Halle - Finally -Lujah.......my Log

In my first ever fishless cycle(constant adjustments) - my 6ft tank with 4.5 filters;

Originally planned a fishless cycled of 1 tank(6ft) with 4.5 filters(filtration @ >15x), and had my fishes in a holding tank with 2 cycled(4months old) filters with the intention of getting rid of these 2 filters & its media.

In hindsight i shud ave used fish-in cycle media as seed, but i didn't want those physical media(just the clinging bacteria)! (In hindsight i shud never have lost my 3yr old filters in the first place, but that's another story) And i wanted the experience of fishless cycle from scratch - never again though.

i went from add daily to add & wait,
i went from 5ppm ammonia dosage to 4ppm(measurable test charts),
i went from cloudy water to crystal clear,
i went from 31degrees(rdd notes) to 29 on the heaters
i went from 2 heaters to 4 heaters
i went from non-seed to seeded material
i went thru 2 api test kits (mainly ammonia &nitrite, not so much others)
i went thru 500ml of pure ammonia and it still wasn't enough - darn it
i went from sane to insanity (how much longer)
i went from patient & optimistic to impatient & despair(how much longer)
yeah done-ish!

Oops got a 2nd tank(180L) this weekend(too good a deal to miss), took away 1 filter(1300l/hr) from the main tank, leaving 3.5 filters, and used all of seed material(nothing wasted, come to realise how important these bacteria are), from the 2 temporary filters, to my 3 main tank filters, to re-enforce the absence of the 4th filter. The 0.5 filter is for any future 'possible' quarantine/hospital tanks and much smaller than my 3 main filters.

i now have a main tank with 3.5 filters, and a smaller tank with 1 filter.

And finally rid of 2x holding tanks & their filters.

Towards the end of my cycle, my a-bacs could handle anything within 12hrs, my N-bacs could handle 4 ppm within 24hrs, but requiring 15hrs for 0ppm.

I'm now out of ammonia, don't fancy buying another, only to use a couple of drops, and have that stinky stuff in the house (wot if some one spilt it in future, smell!). My fishes are earning their keep instead : )

Added fishes and now in experiment to see if my fishes poo 4ppm daily (they are fancies after all, and constant messy poopers).

I'm all cycled out, after 4 months of fish-in cycle (2months) and then fishless cycle(50dys+) back-to-back!!!

NB Yeah! 2 days worth of normal feeding(feed 2x/day), ammonia & nitrite ppm 0 (12hr&24hr). Both tanks reading brilliant! Maybe my 13 fishes and 8 fishes don't do 4ppm??!! Cool! Or my seed material is super fast. Will test daily @12hr slot for another 5 days to be sure.

Yeah this brilliant forum enabled me to learn about fishless cycle(read loads on this forum, many thx to the cycle logs), and I'm now out of the 'doghouse' metaphorically, since i previously lost our 3yr old filter &media thru bad advise, and had to quickly get it all back, and learnt so much more on the way. Log attached. Tank pics to be added!
3 years of fish keeping, and only now learn of cycling?! Oops. But i have 3yr old fishes! Phew.

6ft tank pics

my new favourite colours

holding tank

2nd tank 180L for the baby orandas

Congrats! 6 foot tank... I envy you! I'd love a tank that big, but I doubt my wife will ever allow me to have one like that... maybe in 30 years when I retire! Oh the possibilities!!!

eaglesaquarium said:

Congrats! 6 foot tank... I envy you! I'd love a tank that big, but I doubt my wife will ever allow me to have one like that... maybe in 30 years when I retire! Oh the possibilities!!!

Click to expand...

Thanks, we manage to squeeze it into our humble abode...

The 6ft amount of water, will come in handy for the 12 large bamboo plants out back, whom love nitrogen.

I also want to thank-you, because along with "Waterdrop" and others , your detailed responses to others querys, even way back to 2008, reading them all, helped me to nail my understanding of the cycle, and enabled me to do all the constant adjustments required in my cycle - i had some moments when i knew such & such, but didn't know why.

well its the 3rd morning(12hr slot) of fish-in.......yeah 0ppm for both tanks. The bacteria is holding steady, or my goldfish aren't as big poo-ers as i thought. i'm begining to feed them without 'fear' now, of the need for a water change .....

weird how feeding them pure ammonia it took 15hrs to get 0ppm.....and this was days, and after running out of pure ammonia and putting the fishes in, within 24hrs, nitrite was 0ppm within 12hrs.

Guess man can theorize all they want but its nature that has the trump card.

Hurray plants have arrived........

sadly can't plant inside of the tank, my fishes will make mincemeat of them......so they're going on top

These plants are not for aethestical purpose but hopefully to take out as much nitrate in the tap water as possible.

yeah 4th morning since feeding fishes and 0 ppm on both tanks & both ammonia & nitrite! Bacterias are rocking.

My nitrate went red whilst i was shaking the tube for 1min before the 5min wait!Eek!

Experimenting on plants sucking up the nitrate, and will give it a month, and test the nitrate.A few others are trying it too. And if not, will remove them, but in the meanwhile they look nice, like hanging plants of the side of my aquarium.

Gotta get the roots inside the basket, my fishes motto is ' move it, or loose it'.

please let it work.

OOOOO.......what happened overnight to the website......a new face lift.......

Yeah! 6th day since all the fishes went in, and all good under the hood - so to speak. Amm & Ni tests are all 0ppm, as the pic. No more daily tests needed. Done done done.

My 2nd bottles of api ammonia is out. Why are they so expensive, since all i do is pour it down the drain anyway.

I even dared myself to feed them x3 yesterday(since a water change is imminent), and reliefed its still 0, this morning.

My OH came home (from a 2 day work conference in London), to find plants sticking out of the tanks. Lol he says we now have an 'indoor pond', looks good.

My surprise from him was, he had asked his usa work counterparts to get 'skinnygirl margarita' by bethenney frankel (can't get it in uk, even online), as a surprise 'reward' for the last 4 months of cycling! So nice.

Its been a hard, fretful 4 months, but worth it! A crashcourse.

Finito

Since i've recently, done a fish-in & fish-less cycle, and done add daily and add & wait, thought i would give my penny's worth:

Fishless cycling;
pros
1 avoids fish death & long term health of fish -stress free for fish & human
2. if you mess up, you can start again/adjust it
3. aquarium home ready before acquire fish and not vice versa
NB Seeded material -This rocks , makes all the difference in jumpstarting or completing either forms of cycle. Best inside the filter.

cons
1.not for the impatient, it will vary in weeks & months
2.daily monitoring/charting
3.need to understand cycle stages& what to look out for
4.close daily monitoring & charting & testing
5.require different measuring pipettes/caps etc
6. might end up needing a 2nd batch of test kit/2nd bottle of ammonia
7. high temp = evap, need to top up, to maintain correct amm dosage to tank vol
8. lights off thru out - drew window blinds closed thru out

NB if you don't wanna risk your pets this is the way really. Less stressful for fish & human. Not really any faster.

Add daily:
pros
1 same amount each day, no calculation involved

cons
1 waste of ammonia - large tanks, use up a lot of ammonia.(used up 500ml on my 450L tank)
2 water cloudy, and very high conc in amm makes skin sting
3 high temp & high ammonia not great -abit build up of kettle furr/scale, floor of bare bottom tank salt grainy substance from ammonia/water - yuck
4 off the chart ammonia & nitrite & nitrate readings -difficulty in gauging stage of cycle

NB would not recommend this method at all

Add & wait:
pros
1.less ammonia wastage in large tanks
2. water clear thru out
3. no kettle furr/scale, even if high temp
4. api test chart friendly - do 100% water change if off-chart readings

cons
1 need to understand cycle stages& what to look out for
2 close daily monitoring & charting
3 different measuring pipettes/caps etc

NB its 'the' only method really.


Fish-in cycle :
pros
1 fish in tank : )
NB Seeded material -This rocks, makes all the difference in jumpstarting or completing either forms of cycle. Best inside the filter.
cons
1. daily water changes, maybe twice a day, totalling 80-90% water change
2. prime/Amquel toxic neutralizers/converters (suppose to though not for me)
3. reduce feeding; avoid protein (acidic), more of alkaline foods ie veggies
4 daily ammonia/nitrite/ph tests
5 nerves of steel; potential loss of fish or damage long-term health of fish
6. can't raise temp beyond what fish can cope, so cannot speed up bacteria build up

NB for 'accidental' first timers and those who've yet to bond with their pets.