Second Stage Cycle Started Today Help

[lana]

day 31 fish in cycle

6 am test readings

ammonia 0
nitrites 0.25
nitrates 5

ph 7.2

temp 30C

all fish good

did 50% water change

update nitrite reading after shower

 

[lana]

ok nitrites back to 0

for now

 

[lana]

6 pm reading

ammonia 0 to 0.25

nitrites 1.0

nitrates 5 to 10

ph 7.2

temp 30C


so now tht nitrites are climbing that fast when will i ever see nitrates go up higher

off to do a water change

 

[waterdrop]

Lana, good job, nitrites trying to be even higher. One day when the N-Bac population passes the equilibrium point with your fish load, the nitrite test will be zero and stay that way and it will seem very sudden.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[lana]

Lana, good job, nitrites trying to be even higher. One day when the N-Bac population passes the equilibrium point with your fish load, the nitrite test will be zero and stay that way and it will seem very sudden.

~~waterdrop~~

day 32

8 am reading

ammonia 0.25
nitrites 1.0
nitrates 5
ph 7.2

temp 30C

all looks goo this morning

off to do water change

 

[waterdrop]

Lana,
The reason you are not seeing more nitrates is because you are doing so many water changes (a good thing!) and in fact the many water changes (you are much closer to the ideal here for a fish-in cycle than we usually see among the few cases where the poster gives enough info to us that we can know) make a number of things different, certainly than one might see in a fishless cycle with fewer water changes. Its just differences in feedback because of the "snapshot" nature of testing. The cycle itself is proceeding along normally, despite large differences in the nature of the "testing snapshots" each individual sees.

[I guess you could almost think of it like the cycle (with ammonia and nitrite graph curves) is a movie going continuously (with your movie camera taking a couple pictures every second of the day.. then you come along at 6am and 6pm and theres an imaginary giant stack of still pictures from your movie camera and you remove one still picture from the "morning" stack and one still picture from the "evening" stack and try, from that to understand what the curves looked like all day long! ]

Is it my imagination or does your ammonia seem to be dropping faster and more completely toward zero now (you would have a better feel for it than me of course.)?

The nitrite spike phase can sometimes seem to take eons and I have a feeling sometimes that somehow the development of the two populations in time is more separated in larger volume tanks than in smaller volume tanks (no real basis for that feeling) but that once the bigger filter finally "qualifies" and doesn't need daily water changes, it is more immediately robust than a smaller filter. (This could easily be a wrong perception, just somehow get it from watching a lot of cycles here...)

~~waterdrop~~

 

[lana]

Lana,
The reason you are not seeing more nitrates is because you are doing so many water changes (a good thing!) and in fact the many water changes (you are much closer to the ideal here for a fish-in cycle than we usually see among the few cases where the poster gives enough info to us that we can know) make a number of things different, certainly than one might see in a fishless cycle with fewer water changes. Its just differences in feedback because of the "snapshot" nature of testing. The cycle itself is proceeding along normally, despite large differences in the nature of the "testing snapshots" each individual sees.

[I guess you could almost think of it like the cycle (with ammonia and nitrite graph curves) is a movie going continuously (with your movie camera taking a couple pictures every second of the day.. then you come along at 6am and 6pm and theres an imaginary giant stack of still pictures from your movie camera and you remove one still picture from the "morning" stack and one still picture from the "evening" stack and try, from that to understand what the curves looked like all day long! ]

Is it my imagination or does your ammonia seem to be dropping faster and more completely toward zero now (you would have a better feel for it than me of course.)?

The nitrite spike phase can sometimes seem to take eons and I have a feeling sometimes that somehow the development of the two populations in time is more separated in larger volume tanks than in smaller volume tanks (no real basis for that feeling) but that once the bigger filter finally "qualifies" and doesn't need daily water changes, it is more immediately robust than a smaller filter. (This could easily be a wrong perception, just somehow get it from watching a lot of cycles here...)

~~waterdrop~~

yes the ammonia is dropping faster it is has no gone above 0.25 in days closer to 0 most days


so while doing mornig water change there were 2 dead fishies ,

great this stage could be longer than the first lol my hubby will love that he think i am nuts already .......says it is to much work .... i just tell him well it is not you doing it sooo shhhhhhhh

 

[lana]

Miss Wiggle's i hope you are feeling better i just was reading another thread and saw you was not

maybe when ya get back i'll be cycled

 

[lana]

ok so in 3 hours my nirties are back up i check afer water change and they were good but seeing them climb fast the last couple days and they are at 0.25 again

so off for another water change


will theses puppies slow down in the climbing god i hope so

 

[lana]

there that is done , 30 mins to do water change and clean my mess ...lmao

 

[lana]

nitrites went back up to 0.25 again in under 3 hours did another 50% water change


man they climb FAST

 

[waterdrop]

Sorry about your two that must have succumbed to the nitrite spikes. I guess even with the losses you still have a -lot- of fish in that tank. I was just glancing at the stocking list for the first time in a while and realizing I just hadn't thought about the degree of craziness here. Years ago, before fishless cycling, they probably would have cycled this tank with 2 or 3 platies, so you can see how you're feeding the A-Bacs with a lot more ammonia than that and then they are in turn now multiplying that by 2.7 and your N-Bacs are just still not keeping up. Back in the beginning we felt your media volume was adequate, right? Was there discussion of that? Can you guesstimate the volume of each type of media in some way to me, say 8oz. coffee cups or such (since its breakfast for me here, lol)

~~waterdrop~~

 

[lana]

Sorry about your two that must have succumbed to the nitrite spikes. I guess even with the losses you still have a -lot- of fish in that tank. I was just glancing at the stocking list for the first time in a while and realizing I just hadn't thought about the degree of craziness here. Years ago, before fishless cycling, they probably would have cycled this tank with 2 or 3 platies, so you can see how you're feeding the A-Bacs with a lot more ammonia than that and then they are in turn now multiplying that by 2.7 and your N-Bacs are just still not keeping up. Back in the beginning we felt your media volume was adequate, right? Was there discussion of that? Can you guesstimate the volume of each type of media in some way to me, say 8oz. coffee cups or such (since its breakfast for me here, lol)

~~waterdrop~~

ya it is crazy i know but theat it what i get for listening to lfs guy told me once tank was up for and running for 3 days i would be fine with these fish

as for media i have a hang on the tank filter pump that pumps 387 liters an hour it is for a 55g tank i knew that i need one the moved more water than my tank holds, wish i knew more than that when i started this

day 33 fish in cycle

ammonia 0 to 0.25
nitrite 1.0
nitrates almost 10
ph 7.2
temps holding steady 30 C


no fish lose that i can see
going to do water change now

 

[waterdrop]

Yeah, you should have somewhere between 550 and 600 L/hour on that tank but its not the flow rate I'm worried about, its the media volume. Flow rate often mirrors overall filter size and HOBs have less media volume than cannisters usually, regardless of flow rate.

This is just me going off and thinking about it, so we shouldn't put too much weight on it yet, but it would be a shame if the filter is simply too small for this fish load. The most likely thing still is that we are just still in the long frustrating final stages of nitrite spike which will often have us going off for other explanations.. but it has just got me thinking whether we would benefit from someone who knows the hardware (and I don't know who that would be) maybe trying to evaluate whether the media volume might be struggling with these fish.

This was not a kit where the manufacturer sold the filter with this particular tank, right?

~~waterdrop~~
ps. gotta run so might not see later..

 

[lana]

Yeah, you should have somewhere between 550 and 600 L/hour on that tank but its not the flow rate I'm worried about, its the media volume. Flow rate often mirrors overall filter size and HOBs have less media volume than cannisters usually, regardless of flow rate.

This is just me going off and thinking about it, so we shouldn't put too much weight on it yet, but it would be a shame if the filter is simply too small for this fish load. The most likely thing still is that we are just still in the long frustrating final stages of nitrite spike which will often have us going off for other explanations.. but it has just got me thinking whether we would benefit from someone who knows the hardware (and I don't know who that would be) maybe trying to evaluate whether the media volume might be struggling with these fish.

This was not a kit where the manufacturer sold the filter with this particular tank, right?

~~waterdrop~~
ps. gotta run so might not see later..

no did not come with tank

it is the Aqueon 55 , have 2 large size filter pads in it one in front and one just behind and off to the side if that makes sence