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37g Cycling Journal: Advice Welcome!

Day 24 Parameters: (No ammonia hydroxide added)

Ammonia: .5ppm
Nitrites: .25ppm
Nitrates: 13ppm
pH: 7.2
Temp: 84F

Not today! I'll test again tomorrow- I am looking for a 0 ammonia and 0 nitrites reading after 24 hours of adding a full dose (which you put in after your first 0 and 0 reading), correct? Then a water change and its good!
yup!
 
Not just yet.

After adding dose #3 on day 23, you need to wait until ammonia is under 0.25 and nitrite under 1 ppm. On day 24 your nitrite is there but your ammonia isn't. Test again on day 25 (tomorrow) and if ammonia is then under 0.25 and nitrite still under 1 ppm, you can add dose #4.

The danger is rushing things then finding it wasn't quite cycled after you've got fish.
 
Not just yet.

After adding dose #3 on day 23, you need to wait until ammonia is under 0.25 and nitrite under 1 ppm. On day 24 your nitrite is there but your ammonia isn't. Test again on day 25 (tomorrow) and if ammonia is then under 0.25 and nitrite still under 1 ppm, you can add dose #4.

The danger is rushing things then finding it wasn't quite cycled after you've got fish.
Thats my worse fear.. I don't want to accidentally rush something (misunderstand directions) and hurt any fish. This is the first tank I will have done correctly!

I will test again tomorrow and update the thread.
 
Thats my worse fear.. I don't want to accidentally rush something (misunderstand directions) and hurt any fish. This is the first tank I will have done correctly!

I will test again tomorrow and update the thread.
You are doing just fine, by posting your daily results, and asking questions....if only ALL new aquarists were that meticulous...

The cycling method that @Essjay describes, and is a "sticky" on this forum, is a bit different than the one I have used in the past..supposedly, that method I used has become a bit outdated, but it worked for me flawlessly, with many tanks.

At any rate, follow the instructions per @Essjay, and you'll be just fine...if any of my posts didn't coincide with the Fishless Cycling instructions stickied on this forum, apologies in advance...TBH, I haven't read any of the cycling threads here thoroughly enough to comment on them.

Stay the course, you'll get it done wonderfully, I'm certain ;)
 
SlapHppy's old method is the "add ammonia every time it drops to zero" method. It is more or less the same method as the one on here except that our method adds less ammonia. When a lot of ammonia is used, it makes so much nitrite that the cycle stalls and takes longer to complete. It still works though. TwoTankAmin wrote the method on here so that nitrite cannot get high enough to stall the cycle, and it finishes a bit quicker. That's the main difference.
 
SlapHppy's old method is the "add ammonia every time it drops to zero" method. It is more or less the same method as the one on here except that our method adds less ammonia. When a lot of ammonia is used, it makes so much nitrite that the cycle stalls and takes longer to complete. It still works though. TwoTankAmin wrote the method on here so that nitrite cannot get high enough to stall the cycle, and it finishes a bit quicker. That's the main difference.
All of my tanks took about 3 weeks to (fishless) cycle, using the "old" method, which I don't consider to be an inordinate amount of time...
 
It would be interesting to know how long it would have taken using the method on here. Some people find their tanks cycle faster than others. I know that various things can influence the speed of a cycle from pH and KH to the temperature. I've also read that adding plant fertiliser, even with no plants in the tank, influences the cycle.
 
Yes, it would...but I don't see myself cycling a new tank anytime soon, Mrs. Slap seems to think that 5 tanks in the house are enough, for some reason 🤔.

I've planted tanks during a cycle, but never used ferts during one, because I've read the less chemicals during a fishless cycle, the better...and don't forget the geographic anomaly, that confuses me greatly, lol
 
Mine probably took longer than it should. I know that I have low KH so I added bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) to boost it, but I didn't add enough so the pH crashed and I had to add more. I did this cycle in the middle of winter and we lost power for several hours so not only was the filter off but the temperature dropped quite low as a 25 litre/6 gallon tank loses heat quickly. Both of these would have slowed things down.
 
Mine probably took longer than it should. I know that I have low KH so I added bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) to boost it, but I didn't add enough so the pH crashed and I had to add more. I did this cycle in the middle of winter and we lost power for several hours so not only was the filter off but the temperature dropped quite low as a 25 litre/6 gallon tank loses heat quickly. Both of these would have slowed things down.
How many tanks have you (fishless) cycled using this forum's method?

@carligraceee , apologies for the thread hijack...🙄
 
Actually just one.
I started with a fish-in cycle as I had fish before I had a tank. The fairground goldfish spent their first night in our home in one of my cooking bowls in non-dechlorinated water. For 10 years after that we had only dial up internet so I no idea that there was such a thing as cycling so if I upgraded a filter I just swapped it :blush: Once we got broadband I started reading up on new ideas and discovered cycling. So if I set up a new tank or got a new filter after this I used mature media.
Then I had a betta which died from what I thought was lymphocystis which had got into his gills (I now know it was a tumour) so I threw away the media, sterilised everything else with bleach, then thought I would give this new cycling method a go to see what it was like.
 
Actually just one.
I started with a fish-in cycle as I had fish before I had a tank. The fairground goldfish spent their first night in our home in one of my cooking bowls in non-dechlorinated water. For 10 years after that we had only dial up internet so I no idea that there was such a thing as cycling so if I upgraded a filter I just swapped it :blush: Once we got broadband I started reading up on new ideas and discovered cycling. So if I set up a new tank or got a new filter after this I used mature media.
Then I had a betta which died from what I thought was lymphocystis which had got into his gills (I now know it was a tumour) so I threw away the media, sterilised everything else with bleach, then thought I would give this new cycling method a go to see what it was like.
My daughter introduce me to fishkeeping, when she was about 10 years old. Saved her money, and came home with a tank "kit" and fish on the same day...needless to say, the fish didn't live long, though we followed the LFS instructions precisely, including changing out the filter media weekly (!) (🤬)

I searched online for what may be the issue, and discovered this complete new concept (to us) called "the nitrogen cycle"....she's grown now, and has no interest in fishkeeping anymore, but I was hooked...the rest is history
 
With hindsight I am surprised that only one of the 4 goldfish died, and that was during the first night in the cooking basin. The following years we gave the other three (a common and two comets) to someone with a pond as they had grown huge.
 
With hindsight I am surprised that only one of the 4 goldfish died, and that was during the first night in the cooking basin. The following years we gave the other three (a common and two comets) to someone with a pond as they had grown huge.
My daughter "won" some of those same type of goldfish from a county fair (I hate the practice of offering fish as "prizes"), and we too put them into my sister's pond...not only did they grow huge, but multiplied, as well
 

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