Restarting fishless cycle

[candrews999]

Thanks for that Sean

Quick question just tested parameters for 2nd time ammonia has stayed at 1 nitrites have gone up to 2.0 from .25. How can ammonia stay the same if nitrites are going up??? [emoji848]
2nd question can I top up the tank while doing the cycle I have quite a bit of evaporation?
Thanks for the advice [emoji16]

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[Essjay]

You can top the tank up. Tap water should be OK during cycling but if you ever need to top when you have fish, you should use a source of pure water eg reverse osmosis.
This is because although water evaporates, things dissolved in the water do not evaporate. When you add more tap water you already have a tankful of dissolved things and the new water adds more. If topping up with tap water is done on a regular basis, the things in water gets more and more concentrated. Pure water does not have anything dissolved in it, so the level of dissolved things remains constant.
When cycling, at the end of cycling you will do a big water change which will reset the dissolved things back to tap water levels.

1 ppm ammonia is turned into 2.7 ppm nitrite so a drop in ammonia which is too small to see the colour change can be turned into quite a large change in nitrite. The effect is even more pronounced with nitrate as 1 ppm ammonia ends up as 3.6 ppm nitrate.

 

[candrews999]

That's fantastic thank you so much for the advice. So do you make pure water or do you have to buy It?

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[Essjay]

You can do either. You can buy equipment for making RO water but it does create a lot of waste water and if you are on a meter it can be expensive.

 

[candrews999]

You can do either. You can buy equipment for making RO water but it does create a lot of waste water and if you are on a meter it can be expensive.

Brilliant thank you! I think I'll be buying it at least initially
On a separate note found a great lfs today cascade koi and aquatics centre in bury greater Manchester. Nothing was too much trouble and when I'm ready for fish they will order in for me [emoji4]

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[seangee]

That's fantastic thank you so much for the advice. So do you make pure water or do you have to buy It?

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How qucikly does your water evaporate? My tank is covered but I change 50-75% of the water weekly. I don't worry about evaporation. For the 50% change I take out 90 litres and then refill to the same place every time - so I put back a bit more than 90 litres. But I do make a point of doing a 75% change at least once a month.

 

[candrews999]

How qucikly does your water evaporate? My tank is covered but I change 50-75% of the water weekly. I don't worry about evaporation. For the 50% change I take out 90 litres and then refill to the same place every time - so I put back a bit more than 90 litres. But I do make a point of doing a 75% change at least once a month.

My tank is covered but not tightly! I would say about 3-4 litres since last Sunday. I'm not doing weekly water changes yet as I'm cycling the tank...

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[seangee]

I would start with weekly changes and monitor. I am in the process of setting up a 57 litre (did the big post cycle change today) and that's exactly how I plan to do it.

 

[Essjay]

I wouldn't rush out and spend money on an RO unit during cycling. A build up of dissolved minerals during cycling is not a problem because you will remove them all by the big water change after the cycle is complete and before you get fish. Use tap water during cycling.
And as seangee says, once you have fish, monitor how it goes before doing anything. You will be doing weekly 50% water changes then, and you won't lose much water between changes.

 

[candrews999]

Thanks everyone starting to think about fish now [emoji16]

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[candrews999]

Well nitrites plummeted today from over 5.0 to 0.25 so redosed with ammonia and will retest in 24 hours....things are looking good for a trip to the aquatic shop on Saturday [emoji16]

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