Ask Questions About Cycling

[eaglesaquarium]

Don't dose until both are at zero, and they will catch up... you are very close.

 

[Alexarium]

Thank you, that's what I'll do!

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Eagle is correct/dd 1 ppm of ammonia and it turns into 2.5 ppm of nitrite. Because the ammonia bacs are in place, they convert the ammonia fast.because the nitrite bacs are not yet built up, nitrite builds up as well. But if you are using an API (or similar) kit, you can not read over 5 ppm unless you know how to do accurate diluted testing. So if you keep adding ammonia all you are likely to do is push nitrite too high and stall or even kill the cycle and you wont ever know it is happening until it is too late.
 
I will repeat this again. Using the directions here to do a fishless cycle one can usually count how many times you should add ammonia from the start to the end of cycling on one hand (assuming you are not missing any fingers). Some folks may need to use a finger from the other hand. If you are adding more times than that 5 or 6, you are very likely to be doing things wrong.
 
If one follows the directions, it is not possible to have too much ammonia in the tank, it is not possible to have too much nitrite in the tank and it is possible, in most cases, to complete a cycle in about 35 days or a bit more. What will do the most to shorten or lengthen that time is something none of us can measure or even estimate. And that is how many of the needed bacteria come out of our tap at the start. More = faster cycle and fewer = slower cycle.
 
That is why the single best way to speed up a cycle, either with or without fish, is to add bacteria at the start- either bottled or from a cycled tank.

 

[macphyter]

TTA- Thanks for your fine articles, I've learned an amazing amount in a short time reading your articles and posts.  I KNEW that my university chemistry classes from so many years ago would come in handy some day.
 
I was wondering if you could add some comments regarding recommended ranges of GH and KH, and what could cause these values to go up or down?  Its still not clear to me what range of these values are needed.

 

[Fishmanic]

I am in day 22 of cycling the tank.  I am running a dynaflow 2 filter which uses a nearly flat cartridge media.   Once I am fully cycled and once the filter media becomes too old and worn,  will I have a problem keeping the tank cycled if I remove the cartridge and insert a clean one?   Will the bacteria also be in the water and in the gravel.  I have blue colored fairly small gravel.
 
As far as my cycling is progressing, I have added the maintenance dose and once ammonia was nearly 0, I added the full dose.  Nitrates and Nitrites read at the highest level of the API test kit.   When should I start seeing the nitrites drop below 1ppm.  Should I be doing any more maintenance doses if ammonia drops near 0 but Nitrites are still high?
 
Thanks for your input.

 

[Fishmanic]

I am in day  28 of the cycling process.   Ammonia reads 0, yet nitrites and nitrates are still at maximum levels.  Should I be just waiting for nitrites to drop to 0 even if it takes many more days or should I be doing a maintnance dose of ammonia to keep the ammonia bacteria growing?

 

[daizeUK]

Give your ammonia-eating bacteria a snack dose of about 1ppm ammonia every 4-5 days to keep them going.  It's also useful to check that ammonia is still disappearing and your cycle has not stalled.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Do not worry about nitrate, Worry about nitrite. Just bear in mind the nitrite bacteria start reproducing later than the ammonia ones and that they do so more slowly as well. The result is nitrite seems to hang at a high level for longer than might be idea. But then whet you will see is a rapidly accelerating decline as the bacteria catch up. The biggest danger is adding too much ammonia and making too much nitrite.
 
As per the cycling instructions ammonia will fall to zero well before nitrite. Once you are testing every other day and you get two consecutive ammonia readings of 0, you add the snack dose. Hopefully the one will suffice to get you to the next stage where ammonia is .25 or below and nitrite is clearly under 1 ppm, you redose the full amount of ammonia again. This will raidlly wake up any of the ammonia bacs that may have slowed and will continue the feeding of the nitrite bacs as well. At this point one is getting very close to cycled since the tank will soon be able to process a 3 ppm ammonia addition right through to nitrate in a day or less.
 
One note- all the cycling directions on Dr. Tim's site tend to use the nitrogen scale. The common hobby test kits use the total ion scale which gives higher readings. The cycling article was written for folks using the hobby kits. This means you will see different numbers used in the two different articles. It is important not to confuse/mix up the two.
 
Finally, your report of the water company problems could go a long way to explaining your problem. At the heart of the cycling process is some initial amount of bacteria. If the water co. took some form of drastic action to handle a serious issue, it could very well have been the cause of your issue. If one has 0 bacteria to start, 2x0 = 0. Of course, if you started with a very tiny number of them, it would take a really long time for them to double repeatedly before you even knew they were there. Either way, go with Dr. Tim's.

 

[Fishmanic]

my dynoflo 2 filter has one of those flat filter cartridges.   The water is now flowing over the top of the cartridge indicating that the filter is getting clogged.  Should I be concerned that this could affect bacteria buildup as not all the water is flowing through the cartride but some is flowing around it?

 

[Fishmanic]

anyone have an opinion on the above post?

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Rinse the cart in tank water to unclog it. The bacteria need flow. The flow brings them everything they need. Clogged media impedes flow and this destroys bacteria. However, if one is cycling, the bacteria will not stop colonizing the tank, they just will not do so as much in the filter. They will be where the flow is constant. This mean on the substrate, on the rocks, on the wood, on the plants even on the glass if they must.

 

[Fishmanic]

Thanksfor your response.   So i'll fill up a bowl with tank water and try to flush and squeeze out the filter media.     The nitrites were reading about 32ppm usiing the dilution test so I did a 50% water change.  A day later the nitrites read about 10 with the dilution method.  I did do a second snack feeding to bring up the ammonia to 1ppm after doing the water change.   Hope to see nitrites start dropping on their own soon.  I'm on day 30 of the cycling process.  

 

[Fishmanic]

Thanks to all the info here, my 35 gallon hex is now cycled---It took a total of 37 days.  The nitrite went over the upper limit at about 30 ppm at one point and seemed to be stuck. Nitrates were off the chart.   That's when I did a a 50% water change about 3/4 of the way through the cycling.   Within a week after the water change,  I am now cycled.   Fish have been ordered via liveaquaria.com.  They will arrive on Tuesday.
 
I'm glad I found this site.

 

[Jeremy180]

Um, I have a Question.
 
My tank appears to be getting close to finishing cycling, but my LFS's monthly 2for1 sale came and went, So I'll have to wait probably another three weeks after the tank finishes cycling to add fish.
So my Question is:
Once a tank is fully cycled, how much ammonia is necessary to keep the bacteria from starving?

 

[daizeUK]

From the cycling guide: 

 
If for any reason you are unable to stock the tank when it is cycled, you can continue adding ammonia to keep the tank cycled. For this you should add the 1/3 snack amount every 2-3 days. The bacteria do not need to be fed every day and will be fine. Don’t forget the water change before adding the fish.