Rusty keeper needs help with cycling

[KikiY]

So first off let me say I'm not a new member here. I was around quite a bit back in the early 2010s (probably 2011-2014 or so). Same with the Betta Fish forums. I'm a specialist betta keeper.

However, it's been 5+ years since I last cycled a tank, so I'm having some trouble. I have everything I need and started cycling yesterday. I'm using Fritz Pro Aquatics powdered ammonia. (I should've gotten liquid for more control. I was dumb.)

My tank is 10g with a sponge filter and the water is 82-83 F (27-29 C) on a 100 watt heater. I've included current parameters in photo--only about 90 minutes old.

The main things I'm having trouble with are just knowing when to add ammonia in after the first day. The main two direction sources I'm using are Marine Depot and Fish Lab. I did the first day according to Marine Depot and got up to 2ppm. Then I added some TSS to help get the cycle started a bit more.

It's currently Day 2. My ammonia looks to be at 1ppm. Should I add more now or just wait until they go under 1ppm? And only for the first week, right?

 

[Essjay]

You were probably on here before the current method for fishless cycling was written. TwoTankAmin did a lot of research on cycling and the bacteria and came up with this method.

Cycling Your New Fresh Water Tank: Read This First!

Cycling Your First Fresh Water Tank What is Cycling and Why is it Important? Fish waste, and especially fish breathing, plus uneaten food and other organic matter breaking down in a tank all produce Ammonia. This can quickly become toxic to fish if it is allowed to build up to any measurable...

www.fishforums.net

This method differs from most others because ammonia is only added when certain targets have been reached. This is because at 15-ish ppm nitrite the cycle stalls and since 1 ppm ammonia is turned into 2.7 ppm nitrite it doesn't take much ammonia to reach stall point.
TSS will help the cycle go faster than if you hadn't used it.


There are reports that memebrs who have used other methods of fishless cycling have ammonia and/or nitrite show up after fish are added, but we have not had any reports of this happening with our method.

 

[KikiY]

You were probably on here before the current method for fishless cycling was written. TwoTankAmin did a lot of research on cycling and the bacteria and came up with this method.

Cycling Your New Fresh Water Tank: Read This First!

Cycling Your First Fresh Water Tank What is Cycling and Why is it Important? Fish waste, and especially fish breathing, plus uneaten food and other organic matter breaking down in a tank all produce Ammonia. This can quickly become toxic to fish if it is allowed to build up to any measurable...

www.fishforums.net

This method differs from most others because ammonia is only added when certain targets have been reached. This is because at 15-ish ppm nitrite the cycle stalls and since 1 ppm ammonia is turned into 2.7 ppm nitrite it doesn't take much ammonia to reach stall point.
TSS will help the cycle go faster than if you hadn't used it.


There are reports that memebrs who have used other methods of fishless cycling have ammonia and/or nitrite show up after fish are added, but we have not had any reports of this happening with our method.

That...makes a lot more sense than anything else I was looking at. It's only day two so hopefully I should be able to switch over to this method. Unfortunately I have no idea how much ammonia I added. I didn't have a sub-grams scale (I'll be getting one in a few hours though).

So should I just leave the tank alone and not worry about the 5ppm nitrate?

 

[Essjay]

Ignore nitrAte for now, it's nitrIte you need to keep below 15-ish.


One thing you could do is test your tap water for nitrate - you may find that is also 5 ppm.