Start Fishless Cycle Tomorrow

[Stonerbear]

Finaly got my testing kit (nutrafin mini master)so will start tomorrow when ive purchased my ammonia

the water has been cyceling in my tank for a week now (left to its own)
and this is the results after a week of letting it do what it likes (90% waterchange on day 3)

Temp 29-30oC
PH: 7.5
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 1.6
Nitrate: 110+

now this is my first cycle (ever) im using a fluval edge 23L and was wondering how much ammonia will i need to add each time

 

[L_Plates]

You can use the Ammonia calculator found here (bottom of the page), http/www.fishforums.net/aquarium-calculator.htm

That will give you the amount of ammonia you will need to add. For a 23L tank with ammonia strengh 9.5 aiming to dose to 5ppm its says to add 1.21ml of ammonia.

LP

 

[BigbruiserAl]

er im really confused how have you got 110+ Nitrate with just leaving to stand for a week and why did you do a water change?

 

[Stonerbear]

its just been running and i changed the water as it was extremely cloudy

 

[Stonerbear]

did another 90% waterchage when i got those results as even i thought they were high

2 hours after water chage.

Temp 29-30oC
PH: 7.5
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0.8
Nitrate: 10

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, I'm confused too. Is this not a brand new tank (perhaps tank/gravel previously used with fish?)

What are the results of your Nutrafin tests on your tap water - could you post those also please?

Unless you have measurable things in your tap water, a brand new tank with just fresh tap water running for a week should still be basically zero ppm readings for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Stonerbear]

Brand new tank gravel is new everything in it is new

Tap
PH: 7.5/8
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0


is it possible the tetraplant complete substrate is causing this?

 

[waterdrop]

O yes, a fertilizer type of substrate could certainly do that! That's probably it. Now that we know that it should be ok though. You'll just have to keep in mind that it could cause some possible spikes in nitrite and nitrate (and even if it just spiked nitrite, that can sometimes cause the nutrafin nitrate test to give falsely high readings.) Hopefully any spiking due to the fertilizers will have settled down by the time we get to the later stages of fishless cycling where you care more about accurate levels of those two things. The first week or two will mostly be about watching the ammonia you dose.

So for the beginning of your fishless cycle it looks like 1 milliliter will be a good starting amount (perhaps you've already dosed it by now.) You'll then test ammonia about 20 to 45 minutes later to see if the test result seems to be getting to a test color shade that seems within the 3 to 5ppm or so range. It often takes a week for this very first dose to drop down, but it's very unpredictable.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Stonerbear]

thanks for the info its gonna help me alot in this new hobby cant wate to get this tank fully up and running.

one more question

ive taken out the carbon in the filter (as instructed) is it worth getting another filter media to replace the lost section? ie more spunge or ceramic nuggets (if thats what there called) if so ill get them today when i get my ammonia