Would Water Change Help?

[twistedlink]

Im doing a fishless cycle, and so far im getting 3-4ppm of ammonia going to 0ppm in 8 hours (weird, isnt this supposed to be 12?)

But nitrites are sky high, would i be helping by water changing so the bacteria arent overloaded with nitrites?

Or should i just leave everything?

 

[raptorrex]

Im doing a fishless cycle, and so far im getting 3-4ppm of ammonia going to 0ppm in 8 hours (weird, isnt this supposed to be 12?)

But nitrites are sky high, would i be helping by water changing so the bacteria arent overloaded with nitrites?

Or should i just leave everything?

i think twelve hours is the maximum time it should take to remove the ammonia, not the exact time. but it looks like the second part of the cycle is yet to kick in. conventional wisdom says you should not change the water during a fishless cycle, after all why should you worry about the excess of N type chemicals, there are no fish to hurt. my council would be to leave it to work itself out. however others my disagree. i must admit to being very interested in the replys you get.

 

[twistedlink]

Oh i know it wont hurt anything if i do leave it, but im under the assumption that if i lower the nitrites to a managable level, the nitrite-nitrate bacteria will "grow" quicker, and thus cycle my tank quicker.

If it wont cycle my tank quicker, then meh, i wont bother lol

 

[doresy]

Hi, yup agree with the above post

You obviously have been doing the add ammonia thing for a little while now to develop enough bacteria to consume that dose of ammonia in 8 hours. All good so far
The nitrite 'spike' you are enjoying right now is perfectly acceptable and expected as it is a by product from the ammonia munching bacteria. The next stage (development of the nitrite munching bacteria) will take approx. twice as long to develop enough to bring down the level to zero.

It will seem to take forever and you will get fed up with the sight of purple (API test kit?) when all of a sudden, BANG sky blue ground zero......it will happen my friend

Keep doin' what you are doin'

 

[twistedlink]

I'll probably leave it then lol, i got my ammonia from 5ppm to 0ppm in 3 days, so in theory i only have 4 days left before nitrites hit 0 hahaha, itl probably take much longer than that but oh well, cant wait to see my nitrites at blue (yes API test kit)

Thanks for the info, i'll just leave the tank

 

[doresy]

I'll probably leave it then lol, i got my ammonia from 5ppm to 0ppm in 3 days, so in theory i only have 4 days left before nitrites hit 0 hahaha, itl probably take much longer than that but oh well, cant wait to see my nitrites at blue (yes API test kit)

Thanks for the info, i'll just leave the tank

In 3 days!!! must have started with some matured media in your filter, eh

Keep adding the ammonia.....I can almost taste that sky blue

 

[twistedlink]

Nope, no used filter media, brand new, im surprised too, it went really badly no first attempt and then it went super fast lol

 

[backtotropical]

Hi Twistedlink,

I am going to advise that a water change at this point will in fact speed up the cycle.

The aim is to colonise enough nitrite oxidising bacteria (NOB) to consume a given amount of nitrite in a given time. Now, 5ppm of ammonia, when consumed by the ammonia oxidising bacteria (AOB) will convert to 13.5ppm of nitrite (the conversion rate is around 1 : 2.7).

If nitrite levels in the tank are at say, 100ppm due to the large amount of ammonia which has been converted, it will take longer for the NOB to reduce this level to 0 than if the level were 13.5ppm.

Therefore, having the nitrite level off the chart at an unmeasurable level is unnecessary and will prolong the cycle.

I advise that you should perform a water change to reduce nitrite to a measurable level, and this will not only speed up your cycle, but will make it easier for you to monitor what is happening in your tank.

Also, reduce ammonia to 2ppm for now. This will reduce further build up of nitrite, and once both ammonia and nitrite are processing in 12 hours, crank ammonia back up to 5ppm. As the AOB and NOB will double in around 24 hours once established, it will only take a day or 2 for them to multiply from processing 2ppm to processing 5ppm.

Once they are processing 5ppm of ammonia into nitrate within 12 hours, do a big water change, and start adding fish.

Hope this helps.

Cheers

BTT

 

[twistedlink]

Thats what i thought, but id rather not disturb anything incase i screw it up lol

Not just that unless my tests have been tricking me to get me overexcited, my cycle appears done in 6 days....Im wondering if this is even possible.