Seeded Fishless Cycle

[nitrochicken]

Thats good to know, thanks Tautitan

 

[waterdrop]

Hi Dale,

"I can try putting temperature up to 29C but I'm not sure that will help solve my problem as it will have to work at 25C once fish are in anyway."

This is a misunderstanding. While you are fishless cycling your frame of mind should be that all tank parameters (temp, pH, size of any water change etc.) should contribute to growing the bacteria (an "ideal bacterial soup" we sometimes say ) and have nothing to do with what the eventual fish environment will be like. After the bacterial colonies are grown you will throw out all the bacterial water and reset all parameters to be optimized for fish!

What day of fishless cycling are you on now? During the first couple weeks the A-Bacs often can't take the ammonia all the way down to zero.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[nitrochicken]

I cant remember the exact day I started but it would have been around 1/1/09. I have kept some test results but I wasn't as thorough as when I did fishless cyccling with my last tank.
I'm going to try increasing the temperature now.
Tested water this morning and Ammonia is still at 1ppm?

Do you think I should add more ammonia as I seem to have plenty of nitrite processing bacteria and I don't want them to die off?

Thanks

Dale

 

[waterdrop]

Well, about 4 weeks is a long time to go without the ammonia wanting to drop all the way to zero, but you seem to me to be doing everything right. Yes, you could top it back up to 4ppm or so and just keep logging and doing the same things and perhaps some of the members among us will have some more ideas. Sometimes, at various stages, they just stall and stall but then all of a sudden take off!

~~waterdrop~~

 

[nitrochicken]

I think I've just found the source of my problems.
I have been testing pH every 3-4 days and has stayed constantly at 8.2 ish. I've just tested it again now, and it seems I've had a major crash in just a few days. pH has plummeted down to about 6, maybe lower as thats all my API kit goes down too.
I've just added some bicarb and brought it back up to about 8.
Do you think I will have killed off my bacteria or do they just go dormant for a while whilst pH is low?

Edit- Just had a thought from reading another post. The water in my area is described as very soft according to the water company and we never get scale on kettles etc. Would that mean I'm more susceptible to pH crashes?

Thanks

Dale

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, soft water means you have less buffer, so the buffering gets used up and then the pH crashes. A pH of 8.2 though doesn't sound typical for a very soft water type region, so your situation seems a bit mixed. Its pretty easy to get a KH kit or a GH/KH kit, but on the other hand you may not really need to do that.

The preferred way to deal with pH crashes is to simply do a large water change and recharge with ammonia. This assumes some decently higher pH from the tap water and the water not being extremely soft. But there's also nothing wrong with using baking soda to doctor your bacterial growing soup during fishless cycling. Just keep an eye on that pH and when it starts to work down through the 7s again, add some more baking soda.

If you only test every 3 or 4 days, this sort of stuff can happen to you. During fishless cycling I tested each morning and evening, at least for ammonia, NO2 and pH (ammonia only during first week or two) and only did occasional NO3 tests, but I was rather fascinated by the science of it so was rather excessive about it.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[monkey_wrench]

Hi Dale,

"I can try putting temperature up to 29C but I'm not sure that will help solve my problem as it will have to work at 25C once fish are in anyway."

This is a misunderstanding. While you are fishless cycling your frame of mind should be that all tank parameters (temp, pH, size of any water change etc.) should contribute to growing the bacteria (an "ideal bacterial soup" we sometimes say ) and have nothing to do with what the eventual fish environment will be like. After the bacterial colonies are grown you will throw out all the bacterial water and reset all parameters to be optimized for fish!

What day of fishless cycling are you on now? During the first couple weeks the A-Bacs often can't take the ammonia all the way down to zero.

~~waterdrop~~

Why do you throw out all the water if its taken all that time to get these bacteria colonies going?

 

[nitrochicken]

The bacteria will establish itself in the filter and does not live in the water. The water can be changed at the end with no effect to the bacteria.

Dale

 

[OldMan47]

That's absolutely correct Nitro. The bacteria grow on surfaces, not in the water.
As far as testing, I am with you that every few days is less stress because you are not constantly trying to convince yourself that a small change in results has happened. On the other hand, if you are vulnerable to a pH crash due to low KH, a daily pH test can nip it in the bud. After the ammonia bacteria are processing reliably to zero, I quickly learn how much ammonia is needed and seldom measure ammonia again. Every week to make sure that things are on track seems enough to me. I monitor what needs it for where I am in the cycle.