well here goes

Managed to source another tank, picking up later today. Good job we were only a few days into the cycle so not lost much time. Hopefully the majority of the plants will survive. Fingers crossed should be back on track by tonight

chrisnolan said:

Managed to source another tank, picking up later today. Good job we were only a few days into the cycle so not lost much time. Hopefully the majority of the plants will survive. Fingers crossed should be back on track by tonight

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Wow, sorry about the mishap...was this a new tank that leaked?

Slaphppy7 said:

Wow, sorry about the mishap...was this a new tank that leaked?

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it was an ex display from a lfs that was closing down

it was the whole front seal, maybe could be repaired with sealant by someone who knows what they are doing, that's not me though. Have now just got home with a new tank so maybe get sorted tonight or morning

replacement tank now up and running, decided not to put the wood back in as I didn't like the brown water so looks a bit bare right now. Hopefully the plants will pick up and fill out the back a bit. Waiting on water to get to right temp and then will restart the cycling again

If you have whole new filters and such remember you can swap all the media over

update: day 10 of the fishless cycle and my ammonia level has dropped down to 0.25, nitrites at around 2 and nitrates at 5. The plants all seem to be growing well now apart from the valis which all melted so I have removed it and added some limnophila sessiflora. The cycling article says to add more ammonia when the nitrites are clearly above 2 so should I wait another few days before topping back up to 4ppm (same level I started with)

FYI would dose 3ppm ammonia, not 4ppm really.

You say nitrite at around 2, is this just under or exactly or just over 2ppm?
If its at 2ppm or over then think you can dose now or wait until tomorrow morning if you prefer, take another reading for nitrite and if its def over 2ppm then dose tomorrow, makes little difference to cycling process time if dose 3ppm ammonia today or tomorrow.

TwoTankAmin said:

If at any time after the first ammonia addition (Dose #1) you test and ammonia is under .75 ppm and nitrite is clearly over 2 ppm, it is time to add more ammonia (Dose #2). Add the same full amount as you did the first time. Now, begin to test the ammonia and nitrite levels every other day. (You should be seeing nitrate soon if you have the kit.)

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If your plants are growing well be aware that the plants will snag the ammonia and so don't expect the nitrite numbers to match the article... but the fact you have nitrite means the cycle is going to plan. You know you are cycled when the ammonia is gone in 24hrs with no sign of nitrite.

It's often advised not to chemically cycle with plants, partly because plants might make such cycling not needed, partly because of the risk of large ammonia levels hurting the plants (though anecdotally I think most of us find the plants are just fine).

It looks like you have read the instructions and know what are doing so just persevere. The nitrite eating BB are said to grow slower, but as the plants are dealing with some of the ammonia you may not be growing that large a colony anyway. As such your cycle might be done faster than you're expecting, so maybe add the fish gradually continuing to monitor water just in case.

Day 18 - plants growing well today's testing shows 0 ammonia, less than 0.25 nitrite, 20 nitrate. Is it time to do the 3rd ammonia top up now. I have small amount of green algae growing on the sponge filter - is this normal please

Yes, it’s kind of normal to have algae in some form in most aquariums.

Trick is to keep it under control by ensuring water parameters are good, no overfeeding livestock, if you dose ferts, make sure you dose according to dosage on instructions, timing of light kept to reasonable lengths (usually 7-8 hours daily is the norm in UK), keep direct sunlight off the tank as well and weekly maintenance to clean off algae off surfaces of glass and prefilter sponges etc.

All of those will help keep algae under control to a certain extent.

Day 21 - all seems to be going in the right direction. Just added dose 4 of ammonia following the cycling article. One thing I have noticed this morning is that I removed a lot of the floating plants yesterday as they covered the whole of the surface (they seem to grow very fast) and this morning my pH level has risen overnight to 7.6 should I be concerned about this. It has never been higher than 6.6 before now

chrisnolan said:

Day 21 - all seems to be going in the right direction. Just added dose 4 of ammonia following the cycling article. One thing I have noticed this morning is that I removed a lot of the floating plants yesterday as they covered the whole of the surface (they seem to grow very fast) and this morning my pH level has risen overnight to 7.6 should I be concerned about this. It has never been higher than 6.6 before now

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All those plants are removing ammonia-related stuff from the water. Removing a large portion of those would affect that uptake, possibly affecting pH.

For floating plant management, you can use a length of air hose to create a (circular?) barrier and either leave it floating, or attach it to the side of the tank with suckers.

So what are you now waiting for. Why would you not add a few fish to this tank.

itiwhetu said:

So what are you now waiting for. Why would you not add a few fish to this tank.

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hoping to get a few of my first fish at the weekend, wanted to get parameters right first, it's only been cycling for 3 weeks