Yet Another Fishless Cycle Question!

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Okay, so I am in the midst of doing a 100% WC, with temp matched, Primed water. My question is, should I wait a certain amount of time to dose it with ammonia again, or can I do it as soon as I fill the tank with the new water? Thanks.
 
Okay, so... For my own sanity, I retested just now about 5 hours after WC, and these are the results I got:
Ammonia ~ 1ppm
Nitrite: still looks off the chart, but I am not completely sure. When I first dropped into the vial, the drops turned blue before shaking it, rather than purple immediately like before. The violet shades on this test are hard to read.
Nitrate: seems about 10-20ppm?
PH: looks somewhere between 7.2-7.6?

Am I correct that I am getting back on track as far as PH and Nitrate goes?
apitest2.jpg


I ran the high range PH test, and it came out at about 7.4, so I know that the PH is back on track.
 
Okay, so... For my own sanity, I retested just now about 5 hours after WC, and these are the results I got:
Ammonia ~ 1ppm
Nitrite: still looks off the chart, but I am not completely sure. When I first dropped into the vial, the drops turned blue before shaking it, rather than purple immediately like before. The violet shades on this test are hard to read.
Nitrate: seems about 10-20ppm?
PH: looks somewhere between 7.2-7.6?

Am I correct that I am getting back on track as far as PH and Nitrate goes?
apitest2.jpg


I ran the high range PH test, and it came out at about 7.4, so I know that the PH is back on track.
Trust your eyes over what the camera sees but to me that looks like less than 1ppm ammonia but not down to .5ppm, 2ppm nitrite, and 5ppm nitrate. You said this was 5 hour after water change but how long after the redose to 1ppm ammonia? Looks like you are back on track but the next few days will tell.
 
Okay, so... For my own sanity, I retested just now about 5 hours after WC, and these are the results I got:
Ammonia ~ 1ppm
Nitrite: still looks off the chart, but I am not completely sure. When I first dropped into the vial, the drops turned blue before shaking it, rather than purple immediately like before. The violet shades on this test are hard to read.
Nitrate: seems about 10-20ppm?
PH: looks somewhere between 7.2-7.6?

Am I correct that I am getting back on track as far as PH and Nitrate goes?
apitest2.jpg


I ran the high range PH test, and it came out at about 7.4, so I know that the PH is back on track.
Trust your eyes over what the camera sees but to me that looks like less than 1ppm ammonia but not down to .5ppm, 2ppm nitrite, and 5ppm nitrate. You said this was 5 hour after water change but how long after the redose to 1ppm ammonia? Looks like you are back on track but the next few days will tell.


It was about 3.5 hours after dosing with ammonia
 
In 3.5 hours some of your ammonia is getting converted to nitrite but I would guess that your nitrite eating bacteria isn't quite up to speed yet. It is very hard to pull off a true 100% water change so my guess is you sill had enough nitrite and nitrate in the tank after the water change to get a reading on them. I would give it another day before adding any more ammonia to see what the nitrite does. If you see the nitrite dropping and the nitrate rising you are almost there.
 
Okay, so just retested now, and this is where I am at... I am slightly concerned,as the PH has dropped again since last night!

Ammonia: 0
Nitrite (I had to do a separate pic because I broke a vial): seems to be at about 2.0ppm? This is good right?
Nitrate: looks to me to be about 30ppm? Def higher than last night.
PH: about 6.6!

test2407.jpg

nitrite24July.jpg


What should I be doing next? Should I dose another 1-2 ppm of ammonia? I am worried about the PH, and how it has gone down again so much in one day. What should I do? :crazy:
 
Anyone?? I started my cycle with the first ammonia dose on the 27th of June, so its been almost a month now, just to put this into perspective...
 
Anyone?? I started my cycle with the first ammonia dose on the 27th of June, so its been almost a month now, just to put this into perspective...


Has your PH always been above 7.0-7.5ppm? If so, it seems you may have suffered a PH crash... a handful of Bicarb Of Soda will raise yuor PH back upto an acceptable level for the remaining of your fishless cycle... but only a KH/GH test will determine what you do when you finsish cycling.

Terry.
 
Anyone?? I started my cycle with the first ammonia dose on the 27th of June, so its been almost a month now, just to put this into perspective...


Has your PH always been above 7.0-7.5ppm? If so, it seems you may have suffered a PH crash... a handful of Bicarb Of Soda will raise yuor PH back upto an acceptable level for the remaining of your fishless cycle... but only a KH/GH test will determine what you do when you finsish cycling.

Terry.


Yeah, PH has always been about 7.6 prior to this. I am still waiting for the API KH/GH test kit to come (hopefully tomorrow or Thurs at the latest). Any idea why this happens? Is it that I likely have a low GH out of the tap? I don't actually have any baking soda in the house - I thought I did, so I will have to wait until tomorrow. In the meantime, should I dose another 1-2ppm of ammonia? It's at 0 again after dosing 1ppm last night after the wc.
 
ew,

It is a low KH that would cause a ph crash. I would go ahead and add another 1-2ppm of ammonia. I would also raise the filter outflow so it sits above the water and splashes down into the water creating a lot of surface agitation. I would also have the temp at 80degrees f.

Here are some other observations that I have read and experienced around PH out of the tap. Typically if you test ph 24 hrs after it comes out of the tap it will be higher due the oxygen/carbon dioxide exchange.

I would suspect the reason yours is droping is due to low kh. The low kh is not providing any buffering against the nitrates which release something ( again forget the exact process ).

Terry is correct in that you probably want to get a good handle on your ph or you will be dealing with challeges even after the cycle.

My thought is that once you cycle your tank and you are doing weekly water changes your PH won't be fluctuating that much. I could be always be incorrect, however, that is what I have read.

The KH test should help provide some further help.
 
Okay, so I just retested right now, after dosing 1ppm of ammonia last night. I hope this seems good??? :blink:

PH: 6.6 - I just tested and it's def stayed at 6.6, so you will have to take my word for it, since I broke 1 vial and I want to show other three results in the same pic.

Ammonia: reading at .25ppm
Nitrite: 0???? Could I actually be cycling? This is the first time I have gotten a zero reading, and it happened overnight as you can see from the high readings I had when I tested last night. I am just a little confused because I thought that if I had zero nitrite, I would also have 0 ammonia, but that is still at .25ppm? Someone help me...
Nitrate: 40ppm (although looks like maybe 30 since it's more orange looking to me. This test is hardest for me to read)

I am still wondering about ammonia, since it's at .25ppm? I dosed the tank about 20 hours ago.

What should I do next? Should I wait another 4 hours or so, and retest to see if the ammonia has dropped to zero and redose again? If so, how much - 1ppm? 2ppm? I did buy some bicarbonate of soda as some have suggested, to try and get my PH back on track, but should I still bother at this point? Sorry, still can't give you the KH/GH reading, as the test hasn't arrived yet - got it off ebay so its obviously coming the slowest method or something. Any thoughts?
test257.jpg
 
You are indeed cycling :good: , it looks like you've hit the second stage now.
You really might want to wait for that ammonia to hit '0' before re-dosing also.
It seems you've got this far on relatively low PH (or as of recently), so it will be interesting to see if at all this will affect your cycle as it comes to an end.
Anyway, best of luck with it, :good: for having the patience so far.

Ryan.
 
Yeah, I was def planning on waiting until it got to 0 before I redose? How much do you think I should do, 1ppm? 2ppm? I was wondering because from what I understand, you are cycled when you can clear 4-5ppm in 24 hours, but do I up the dose gradually to get to that level? I am thinking on holding off on the bicarbonate of soda for now, unless my PH drops even further.
 
Okay, I just retested and ammonia is now at 0, so i just need to know how much I should dose at this stage in the game? 2ppm? PH is still holding steady 6.6, but at least it isn't going down like the other day.
 

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