Oh No! Think I Made A Fishless Cycling Mistake

[Lisa67]

I've been doing fishless cycles on two tanks... one I started on Feb 4 and the other on Feb 10. I've gotten to the point where the amonia drops fairly quickly (although the bigger tank seems to have slowed down over the last 2 days) and the nitrite is 5+

I just read through the "dos and dont's" and I think what it is saying is that I should not have a cartridge in my filter. I've had them there since the beginning. (Both filters use cartridges). Could this be slowing things down? I hate to remove them because there's likely good amounts of bacteria on them.

Also, as I said above, the big tank seems to be processing the amonia slower over the past 2 days. The temp has been pretty stable and the PH is 8.0. Any thoughts?

 

[anon02]

Your filter seems to be at the nitrite spike so you can safely reduce the ammonia dose to 2-3 ppm
You dont say what is in the filter cartridges,but assuming that it`s carbon then after a few days any benefit will have been drastically reduced. In an immature filter especially in a tank without fish I like to have as much bio media as possible, if you find that you need more mechanical filtration when your tank is stocked you can always swap some out

 

[Lisa67]

So, are you saying that you think I should remove them until the cycle is done?

Oh, and yes there is carbon in them.

 

[coldcazzie]

No, leave them there. You're a month in, so any effect the carbon may have had at first will have dissappated by now. They are now differently coloured sponges, that's all! Activated carbon only lasts a few days before it's effectiveness fades.

 

[Lisa67]

Ok, great... thank you so much. Any idea why one tank seems to be processing amonia more slowly than it was? I did top off the water several days ago. It added about 2 gal. I can't seem to remember if I put declorinator in. Don't know if that could have anything to do with it.

I should mention I have well water so I don't think there would be chlorine in it, but it's very hard water.

 

[anon02]

The drop off in ammonia processing could be due to the high levels of nitrite in the system, that`s why I suggested reducing the ammonia dose which would effectively reduce the amount of nitrite produced

 

[waterdrop]

It's not uncommon to see the ammonia processing rate slow down and speed up during a fishless cycle. From the things discussed I don't see any major problems - the nitrite spike stage can be pretty long and boring. WD

 

[Lisa67]

Tested again this morning and the amonia still has not reached zero. This is about 48 hours now. It had been processing in about 12 hours for the past 2 weeks. So, I did not add any more amonia, letting the level come down as suggested.

Just a thought.. I know everyone says the "instant cycle" sold in a bottle is useless, but I was at the pet store the other day and the owner highly recommended it to me. I figured for $12 I'd give it a shot. I figured that at worst it would do nothing at all and at best it may help speed the process. Now I'm wondering, could I have caused some kind of problem?

 

[waterdrop]

Well, my own observation just watching hundreds of fishless cycling threads over the past several years is that what happens when the various bacteria-in-a-bottle products are put in varies all over the place. We have a small number where we seem to see or actually get positive looking results. We have a huge number where we seem to see nothing at all and then we have a fairly small number of threads where members have seemed to have problems from their dosing of the stuff. The stuff itself varies quite a bit and in some cases there has clearly been a bunch of nitrite and nitrate in the bottle, whereas in most others that's not seemed to be the case. Which is all just to say, we don't know.

I find it quite common in maybe a third of the cases to see the ammonia processing, which has been very regular all through the end of the first phase and most of the second (nitrite spike) phase to then go a bit wacky towards the end of the second phase or duing the third phase.

Have you yet reached the point where your nitrite spike is dropping down to zero ppm in 24 hours (ie. the end of the nitrite spike phase?) The whole fishless cycling picture kind of takes on a different feeling around the time of this big drop off, the nitrite usually shoots up faster and the ammonia processing gets at least a bit messed up. It then can take a while to get the nitrite processing within 12 hours but around that ending time the ammonia also finally settles down. It's when both the ammonia and ntirite seem to reach that rock-solid drop to zero ppm within 12 hours that you start to really feel how a good biofilter works.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Lisa67]

So far the nitrite has never dropped at all. It has been at 5+ since the end of Feb. On the bright side, maybe I am approaching the end of this phase. Also curious can I do a large water change at this time? The ONLY reason I want to do this is because my tank is a little unlevel and I want to fix it before I start putting rocks and sand in it. Atleast then I'll have something to do while I'm waiting.

 

[waterdrop]

In my opinion, you can do a large total water change ANY time you want during a fishless cycle because all the bacteria care about is nice fresh water with oxygen and anywhere from trace to 5ppm ammonia in there and some trace calcium from the tap water and they also like when there are zero or low nitrites and nitrates in there. All these conditions are kind of immediately optimized right after a good total water change.

Now the reason we don't just do them all the time is that once the bacteria get rolling, a big water change can sometimes cause a day or two "pause" when you do it but they usually begin again in earnest right after that. The other reason we don't do them is we want as many advantages over fish-in cycling as possible, right?

~~waterdrop~~