Cycling 12 Gallon Tank For Discus

[wiz83]

DAY DATE TIME TEMPERATURE (°C) AMMONIA (PPM) NITRITE (PPM) NITRATE (PPM) pH REMARKS 0 11-Dec-12 3:30am 28.0 4.0 0.0 NIL 7.5 23L Water - 3.5ml Conditioner - 13 Drops Ammonia - 10 Drops Bacteria 1 12-Dec-12 1:00am 29.0 4.0 0.0 NIL 7.5 25 Drops Bacteria 2 13-Dec-12 12:45am 31.0 4.0 0.0 NIL 7.5 Topped Up Water - 3 Drops Conditioner - 25 Drops Bacteria 3 14-Dec-12 1:00am 31.0 4.0 0.0 NIL 7.5 50 Drops Bacteria 4 15-Dec-12 1:30am 29.0 4.0 0.0 NIL 7.5 Topped Up Water - 3 Drops Conditioner - 50 Drops Bacteria 5 16-Dec-12 1:00am 29.0 4.0 0.0 NIL 7.5


Day 5 still no sign of bacteria.

 

[fluttermoth]

Five days is nothing, mate; have patience

 

[wiz83]

I know, but I'm disappointed because I've purchased nitrifying bacteria, and it's not working. I spent USD$8 worth purchasing snake oil ... LoL

 

[wiz83]

7 Days in, still no drop in ammonia, and no signs of nitrite/nitrate. Can someone explain to me what's wrong? I've read usually the first 5 days, should have signs on nitrite, but no nitrate, but apparently mine isn't working at all.

 

[Electric Warrior]

It took about two weeks for my ammonia to drop, and the nitrite to appear, so don't get too frustrated yet. Just be patient, it will happen.

 

[DrSlackBladder]

As I said earlier, it took 10 days before I saw any nitrites or drop in ammonia. And that was with some mature ceramic media to speed things along. You have to be patient!!

 

[wiz83]

I'm on 14 days exactly, no drop in Ammonia, and no increase in Nitrite. Can someone help? How can I test wha'ts going on? Should I just change all the water? I've been topping up conditioned water for all those water that has evaporated. I'm very frustrated.

 

[DrSlackBladder]

You can't hurry the science that needs to happen. Equally, you can't stop the science that will happen, so be patient and let it take it course, it will work. Give it the best chance of speeding along and not stalling by keeping pH above 7, temp at 28C, add whatever established filter media, plants, ornaments, gravel you can get hold of, and keeping ammonia no higher than 4ppm. Actually I thought my fishless cycle stalled when I thought I was at 4ppm ammonia, but in different light it could have been almost 8ppm ammonia, so I did a 50% water change and cycled with just 2-3ppm ammonia. It seemed to pick up then, whether coincidence or not, I'll never know. I was happy to complete the cycle at an ammonia load of 2-3ppm ammonia since I planned to stock gradually anyway. Good luck, don't give up. When you get you're nitrite showing purple it's like Christmas! Then you can't wait for it to show blue again as nitrates start getting produced! Happy Christmas anyway!

Just read through the rest of your post from the beginning; don't expect the bacteria in a bottle to do anything, keep checking your water daily, and if no nitrites within next 4 days I'd do a 50% w/c with dechlorinated water, then report back after 4 days. Hopefully you'll see some nitrites then.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

The bacteria in a bottle stuff is really a waste of money. I hate to tell you that, but that's exactly what it is.


The time that you have experienced is not uncommon. If you are looking to speed up the process you could push your temp up to 84F or 30C, and keep the pH at 8.4. These are the optimum conditions for the bacteria you are trying to cultivate. If you really want to increase the rate of the process, try to get your hands on some muck from an old filter. Just smearing some of the brown stuff from their filter onto yours will add a great deal of bacteria and things will start to move forward more quickly. If you can actually get a piece of used media (it has to be in a tank currently, and kept wet the entire time) and add that to your filter, anyway that it will fit, that will boost things along even faster.

Patience is the name of the game in a fishless cycle. Water changes and patience is the name of the game in a fish-in cycle. Doing it this way reduces the stress, but increases the impatience.

 

[wiz83]

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!!!

Day 15, still no drop in ammonia, and no spike in nitrite at all.

I did some research, and read some tanks having stalled cycle, and things like that. So I did a 75% water change conditioned with Nutrafin Aqua+Plus.

Temp set at 31C, pH at 7.5, that's my tap water's pH, and I tested it again. Now, the Ammonia PPM in between 1.0 and 2.0, nitrite is at 0.

I think I'm going to let it run for a day with the filter, tomorrow I'll put enough ammonia to make it between 2 to 3ppm, the color in between, try to get 2.5ppm if it helps. I'm going to use fishforums.net's calculator to add 1 more ppm worth of ammonia.

I can't get ahold of old filter, I wanted to get them from LFS, but was told against it by someone else, because I don't know how healthy their fishes are, since they have high fish turnovers. I guess I'll just let it run.

Oh yeah, I inspected the mechanical filter part, there is one very small spider stucked, dead in between. Should I remove it? Or should I leave it alone to decompose, to help with bacteria growth? I didn't wash my filter at all, because I don't want to disturb it.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

There's no reason to wash it yet. The rinsing is just to keep the water able to flow after the build-up starts. You don't have any build up.


Not using bacteria from the LFS makes sense... I was suggesting a friend's tank, if possible. Someone that you can trust has healthy fish. The stalled cycle generally happens during the 2nd phase (nitrite spike). Although there are some cycles that just seem to take forever. Give it a month before worrying. This is completely normal. Some fishless cycles can take 3 months or even longer. Some can happen in as few as 6 weeks. One option you can use to help boost things a bit is to dose it with a touch of fish food, if you have some, rather than just the pure ammonia. The fish food will break down to provide the ammonia, but it will also add countless other minerals, etc. You can also boost the pH with some baking soda. This is unsafe during a fish-in cycle, but since the last step of the fishless cycle is to empty the tank and start with fresh water, this can just help your bacteria develop a bit faster. You'll goal is a pH of 8.4. This also increases the kH, which means that once your cycle really takes off and the nitrates start to build, the pH will remain more stable, which is very beneficial to the bacteria as well. The bacteria will have a bit of an adjustment period (day or so) after the pH change at the end. So, after adding fish you still need top keep a close watch on the ammonia/nitrite, etc.

 

[wiz83]

My neighbor has a fish pond, and has a bunch of kois. Do you suggest me getting a few piece of his ceramic filter media? Even if I manage to borrow some from my neighbor, where do you suggest me putting it into? My HOB filter is pretty small, can I just put it in the middle of the tank, right above the gravel? I don't know if my neighbor is going to even let me have em, but if he does, what should I do with it?

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Can you tell me which filter you have?

I have a HOB, and I keep ceramics in the back just so that no matter what, I always have some cycled material to move to anywhere that I want to...

 

[wiz83]

I can't find the brand of the HOB, but it's one of those that runs 120 Gallon per Hour. My tank 12 Gallons.

It's day 18, temp at 30C, Ammonia at 2.5, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 0.

No signs of bacteria.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Well, if you could get a bit of filter material from your neighbor, just put it in the back of the filter as best you can. It will be fine. The bacteria might be slightly different, but it should still work. The key to a fishless cycle though, is to remain patient. Natural processes take time.