Wow, Look! It's... Another Fishless Cycle Diary?

[nork]

Day 14 updated.

Surprised to see such a big nitrite drop today.

All 4 anubias seem to be happy and healthy, haven't noticed any growth yet, but I understand they're slow growing plants. Water is crystal clear, smells a bit "aquariumish", but so far so good.

 

[waterdrop]

took months for my anubia to grow a leaf!

 

[nork]

These aren't turning brown, so I'm chalking it up as a success.

 

[nork]

Ok, since last night at 8 PM when I checked my nitrites they were at .5 ppm, I decided to check them again this morning out of curiosity.

So before I left for work, I tested my nitrites, this was about 6:30 AM. Waited 5 minutes per the instructions on my API Nitrite test kit, and they came back 0.

Does this show a sign that my tank may be cycled? If so, I want to give it a few more days to make sure it's truly there, but in the meantime, since I know I should check every 12 hours, should I also add ammonia when I check, or still stick to the rule of adding ammonia no more than once in a 24 hour period?

 

[waterdrop]

Its not clear to me which is your "add-hour" vs. your 12-hour checkpoint. No, you never add at 12 hours, only at the 24-hour "add-hour" and then only if ammonia reached true zero ppm any time in the previous 24 hours.

The achievement of both ammonia and nitrite(NO2) dropping to zero ppm in *12 hours* from when ammonia was added is the point at which you can start your "qualifying week." During the qualifying week the filter should be able to daily repeat the achievement. A biofilter that stumbles (shows traces) during that week is not ready.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[nork]

My official add hour is 8 PM. This morning I tested ammonia and nitrites(solely out of curiosity) at 6:30 AM and both returned 0 ppm results. This test was only done out of curiosity, but I do know that people say to start testing at every 12 hour mark from about this point on, so I think I'll slowly move my official test/ammonia add time up to about 6:30 PM, since I'm at work from 7 AM - 4 PM, I cannot be there to officially do a 12-hour test at 8 AM.

So my question was since people suggest doing official 12 hour testings and adding ammonia when testing returns a 0 ppm reading, do I add ammonia at every official reading or still apply the once every 24 hour rule. But you answered my question, no matter the readings and at which time they were read, ammonia is applied once every 24 hours.

Thanks.

 

[waterdrop]

If you got double-zeros at 10.5 hours after adding 5ppm of ammonia (8pm to 6:30am is 10.5 hours later, right?) then that's a strong sign your cycle may be ending. Verify that again and I'd say you are ready to start your "qualifying week" where you just watch it repeat this accomplishment each day and then you are ready for the Big Water Change and Fish!

~~waterdrop~~

 

[nork]

Yep, it was a curiosity test done 10.5 hours later, both returned 0 ppm readings.

If all goes as planned, this is perfect, as Friday is payday.

 

[nork]

Day 15 updated.

I tested the nitrites 3 times, the first two times the test tube sat for appx 5 minutes and returned .25 ppm readings, but since the color changes from purple to blue so rapidly, I decided to do a third test and time it exactly at 5 minutes, this test returned a 0 ppm reading. Not sure what to make of that, but oh well, everything else looks like it's going well.

All of my test kits are brand new (newly bought, not sure when they were actually made) API liquid test kits.

 

[waterdrop]

I have one of those little hang-around-the-neck kitchen timers, so I never bother to look at my testtubes until the little alarm goes off and its 5 minutes. I also use it to time the 30sec and 1min shake times that are part of the nitrate(NO3) test.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[nork]

I use the digital timer on the stove for one test and the timer on the microwave for another test. I use the "1 Mississippi, 2 Mississippi" method for the 30 second shake in the nitrate test and one of the digital timers for the 1 minute shake.

My test last night was performed at 7:30 PM.

At 6:30 AM this morning, the readings were: ammonia 0 ppm, nitrite 0 ppm. Second day of awesome results in what appears to now officially be my qualifying week.

I'll start updating my diary now twice daily to reflect every test.

 

[peter1979]

I use the digital timer on the stove for one test and the timer on the microwave for another test. I use the "1 Mississippi, 2 Mississippi" method for the 30 second shake in the nitrate test and one of the digital timers for the 1 minute shake.

My test last night was performed at 7:30 PM.

At 6:30 AM this morning, the readings were: ammonia 0 ppm, nitrite 0 ppm. Second day of awesome results in what appears to now officially be my qualifying week.

I'll start updating my diary now twice daily to reflect every test.

Ive been reading a few of these diaries and it looks like yours is moving a lot faster than most. I wonder if it is to do with pH and possibly gH or KH? have you done any of these tests nork? Id be interested to know what they are.

 

[nork]

Peter, I have not tested either, and right off hand, I'm not sure how easy it would be to test.

Where could I find GH and KH testers? Are they relatively cheap?

I'm not saying I haven't seen them when picking up my other API test kits at my LFS and PetSmart, but since I wasn't looking for them, I wouldn't remember seeing them.

Other than that, I'm not sure if it's anything more than luck that's helped me along so far. I followed rdd's "add and wait method" write-up to the T as much as possible and I've followed the extra advice given to me by the posters in this diary, mainly WD.

I'm not out of the woods yet, so we'll see how these next few days go. I've read through many diaries here and know that curveballs can get thrown at any time.

 

[nork]

Day 16 PM updated.

So far so good, at this rate, we'll have several new animals in our house this weekend.

The nitrite test tube turned blue within the first 3 minutes, fastest it's ever done that.

 

[waterdrop]

That's a good sign. When the nitrite goes clear baby blue quickly its a strong zero. You'll have to watch your qualifying week carefully. Tanks that cycle very quickly can be the ones prone to a sudden spike sometimes.

~~waterdrop~~