Still Hanging In There

[RobynR]

Haven't been updating here lately, but thought y'all might like to know that I'm still plugging away at cycling my tank. Yesterday I noticed my readings were suspiciously steady so I checked the pH and sure enough, it had dropped to the 5-6 range on me. Did a WC (didn't touch the gravel or anything, just siphoned off the top) and got the pH back up to 7 and re-upped the ammonia. Thirteen hours later, it looks like 1 - 2 ammonia and 0 nitrites. First time I've seen 0 nitrites since they first showed up, so hooray for that! Will the ammonia catch up pretty quickly now that the pH is up again?

My LFS is having a sale next weekend, so I'm hoping that just maybe I'll have cycled the tank by then and be able to get a few of my fish 25% off. This is week 8 of cycling, so we'll see.

 

[OldMan47]

In reality, the ammonia eaters usually develop quicker than the nitrite eaters so your readings are a bit anomolous. I am sure it did no harm but there is no reason to avoid a gravel vac during a cycle, and probably no reason to do one either. The bacteria sticks on the surface gravel much too well to be removed by a simple gravel vac.

 

[RobynR]

I thought the readings were really strange, which is what prompted me to check the pH in the first place. This morning (12 hours) my ammonia was 1-2 and nitrites about 2, so in retrospect I think the reason they were at 0 was that sufficient ammonia hadn't been processed to produce them after the water change. *sigh* And I was so excited.

I've heard both things on vacuuming the gravel -- that it's ok, or that it can hurt the progress of your cycle. Not being certain, I decided not to tempt fate.

 

[OldMan47]

If you were doing a fish-in cycle and using the gravel as a significant pat of the biofilter, it might make a difference in 2 ways. The gravel vac would remove fish waste and prevent it decaying in the tank where it would produce ammonia so that would be a reason to do the vac. The second impact, for a cycle heavily dependent on the gravel, like if you had a undergravel filter, the gravel would be slightly affected by the vac but not enough even then to avoid using the vac. People also worry about changing water but it has been shown to actually help move a fish-in cycle along faster.