Cycling Diary

[Maxta]

10G Freshwater Glass Aquarium.

Cycling method to be used will be add & wait

Day 1 (12/03/07):
pH: 6.6
ammonia: 0 ppm
added ammonia to raise levels to 6 ppm

ammonia: ~6 ppm
nitrite: 0

Day 2 (13/03/07):
ammonia: ~4 ppm
nitrite: 0

Day 3 (14/03/07):
ammonia: ~4 ppm
nitrite: 0 (getting darker though)

Watch this space.

 

[Maxta]

Day 4 (15/03/07):

ammonia: ~3
nitrite: ~0 (same as yesterday)

Day 5 (16/03/07):

ammonia: ~3
nitrite: between 0 and 0.25 (definately getting darker)
nitrate: ~1 or 2



Why isnt my ammonia going down any quicker lol? Or does it usually take this long.

Also in the past day or two on my heaters suction cups, and on rubber ring at the top of the glass part on the heater, theres been some kind of growth. Its whitey/creamy/greyish. Any ideas what this is? This is the only place it is in my tank.

 

[Maxta]

Day 6 (17/03/07):


pH: N/A
ammonia: ~3
nitrite: ~0.50 (slightly darker)
nitrate: ~2


Ammonia levels look exactly the same as yesterday, nitrite has definately jumped up and matches 0.50 at least. Nitrate levels look slightly darker than yesterday, around 2.

Heres my graph which will be ammended each day obviously:

Day 7 (18/03/07):


pH: N/A
ammonia: ~2
nitrite: ~2 (slightly darker though)
nitrate: N/A


How come my nitrites seem to be peaking quite early and rapidly but my ammonia levels are staying quite constant, not much difference between yesterday and today....although it has dropped.

What happens if my nitrite "gos off the chart" and comes back down before my ammonia has even dropped to the point where i re-add ammonia?

 

[Maxta]

Day 8 (19/03/07):


pH: N/A
ammonia: ~0
nitrite: ~3
nitrate: ~10

Woohoo, my ammonia has gone, time to raise it back up to 3.

Is this looking healthy/on track?

 

[Maxta]

Day 18:

Ammonia bacteria are there and munch on it, nitrites wont budge.

 

[rdd1952]

Are you still adding ammonia every day? Are the nitrates going up?

 

[Maxta]

Yes i add ammonia daily, usually when the levels in the tank go below 0.5 ppm i raise them back upto around 2 ppm. I havent been testing for nitrates as much but these are the days i took those tests on

Day 1 to 4: 0 ppm

Day 5: 1 ppm

Day 6: 3 ppm

Day 7: 6 ppm

Day 8 & 9: 10 ppm


Day 15 i did a water change

Day 16: 5 ppm


Day 17 i did another water change

Day 18: 10 ppm

Day 19: ~5-10 ppm (nearer 10 though)

 

[rdd1952]

I don't understand where the ammonia is going if your nitrite and nitrate aren't going up. At this point, nitrite should be off the chart and nitrates should be climbing.

 

[Maxta]

Exactly. All i have in my tank is the filter, heater, black fine gravel and some small slate stones/pebbles.

I leave the lid of my tank open throughout the day, is there any possibility at all that it could evaporate? I also raise the filter a bit during the day so that it creates alot of water disturbance on the surface, and at night i push it down to stop the noise and also close the lid.


My nitrite peaked at 4 ppm on day 9 as you can see. And since then dropped to 2 and stayed at 2. Iv been reading some articles on the web and someone said that some tanks will peak at around 4 or 5. My nitrates have been climbing as you can kinda see, maybe the water changes brought the nitrate levels down a bit.

Ammonia is processed to Nitrite - im getting that.
Nitrite is processed to Nitrate - im getting that even though my nitrite levels are staying constantly at 2 ppm.

I too am confused.

 

[rdd1952]

I guess it's possible that you developed a colony to process the nitrite quicker than normal. I would hold off on the water changes and see how fast the nitrates climb. Keep adding about 3 to 4 ppm of ammonia a day (or when it drops). If the nitrate starts climbing steadily, then the nitrite is being processed but it should be returning to zero and not staying at 2 unless you have a faulty kit.

 

[Maxta]

Dont think the kit is faulty because iv used it on the other tank and its fine, and it was working fine for the earlier nitrite readings which led upto 4 and back to 2 and staying there.

 

[tmack]

Dont think the kit is faulty because iv used it on the other tank and its fine, and it was working fine for the earlier nitrite readings which led upto 4 and back to 2 and staying there.

I'm also surprised that your nitrates haven't gone up more than they have. If you're using the API nitrate test check out this link to be sure you're getting an accurate nitrate reading:

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=180830&hl=

The last tank I cycled (with fish) also had a period of about 2 weeks with no free ammonia, but a persistant level of 2ppm nitrites, but my nitrates did get up to 40ppm at one point. I finally just dropped all water changes for a week and at the end of that week the nitrites were at zero. I don't think you can do this with fishless cycling as you need a source of ammonia to keep things going. If your nitrates do turn out to be higher than you thought, and if all else fails, you might try dropping back on the ammonia you're adding and skip any water changes you may be doing for a week, & see what happens. At least you can try things without losing any fish!

 

[Maxta]

Yes i shake the bottle for 30 or so seconds. The last nitrate test i did earlier i banged it off my bed, wall, desk and shook for 30 seconds.

Sometimes i have problems with nitrate bottle 2, il be sitting there dropping it into the tube and suddenly itl just stop after a few drops, i squeeze and still nothing will come out, the bottle is brand new and practically full. So i put the top back on and shake for a few seconds and then add more drops.

Maybe the two water changes that i did throughout the week lowered the nitrate levels, i dont know.

About to do my tests shortly so il post all three results i get at the same time.

BTW i have a stingray filter, which has two small media cartridges either side of the sponge/filter. Inside those contain carbon and zeolite pieces. Could this have any effect on the chemical readings?

 

[rdd1952]

I've never used it but I think zeolite is supposed to remove nitrate. That could be why it isn't climbing.

 

[Maxta]

Il be removing both the carbon and zeolite as soon as my matrix stuff comes, possibly tomorow but probably monday/tuesday.

And good, thats that thing identified.