Cycling So Far

[danon]

I know i should have done this at the start but, after seeing everyone elses thought i would show my results for criticism/advice.

I have been keeping a log so here goes!!

TANK
Aqua One 980
98X60X47cm
215 litres volume
Filter flow rate 1000l/hr

Thursday 10th April,
Coral Sand 25kg
Ocean Rock 20kg
Added water and tap conditioner, air stone and heater.
Tap water PH 6.8

Friday 11th April,
PH now 7.6
Added Ammonia to 5.0ppm

Saturday 12th April,
Ammonia 5.0ppm
Nitrite 0.25ppm maybe a bit less

Sunday 13th April,
PH 7.8
Ammonia as yesterday

Monday 14th April,
PH 8.0
Ammonia as yesterday
Nitrite 2.0ppm
Nitrate 10ppm

Tuesday 15th April
PH 8.0
Ammonia 2.0? cant really tell
Nitrite 5.0ppm

Wednesday 16th April,
PH 8.0
Ammonia between 1.0 and 2.0ppm
Nitrite 5.0

Thursday 17th
Ammonia 0
Nitrite turned purple straight away so guessing that its off the chart
Added more Ammonia to fetch up to 4.0ppm

Friday 18th
Ammonia 0.25
Nitrite-off the chart
Added more Ammonia, now 4.0ppm

Saturday 19th
Ammonia 1.0ppm
Nitrite off the chart

Sunday 20th
Ammonia 0.25ppm
Nitrite-off the chart
Added more Ammonia, now 4.0ppm

Monday 21st
Ammonia 0
Nitrite-off the chart
Added more Ammonia, now 4.0ppm
Bright green algae appearing on my nice new coral sand and holey ocean rock

Tuesday 22nd
Ammonia 0
Nitrite off the chart
Added more Ammonia, now 4.0ppm
GH 10
KH 4
PH 8.0

Sorry to ramble on but, what do you think? Are you still awake

 

[stormy78]

Yours seems to be going along really well. My Ammonia just will not drop! It goes from 4ppm to 2 then stalls! At least you seeing it drop to 0 and getting your NitrIte spike

 

[waterdrop]

Wish I could have had a nitrite spike by day 5 instead of day 21 when mine was!

 

[rabbut]

Moving along very quickly

 

[backtotropical]

Sounds good, Danon. Stick with it!

 

[danon]

Wednesday 23rd April,
Ammonia 0
Nitrite off the chart
Added more Ammonia, now 4.0ppm

Thursday 24th April

Ammonia 0
Nitrite off the chart

I think my cycling is going ok and felt really comfortable, until i read the topic 'thought you might like to know' by Lionessn3cubs.

Backtropical has included a topic about 'cutting back on ammonia'.

I have been testing everything within a 24 HOUR period, but after reading that, i understand more ammonia means Nitrite going up and i have been adding Ammonia every day for 6 days to fetch it back up to 4.0ppm, after dropping to zero. Nitrite has been off the chart for 8 days( turns purple as soon as i add the solution ).

SO, do i keep doing as i am, OR do a large water change, how much is large- 50%,90%?

Is it ok to add water straight from the tap with dechlorinator, or will the coldness kill the existing bacteria?

Once changed i presume the Ammonia level will be 0ppm, do i add more Ammonia to bring it up to 4.0ppm or leave it a while, how long?

OR shall i add Ammonia tonight WITHOUT doing a water change and test again in 12 HOURS!!

Thanks for all the help so far, hoping for more help and good advice,

Cheers.

 

[danon]

If anyone can help it would be much appreciated, if i have to add more Ammonia, i want to add it soon so i can test 12 hours later, tomorow before work.

 

[pastabake]

Yes do a water change to get the nitrite down to a readable level. I would add 1ppm ammonia daily from now on ... this will be enough to keep the bacteria colony alive, but you can bring it back up to 4-5ppm if that makes you happy♠.

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, pastabake is right, you can just drop back down to "1ppm adds" at this point and proceed on, watching for the nitrite drops, because by the time nitrite finally drops, ammonia processing population will be larger too. Then you can ease back up to "4ppm adds" to prove to yourself that both populations can drop 4ppm of the thing they are supposed to process within 10 to 12 hours.

You can read my zig-zaggy approach to this in one of the longer posts I made in that Lioness thread. I was sort of doing each step to prove it to myself, but you could probably plow through, maybe even faster using what pasta is saying. (the only real difference being that you haven't seen that the "A-bacs" can process 4ppm down to zero prior to moving on through the stage 2 nitrite phase.)

~~waterdrop~~

 

[danon]

OK so i have just added 1ppm of ammonia and will check tomorow morning if it has gone down to 0.

Will do a water change tomorow, how much? 25%, 50%.

Come this far dont want to mess up now!!

 

[waterdrop]

I don't think it matters a lot - if I've followed right, it sounds like you and pasta or BTT were talking about using water changes to bring the 5.0+ nitrites down to 5 or 4 or 3 so that the nitrite test could detect some downward movement of nitrites in the next days or weeks. So whatever water changes bring you down to say nitrite 4.0 would be good I would say. You have to understand that this is inherently a difficult thing to accomplish - you have to add the 1 or 2ppm of ammonia once each day to maintain the first population, but each time you do that there will be some delayed pumping out of nitrite - you have a bunch of variables that are hard to follow (delayed additions of nitrite added to various levels of remaining nitrite from previous days and then you measuring it at various times of day probably) Meanwhile, the second population, lets call them the "N-bacs" are very slow, taking 24 hrs to double and maybe being hardly there to being with, may take a very long time to develop, much less process all the added up nitrite and finally be detectable by your nitrite test dropping.

So what it really comes down to is making sure you don't miss a day of putting in some ammonia, testing every day and being patient waiting for the nitrite to finally drop to zero (if API test, it will stay some shade of purple all this time and then suddenly one day go light blue.) Fiddling with smaller amounts of ammonia just mainly gains you hopeful glimpses of falling-nitrite tests so that you can feel good that progress is being made.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[danon]

Thanks waterdrop, THINK ive got it now. Will try and do the tests at same time each day, within a 12 hour period.

Will do a small water change tomorow of 25%, just to see if i can get the Nitrite reading on the chart, instead of sky high.

 

[danon]

Tested Ammonia this morning at 7.00 reading was 0. Thats 9 hours since Ammonia was last added.

Changed 25% of water today at 15:30.

At 17:00 Ammonia is still 0, obviously because i didnt add any this morning.

BUT Nitrite is still off the chart.

Sorry to soung STUPID but shall i now just add enough Ammonia to get it up to 2ppm and continue every day untill that Nitrite starts to come down.

Thanks again for the previous advice.

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, unfortunately you don't want to starve your first population (the ones who turn ammonia into nitrite), so the RDD article and others here recommend that you add a little ammonia each day (only once a day, despite it hitting zero sooner) even though this maintenance dose (4ppm, 3ppm, 2ppm - various recommendations during this second stage) will keep adding nitrite and making it harder to detect any drop in nitrite. Its part of the frustration of the process, many of us have experienced it I think.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[danon]

AT LAST ammonia has processed in under 12 hours,
Nitrite finally dropped to 0.25ppm
Fetched Ammonia up to 2.0ppm, this morning at 9:30.

Going to check it again in a minute, see whats happened. Fingers crossed!!