Si's Fishless Cycle

[PDSimon]

Hello

I'm going to cycle my new fluval roma 125 tank. It is approximately 100L.

Specs:

- u3 filter
- 150 W heater (set on 29/30C or 84 F)
- 2 x T8 20W bulbs

Water Stats

General hardness = 6 GH
carbonate hardness = 3 KH
pH = 7.4-7.5

Ammonia = 0ppm
nitrite = 0ppm
nitrate = 0ppm

I want to stock the tank 3/4 of the total capacity allowing room for anything extra that I like

For anyone interested

It'll be a planted aqaurium and i'm going to decide on the fish I want over the next few weeks I'm not going to plant anything until the cycle is ended/nearly ended

Thanks for reading and thanks everyone who has already helped in my other thread

My Cycle!

day 1 - 8th april (very early morning)
5ppm = 5.26ml

day 1 - 8th april - test 1 hour later
ammonia = 4ppm

day 2 - 9th april - 00.30
ammonia = 4ppm - Same as yesterday above 4 but close

day 3 - 9th april - 22.00
ammonia = 4ppm

day 5 - 10th april - 22.30
ammonia = 4ppm

day 6 - 11th april - 22.30
ammonia = 4ppm

day 7 - 12th april - 23.45
ammoina = 4ppm - whys it not going down

day 8 - 13th april - 17.10
ammonia = 4ppm - looks a tiny bit lower than yesterday, might just be the natural light though.
pH = 7.6
nitrite = 0ppm - was just curious to see whether I was reading ammonia wrong..
put a rock in

day 9 - 14th april - 21.30
ammonia = 4ppm, maybe 3

pH is even more now, 7.7 maybe. Rock has come out - i'll take it back

day 10 - 15th april - 11.00
ammonia = ~ 2ppm

ridiculous if its gone down the same day my heaters broken

day 11 - 16th just before midnight
ammonia = 2ppm
Nitrites = 1 ppm (probably 1.5)

day 12 - 17th april - 21.00
ammonia = 2ppm exactly I'd say
nitrites = 1ppm, maybe a little more.

~ added mature media

day 13 - 18th april - 16.00
pH = 7.4
bucket with ocean rock in = 7.4 (what the hell?)

day 14 - 18th april - 23.30
ammonia = 2ppm. Bit lighter than yesterday but not close enough to 1.
nitrites = 2ppm

day 15 - 19th april - end of the day
ammonia = 1ppm
nitrites = more than 2, but not dark enough for 5. therefore i'd say about 3.5

pH = ~7.2-7.4 did a low and the colour was a bit funny. So did a high one and it said just below 7.4. will be keeping an eye on on this

day 15 - 20th april - end of the day
ammonia = 0ppm
nitrites = 5ppm
pH = ~6.8

day 16 - 21st april - 03.00
Added 2ppm / 2.11ml

day 16 - 21st april - 22.00
ammonia = 0.5ppm (already!)
Added 2ppm ammonia
pH= 6.8
nitrites = 5
ammonia 20 minutes later = 2ppm ...

day 17 - 22nd april - 22.00
ammonia = 0ppm
nitrites = 5ppm
pH = 6.6
- added 1.5 tbsps of bicarb
- added 5ppm of ammonia

day - 18 - 23rd april - 22.22
ammonia = 0.5ppm my next dose will go in a day!
nitrites = 5ppm
pH = 7.8 on high pH test

day 19 - 24th april 21.30
ammonia = 0
nitrites = somewhere between 2 and 5 - would it be weird if they went down already?
nitrates = 5
pH = 7.8
added 5ppm of ammonia

day 20 (well..just count it as 20) - 26th at half past midnight (went to pub )
ammonia = 0
nitrite = 5
nitrates look like between 5-10 however most of it came out when i was shaking it haha
ph=7.8
going to add 3ppm of ammonia to start my second stage. i hope i've got that right!

day 21 - 26th - 22.00
ammonia = 0
nitrite = no idea - slight tones of 0.5 but not sure to be honest
nitrates = 5-10 ppm

day 22 - 27th - 22.00
ammonia = 0
nitrite = off the chart still
nitrates = 5-10 (more than yesterday but still not 10)
pH = 7.8
added 3ppm ammonia.

day 23 - 28th - 22.00
ammonia = 0
nitrite = way off the chart i.e. a completely different colour from yesterdays weird purple its gone light green/blue today

Added 3ppm ammonia

Notes: Small amount of water taken out to remove a load of gunk.

day 24 - 29th - 22.00
ammonia = 0 ppm
nitrites = Off the chart. (weird grey colour)
nitrates = 5-10. More than it was but still not 10! Going up up a bit slow.
pH = 7.8
added 3ppm of ammonia

day 25 - 30th - 22.00
ammonia = 0
nitrites = off the chart
nitrates = still not 10

added 3ppm of ammonia

day 26 - 1st may - 22.00
ammonia = 0
nitrites = off the chart... might be on the way down from yesterday but not sure. it's just guess work with the weird colours that change over time

GH (general hardness) = 6. It helps to look down the test tube to make the colour more concentrated.
added 3ppm of ammonia.

day 27 - 2nd may(well 3rd now) - 1 in the morning
ammonia = 0
nitrites = even more crazy colours after 5 mins

added 3ppm - been to pub so a few hours later but doesn't matter

day 28 - 3rd may 22.15
ammonia = 0
nitrites = still of the chart it goes green now lol...
nitrates = 5-10
pH = 7.8
added 3ppm of ammonia

day 29 - 4th may 22.15
ammonia = 0
nitrites = off the chart
pH = 7.6
added 3ppm of ammonia

day 30 - 5th may 9.40
ammonia = 0
nitrites = off the chart
added 3ppm of ammonia

boiling some bogwood. So much for a one month cycle

day 31 - 6th may 10.45
ammonia = 0
nitrites = off the chart
nitrates = 5
pH = 7.6
added 3ppm of ammonia

day 32 - 7th may 9.30
ammonia = 0
nitrites = off the chart
added 3ppm of ammonia

day 33 - 8th may 22.00
no change

day 34 - 9th may 21.30
ammonia = 0
nitrites = approx. 25ppm
nitrates = 5 (no change)
pH= 6.8/7
added 1tbsp of bicarb
added 3ppm of ammonia

day 35 - 10th may 21.45
pH ~8
nitrite may be lighter but still same colour with the 25ppm dilution
other than that, no change.

Day 36 - 11th may 12.00-14.00

Fed up of the high nitrite levels so i've done a 90% water change + sand syphon clean.. somehow managed to make the tank look messier but meh

I've also got the water to 20+ degrees

ammonia = 0
Nitrite = over 5 still!
nitrate = 10 (nitrates have gone up in a water change lol #129### - I guess my tap water nitrates have gone up from 0 to 10...)
pH = ~7.3

I've also added 1.5 of ammonia to feed the bacteria until testing later

I expect a bit of a stall but hopefully this will improve conditions for the bacteria and let the nitrite spike(and drop) speed up a bit.

day 36 - 11th may 22.00

ammonia = 0.25, that means it cycled 1.25ppm in 8 hours i'll top up even though its not 0.
nitrite = unsure, it looks a bit like 2 but last time when it was going off the scale past 5 it had a similar colour. So just need to keep an eye on it.
pH = 7.3

added 2.75 ppm of ammonia

day 37 - 12th may 22.20

ammonia = 0
nitrite = no change either 2 or off the chart- might be a good sign that its actually processing it and keeping it level...
pH = 7-7.2

added 3ppm of ammonia

day 38 - 13th may 22.40

ammonia = 0
nitrite = no change

added 3ppm of ammonia

day 39 - 14th may 22.00
ammonia = 0
nitrite = no change
nitrate = 20ppm - gone up 10 apparently... nitrites don't seemed to have changed though
pH=6.6 added 1 and a bit tbsp of bicarb.............

added 3ppm of ammonia

day 40! - 15th may 22.00
ammonia = 0
nitrite = no change
pH = 7.8-8

added 3ppm of ammonia

day 41 - 16th may 22.20
ammonia = 0
nitrite = 0-0.25
pH = 8

added 3ppm of ammonia

day 42 - 17th may 22.30

ammonia = 0
nitrite = 0
nitrate = 40
pH = 7.8

added ammonia = 5 ppm

day 43 - 10.30
ammonia = 0
nitrite = 2 - 5 (why can't the colours be different instead of slightly different purples!)

22.00
ammonia = 0
nitrite = 0.5ppm
nitrates = 40

added 5ppm of ammonia

day 44 -9.30 (an hour early)

ammonia = 0
nitrites = 5+

22.30

ammonia = 0
nitrites = 0
pH = 7.8

added 5ppm of ammonia

day 45 -9.00 (had to test an hour and a half early)

ammonia = 0
nitrites = 5+

22.30

ammonia = 0
nitrites = 0
Nitrates = 40-80 both colours look the same to me.

added 5ppm of ammonia

day 46 - 12.30 (slept in...lol)

ammonia = 0
nitrites = 5

day 46 - 22.30
ammonia = 0
nitrite = 0
pH = 7.6

Added 5ppm of ammonia

day 47 - 10.40
ammonia = 0
nitrite = 5

day 47 - 22.40
ammonia = 0
nitrite = 0

added 5ppm of ammonia

day 48 11
ammonia = 0
nitrite = 5

day 48 - 22.45
ammonia = 0
nitrite = 0
pH = 7.4

added 5ppm of ammonia

day 49 - 11.00ish
ammonia = 0
nitrite = 5

day 49 - 22.45
ammonia = 0
nitrite = 0
pH = 6.8
added 1tbsp of bicarb
added 5ppm of ammonia

day 50 - 12 hour test
ammonia = 0
nitrite = 2 or 5 not sure
nitrate = 40-80

day 50 - 22.45
ammonia = 0
nitrite = 0
pH = 7.8

added 5ppm of ammonia

day 51 - 12 hour test(however it was 1hr early because I had to go out)
nitrites = not 0 (was in a rush )

day 51

60% waterchange
tested afterwards
ammonia = 0
nitrite = 0
nitrate = 40(~-80)
pH = 7.6

added 5ppm of ammonia at 22.35
added 3/4 tbsp of bicarb

day 52 - 10.35
ammonia = 0
nitrite = 2

day 52 - 22.55 (oops forgot it was so late!)
added 5ppm of ammonia

nitrite = 0
pH = 7.8-8.4(light purple which must be inbetween brown and purple)

day 53 - 10.55
ammonia = 0
nitrite = 2-5

20.00
nitrites = 0
100% water change
22.00
added 5ppm of ammonia

day 54 - 10.00
ammonia = 0
nitrite = 0.5

22.05
ammonia = 0
nitrite = 0
nitrate = 10-20
pH = 7.8

added 5ppm of ammonia

day 55 - 10.00
ammonia = 0
nitrite = 1

hour and a half later
nitrite = 0.5

22.25
nitrites = 0
added 5ppm of ammonia

day 56 - 10.25
ammonia = 0
nitrites = 0.5-1

21.00 Having to work tomorrow so have done the test an hour early but will have to test it before 12 hours tomorrow as well.
nitrite = 0
nitrate = 20-40
pH = 7.8
added 5ppm of ammonia

day 57 - 10.30ish It's raining so work was cancelled but I was asleep so testing was 13+1/2 hours
ammonia = 0
nitrite = 0.5-1

Yippie. Actually going backwards, same reading as yesterday but after more time.

22.10
75% waterchange
added 5ppm of ammonia

day 58 - 12+1/2 hours later
ammonia = 0
nitrite = 0.5

Improvement.

22.10

added 5ppm of ammonia

day 59 - 8.30 note this was earlier than it should have been hence the higher reading of nitrite
nitrites = 1ppm

22.10

added 5ppm of ammonia

day 60 - 9.30
ammonia = 0
nitrite = 0.5

22.50
nitrate = 20
pH = 7.4

added 5ppm of ammonia

day 61 - 10.50
ammonia = 0
nitrite = 0.5

22.55
pH = 7.4
added 5ppm of ammonia
added 1/2 tbsp of bicarb

day 62 11.55 (13 hours later)
nitrite = 0.25

22.55
added 1/4 tbsp of bicarb
added 5ppm of ammonia

day 63 - ~9.00 was in a rush
nitrite = 1ppm

22.00 testing and dosing earlier so that I can test it closer tomorrow morning
ammonia and nitrite = 0
pH = 7.8
added 1/3 tbsp of bicarb (Doesn't want to go above 7.8!)
added 5ppm of ammonia

day 64 - ~9.00
nitrite = 1

Planted my tank! 22.30

ammonia = 0
nitrite = 0
nitrate = 5ppm
pH = 7

added 5ppm of ammonia

day 65 - 10.30
ammonia = 0.25
nitrite = 0.5
ph = 6.4

30% waterchange
pH = 6.6

25% waterchange

22.35
added 5ppm of ammonia

day 66 10.30
ammonia = 0.5
nitrite = 0.25

I can only guess that either my amazing ammonia processing bacteria have died/stalled OR there is some sort of plant matter I can't see decaying...

30-40% waterchange

23.00
50% w/c
ammonia = 0-0.25
nitrite = 0-0.25
pH =6.6
10% w/c
added 5ppm of ammonia

day 67 - 11.00
ammonia = 0.5-1
nitrite = 0.25
pH = 6

throughout the day:

ammonia+nitrite still not gone by 4

50% w/c

50% w/c

22.30
ammonia = 0
nitrite = 0
pH = ~7

It just won't cycle tomorrow I know it, its stuck now and it'll just be 6 pH again......

added 5ppm of ammonia
added half tbsp of bicarb...

day 68 10.30
ammonia = 0.25
nitrite = 0.5
pH = 7.2

atleast the pH is the same...

00.30

oops...england vs USA so been out a bit long!

added 5ppm of ammonia

day 69 12.30
ammonia = 0.5
nitrite = 1
pH = 7.2

 

[Twinklecaz]

I added 3ml for my 60L so yours might need to be a bit more. I used the calculator at the top ^^^.

Mind you, you've just reminded me that I think the litres mine said it was is wrong and I have to work it out.

 

[PDSimon]

I added 3ml for my 60L so yours might need to be a bit more. I used the calculator at the top ^^^.

Mind you, you've just reminded me that I think the litres mine said it was is wrong and I have to work it out.

well a lot of people do 4ppm to fill a tank, thats what i'm trying to find out/support

cheers

 

[Curiosity101]

You don't need to add ammonia daily, you only need to add it to 'top up' the levels once it starts dropping.

Ie. if after a week it drops to 2ppm then you could top up to 3ppm.
But if you kept adding daily from the beginning you'd end up with really high levels and would have the wrong bacteria colony forming.

I personally would stick in your 3ppm and not even think about the cycle for a few days (unless you're using mature media to kick start it?)

No need to bother even thinking about water changes unless your cycle gets going and then stalls or once you're pretty much at the end do a big change to get it back to safe levels for fish.

If it were me I'd cycle to 5ppm ammonia, yes it's true you might not use them all and once your colony is established it'll pick up the slack quickly but I'd personally just go for the 'safer' bet.

Don't even lower the ammount of ammonia you're adding. When it gets to the point that ammonia and nitrite are both 0 in less than 12 hours this is when you are cycled. But you need to keep them topped up with 'feeds' of ammonia every 12 hours until you bring some fish home.

 

[PDSimon]

You don't need to add ammonia daily, you only need to add it to 'top up' the levels once it starts dropping.

Ie. if after a week it drops to 2ppm then you could top up to 3ppm.
But if you kept adding daily from the beginning you'd end up with really high levels and would have the wrong bacteria colony forming.

I personally would stick in your 3ppm and not even think about the cycle for a few days (unless you're using mature media to kick start it?)

No need to bother even thinking about water changes unless your cycle gets going and then stalls or once you're pretty much at the end do a big change to get it back to safe levels for fish.

If it were me I'd cycle to 5ppm ammonia, yes it's true you might not use them all and once your colony is established it'll pick up the slack quickly but I'd personally just go for the 'safer' bet.

Don't even lower the ammount of ammonia you're adding. When it gets to the point that ammonia and nitrite are both 0 in less than 12 hours this is when you are cycled. But you need to keep them topped up with 'feeds' of ammonia every 12 hours until you bring some fish home.

I thought the top up method and add daily method were 2 things that achieved the same thing I want mature media, but i can't get in contact with my bro he has been busy lately

so with your method you'd just stick in 5ppm and then add it again when ammonia goes down to 0, and keep doing it until ammonia disapppears after 12 hours? how often would i test then?

thank you

 

[Dan-CR4]

But you need to keep them topped up with 'feeds' of ammonia every 12 hours until you bring some fish home.

HI, sorry to jump in on this thread. i thought you only top up ammonia if its needed on the 24 hour mark? I am cycling now and only adding ammonia at my night time check even if the ammonia has reached 0 by the 12 hour mark...... am i doing it wrong?

 

[Curiosity101]

Well put it this way Dan-CR4 - After 12 hours the ammonia and nitrite is at 0 so what is feeding the bacteria for the next 12 hours?

PDSimon - Put it this way...If you add the same amount every day (for arguments sake lets call is 3ppm).
Lets say by day 3 it's going to have dropped by 1ppm...

Add every day...by day three you are are 8ppm of ammonia (a level which promotes the growth of the wrong ammonia processing bacteria)
Top-up... by day three you're at 2 ppm and so top up 1ppm to return it to 3ppm

And yes with my method that's exactly how I would do it... 5ppm and then let it drop to around 1ppm then top up...then carry on.
At first I would be testing the ammonia every 3 days until I started seeing a drop. Then switch to every couple of days and if it was still dropping significantly would switch to daily. Etc etc.

 

[PDSimon]

Well put it this way Dan-CR4 - After 12 hours the ammonia and nitrite is at 0 so what is feeding the bacteria for the next 12 hours?

PDSimon - Put it this way...If you add the same amount every day (for arguments sake lets call is 3ppm).
Lets say by day 3 it's going to have dropped by 1ppm...

Add every day...by day three you are are 8ppm of ammonia (a level which promotes the growth of the wrong ammonia processing bacteria)
Top-up... by day three you're at 2 ppm and so top up 1ppm to return it to 3ppm

And yes with my method that's exactly how I would do it... 5ppm and then let it drop to around 1ppm then top up...then carry on.
At first I would be testing the ammonia every 3 days until I started seeing a drop. Then switch to every couple of days and if it was still dropping significantly would switch to daily. Etc etc.

Ok so add daily method produces bacteria which isn't beneficial towards what I want - a cycled tank.

So lets say I add 5ppm now. I'd test for ammnoia in a few days.

when do i start testing for nitrites? when ammonia takes less than a day to go?

then when ammonia and nitrite both go in a day fish can be added

 

[waterdrop]

Well put it this way Dan-CR4 - After 12 hours the ammonia and nitrite is at 0 so what is feeding the bacteria for the next 12 hours?

PDSimon - Put it this way...If you add the same amount every day (for arguments sake lets call is 3ppm).
Lets say by day 3 it's going to have dropped by 1ppm...

Add every day...by day three you are are 8ppm of ammonia (a level which promotes the growth of the wrong ammonia processing bacteria)
Top-up... by day three you're at 2 ppm and so top up 1ppm to return it to 3ppm

And yes with my method that's exactly how I would do it... 5ppm and then let it drop to around 1ppm then top up...then carry on.
At first I would be testing the ammonia every 3 days until I started seeing a drop. Then switch to every couple of days and if it was still dropping significantly would switch to daily. Etc etc.

I respectfully disagree with this being the most efficient way of carrying out the Add&Wait method. It is actually an advantage to have the tested ammonia level drop to zero by 12 hours and then not recharge the ammonia until the 24 hour mark. In the Waste Water Treatment world, this is called "pulsing" and I believe is used to better optimize autotrophic growth. The other thing that happens is that when our ammonia kits read zero ppm the ammonia is actually tracing downward but still feeding the bacteria - a correctly running biofilter will always read zero but will always be feeding the bacteria sufficiently (though it will not be dropping off to true zero because the fish are supplying ammonia in that case.)

It is also a fallacy that you can fishless cycle faster if you choose to only stock 3/4 and try to estimate the ammonia dosing down from 5ppm to 3ppm as I believe Si (PDSimon) is trying to do here. The purpose of the 5ppm is to mainly to create sufficiently robust colonies that they will not "mini-cycle" after fish are added no matter what the stocking is and the 5ppm is also to stimulate for the correct species (as C101 has mentioned, 7-8ppm stimulates the wrong species.) In fact, 3ppm -is- a good dosing level for the nitrite spike phase of the fishless cycle (to lessen the overall nitrogen going in) but 5ppm are better for the first and third phases, before and after the nitrite spike.

None of this is a particularly big deal and we can talk about it some more.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Twinklecaz]

Pfft I worked mine out and it's actually 57L . I hope this doesn't make a difference to the fish I can have (hoping not as the final lot will only be green neons or pygmy Corys). There should be a law against saying it's a different capacity from what it is!

 

[Curiosity101]

I respectfully disagree with this being the most efficient way of carrying out the Add&Wait method. It is actually an advantage to have the tested ammonia level drop to zero by 12 hours and then not recharge the ammonia until the 24 hour mark. In the Waste Water Treatment world, this is called "pulsing" and I believe is used to better optimize autotrophic growth. The other thing that happens is that when our ammonia kits read zero ppm the ammonia is actually tracing downward but still feeding the bacteria - a correctly running biofilter will always read zero but will always be feeding the bacteria sufficiently (though it will not be dropping off to true zero because the fish are supplying ammonia in that case.)

It is also a fallacy that you can fishless cycle faster if you choose to only stock 3/4 and try to estimate the ammonia dosing down from 5ppm to 3ppm as I believe Si (PDSimon) is trying to do here. The purpose of the 5ppm is to mainly to create sufficiently robust colonies that they will not "mini-cycle" after fish are added no matter what the stocking is and the 5ppm is also to stimulate for the correct species (as C101 has mentioned, 7-8ppm stimulates the wrong species.) In fact, 3ppm -is- a good dosing level for the nitrite spike phase of the fishless cycle (to lessen the overall nitrogen going in) but 5ppm are better for the first and third phases, before and after the nitrite spike.

None of this is a particularly big deal and we can talk about it some more.

~~waterdrop~~

^^ I would definitely follow WDs advice over mine regards fishless cycles. I haven't (clearly) done quite as much reading regards to fishless cycling lol. And you definitely want to go with the best and fastest method available to you.

 

[kaivalagi]

^^ I would definitely follow WDs advice over mine regards fishless cycles. I haven't (clearly) done quite as much reading regards to fishless cycling lol. And you definitely want to go with the best and fastest method available to you.

+1

I find WD's advice to be the most accurate and the most thoughtful of any I have ever received or read, I'd take his advice above pretty much anyone else's...especially when it comes to this sort of thing where things can be easily mis-interpreted by the best of us.

 

[PDSimon]

Well put it this way Dan-CR4 - After 12 hours the ammonia and nitrite is at 0 so what is feeding the bacteria for the next 12 hours?

PDSimon - Put it this way...If you add the same amount every day (for arguments sake lets call is 3ppm).
Lets say by day 3 it's going to have dropped by 1ppm...

Add every day...by day three you are are 8ppm of ammonia (a level which promotes the growth of the wrong ammonia processing bacteria)
Top-up... by day three you're at 2 ppm and so top up 1ppm to return it to 3ppm

And yes with my method that's exactly how I would do it... 5ppm and then let it drop to around 1ppm then top up...then carry on.
At first I would be testing the ammonia every 3 days until I started seeing a drop. Then switch to every couple of days and if it was still dropping significantly would switch to daily. Etc etc.

I respectfully disagree with this being the most efficient way of carrying out the Add&Wait method. It is actually an advantage to have the tested ammonia level drop to zero by 12 hours and then not recharge the ammonia until the 24 hour mark. In the Waste Water Treatment world, this is called "pulsing" and I believe is used to better optimize autotrophic growth. The other thing that happens is that when our ammonia kits read zero ppm the ammonia is actually tracing downward but still feeding the bacteria - a correctly running biofilter will always read zero but will always be feeding the bacteria sufficiently (though it will not be dropping off to true zero because the fish are supplying ammonia in that case.)

It is also a fallacy that you can fishless cycle faster if you choose to only stock 3/4 and try to estimate the ammonia dosing down from 5ppm to 3ppm as I believe Si (PDSimon) is trying to do here. The purpose of the 5ppm is to mainly to create sufficiently robust colonies that they will not "mini-cycle" after fish are added no matter what the stocking is and the 5ppm is also to stimulate for the correct species (as C101 has mentioned, 7-8ppm stimulates the wrong species.) In fact, 3ppm -is- a good dosing level for the nitrite spike phase of the fishless cycle (to lessen the overall nitrogen going in) but 5ppm are better for the first and third phases, before and after the nitrite spike.

None of this is a particularly big deal and we can talk about it some more.

~~waterdrop~~

Thanks waterdrop

I must admit, this is quite confusing and I still have no ammonia in my tank

Are you advising a 3ppm add daily or add and wait method?

 

[kaivalagi]

I must admit, this is quite confusing and I still have no ammonia in my tank

Are you advising a 3ppm add daily or add and wait method?

You're not the only one left a little confused, because of the various methods being talked about it's hard for me to get a grip on what the suggested way forward is. Here's my stab at the best solution discussed.

The regime would be dosing once every 24 hours regardless of when ammonia levels zero off, initially starting with a full 5ppm dose, then daily top ups after that to bring up the ammonia to 5ppm until you get to the Nitrite spike (phase 1 complete). Once you are at that point then to drop daily doses to 3ppm with daily top ups until you have a zero Nitrite reading (phase 2 complete). Then back up to 5ppm ensuring you get daily zero readings for both ammonia and nitrites for a week (phase 3 complete). I could have totally got that wrong though...

 

[Twinklecaz]

See I find that confusing coz I topped my ammonia up to 4/5 for the first time on Saturday and it hasn't dropped atall yet (not that I can be sure of anyway).