will be getting more than enough food for their growth and having slightly less fuel in there will help a little bit to delay the big buildups of nitrate(NO3) that will inevitably come down the road and possibly force you to do a water change near the end of fishless cycling. Most people don't have the patience though.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[kbod]

thanks will wait and test this evening and again 2moro x

 

[kbod]

MAY 2ND READINGS

AMONIA 0.
NITRITE 5.
NITRATE 40.

SO ADDED AMONIA TOPPED UPTO 5 PPM.

READINGS TODAY

AMONIA 0.
NITRITE 1.
NITRATE 40.

WHAT DO I DO NOW ?
DO I ADD AMONIA FOR THIRD TIME ?
WHY HAS AMONIA GONE SO QUICK THIS TIME ?

 

[waterdrop]

Well, it just sounds like your bacteria are doing a good job.

Hey, kbod, take a look at how martinking edits his first post - pretty good info on when ammonia was topped up and whether a particular reading is 12 hours out from the add or 24 hours out from when ammonia is added or what. That sort of info will help all the members as you go through your FC.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[kbod]

gotcha will try add info that way later .. yes great idea martinking has easy to understand ....having probs telling colours on tests as shades look very similar so results could be

my tests today are ph 7.8 , .............amonia 0.25 ,.....nitrite 2.0 or 5.0 ,.............nitrate 40. or 160 .

any ideas what its more likely to be plz ?

 

[kbod]

have added cycling day to day results etc at first part of this thread ,will add to it daily ...

 

[gaz gun man]

MAY 2ND READINGS

AMONIA 0.
NITRITE 5.
NITRATE 40.

SO ADDED AMONIA TOPPED UPTO 5 PPM.

READINGS TODAY

AMONIA 0.
NITRITE 1.
NITRATE 40.

WHAT DO I DO NOW ?
DO I ADD AMONIA FOR THIRD TIME ?
WHY HAS AMONIA GONE SO QUICK THIS TIME ?

continue with your fishless cycling, you're in the second stage of it (assuming your ammonia is dropping within 12 hours) You need to keep going until the nitrite goes too
I think you're about there, but you should generally continue to dose with ammonia anyway for a week or so to build up the bacterial colony, then its just a 70%ish water change to remove the nitrates (make sure new water has dechlor in it)

 

[kbod]

thanks x
yes amonia is dropping definatly within 12 hours i thought i was miss reading as it was going so quick xx

 

[gaz gun man]

thanks x
yes amonia is dropping definatly within 12 hours i thought i was miss reading as it was going so quick xx

congrats, nearly there!

I know what I meant to say now - personally I dont think you need to do a large waterchange after cycling, my tank has 40ppm nitrate in it all the time (comes from the tap) but then again probably best to anyway - waterchanges can never hurt!

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, very nice edits, lots of color and all

So, am I seeing that it took 3 days, basically, for ammonia to drop from 4ppm to zero ppm after you added ammonia at the beginning of the weekend?

Also, I forget, did you have any mature media added in there?

~~waterdrop~~

 

[kbod]

yes amonia dropped from last weekend to 0. then i added again but did it at a earlier time as lot of running around at present and it was gone again next day .

i didnt have any mature media at the begining evrything from scratch , but recently i brought some java moss from someone on a thread and im wondering if it helped ..