Aquarium Cycle - Graphical Log With Updates

[mikeshe0]

Norite,

I think it would be a great idea to make that graph available for anyone to download and use for their own records

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yay for cycling graphs!!

i try and help out newbies in the tropical section and i love it when people do graphs. billion times easier to see what's goin on than a few paragraphs of rambling text about the levels.

i'm so sad, i love a good spreadsheet

 

[norite]

Norite,

I think it would be a great idea to make that graph available for anyone to download and use for their own records

That graph is just read off from a simple OpenOffice spreadsheet I created. I can make that availble to download when this is all finished if you like...

EDIT: I'll post another graph this evening after my latest batch of tests...watch this space!

 

[norite]

OK, here is the latest:

How bizarre. nitrates have dropped to zero. I wonder what was going on there??
Quite a spectacular drop in ammonia, and nitrites are falling too, plus the pH appears to be recovering!

 

[Underwurlde]

If that is the result then so be it. I think if you rescaled the Nitrate scale by a factor (of say 10, or 5) things will look a lot more sensible.

BTW you are plotting pH on a linear scale.... pH is Logarithmic (base 10).

 

[mikeshe0]

Norite,

I think it would be a great idea to make that graph available for anyone to download and use for their own records

That graph is just read off from a simple OpenOffice spreadsheet I created. I can make that availble to download when this is all finished if you like...

EDIT: I'll post another graph this evening after my latest batch of tests...watch this space!

It would be appreciated mate

 

[SkiFletch]

How bizarre. nitrates have dropped to zero. I wonder what was going on there??
Quite a spectacular drop in ammonia, and nitrites are falling too, plus the pH appears to be recovering!

Remember, bacterial growth is exponential, and when there's allready some established on the rock it only takes a few days to eat up all that ammonia . As for the nitrates, their drop is likely the function of the growth of photosynthetic algaes. In a new tank, thats typcially either calcerous algaes (coraline) or diatom algae.

 

[norite]

Hmmm...I did the water tests yesterday, usual time, and Nitrates had jumped to 10ppm, from zero ppm the previous day!
So I tested the RO water - zero ppm and also tested our tap water - 5ppm nitrate....

As far as the tank goes, I have a growth of brown diatom algae on some bits of live rock and the aragonite substrate...

Wonder what the nitrate reading will be tonight? I've read in a book that high levels of nitrite can interfere with nitrate readings. If this is the cause of the nitrates yo-yoing, then things should return to normal once the nitrites have vanished....?

 

[wflash3]

This is really interesting. Great idea to do this as a graph! I think you or someone else should try this but this time add all the live rock in at once, which is whats recommended by many people i talk to. I also think these crazy changes in the perameters can be because of the added live rock, giving it a sort of "double-cycle". Im not that great at the chemical part of reef keeping but with what i know i think that keeping another record of a cycle with all live rock in at once could also help. Keep up the great work though!

flash

 

[norite]

Ta!

I also think it's interesting seeing that larger ammonia spike after adding the larger bit of LR. It's too damned expensive getting it all in one go, plus I had some delays in being able to accept the 10kg shipment. (it could have arrived the day after I got the 5kg LR, but nobody could be home that day, so I had to wait exactly a week....and the final bit of LR (3.5kg) had already been sitting in the LFS for a few weeks, so I guessed it was cured, and would not affect the ammonia readings any...which it didn't.... Can't wait to get home now and test for ammonia - should be close to zero!

But it is a good idea, add all the LR at once and plot the results - someone else here wanna try?

 

[norite]

Looks like we're on the home straight folks....

Nitrates up to 10ppm *again*

 

[scorphonic]

Your graphs look good...but you cant plot pH on the same graph as the rest. The Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate are all in ppm...pH is not measured in ppm.

If you plot the two on the same graph you must have the Y1 axis dedicated to either ppm or pH and the Y2 axis dedicated to the other one.

Just so your pH will look that bit better (but really during cycling pH isn't necessary)

The other graphs look sweet...it sure is nice to see the progress in a graph!!

 

[Danno]

Yes maybe we can't see the logarithmic accuracy of the pH scale but we can defiantly get the drift of what he is talking about. I can still read it perfectly.

 

[Underwurlde]

Definately change the y-axis scale for your nitrate if you can - it won't look so weird then...

Andy

 

[norite]

Definately change the y-axis scale for your nitrate if you can - it won't look so weird then...

Andy

Cheers Underwurlde,
I would if I could rescale it; I'll have a look. I'm using OpenOffice, I don't think it has that kind of sophistication. You probably could with something like the Geochemists' Workbench program or GNUPlot...Can MS excel do such a thing? (Sorry, I don't use Windows!)

And yes, I um, know that pH is logarithmic and not linear, and not measured in ppm.... It is only there for indicative purposes, and was added to the graph as an afterthought. I'll put in a small note on the Y axis