Day 14 Of The Fishless Cycle......

[Mowbz]

That looks about right, i would leave it at that, and wait for it to drop to around 0.25 or zero and dose again.

(The reason for dosing at 0.25 is convenience. Most wont be around the moment it hits 0ppm, and you'll sometimes find it at 0.25 ppm, which is as close as #39####! If you test at the normal time and its 0.50ppm or more, wait till the following day.)

Will keep an eye on this thread for results

 

[-Jo-]

That looks about right, i would leave it at that, and wait for it to drop to around 0.25 or zero and dose again.

(The reason for dosing at 0.25 is convenience. Most wont be around the moment it hits 0ppm, and you'll sometimes find it at 0.25 ppm, which is as close as #39####! If you test at the normal time and its 0.50ppm or more, wait till the following day.)

Will keep an eye on this thread for results

Thank you!! will be back when theres some more positive responses in the tank! Im so pleased that its finally showing signs of progress.

 

[Mowbz]

It might be a few days, it might be just one now that its down to a reasonable level, but either way, we're moving forward positively!

 

[-Jo-]

definitly looks like it will be a few days! Checked the water and the ammonia hasnt budged. Heres hoping for a lighter green tomorrow!

 

[-Jo-]

Day 21

Its been 2 days now that the Ammonia has been able to drop from 4.0ppm - 0/0.25ppm in 24 hours. Have just checked my water and topped up with a few drops of ammonia to bring it back to 4.0ppm.

I checked my Nitrite and Nitrate too.

Nitrite - 5.0ppm (changed purple straight away)
Nitrate - 0 ppm

is it now a case of waiting for the Nitrite to come down and also seeing if the ammonia can now stand a 12 hour gap in stead of 24?

 

[Mowbz]

Hey!

Its odd that your tank is doing 4ppm of ammonia in 24hrs and you have NO2 and no NO3... Do you have any plants in there at all?

I would stick at the 4ppm in 24hrs for a week and see if some nitrates come through. Its still 0.25 sometimes, i wouldn't move forward to 12hrly just yet.

But its still a good sign, something is happening as you have NO2

 

[Prime Ordeal]

Hey!

Its odd that your tank is doing 4ppm of ammonia in 24hrs and you have NO2 and no NO3... Do you have any plants in there at all?

The tank is just well into the first phase, i.e. the ammonia is being eaten up nicely but the nitrite eating bacteria haven't even got going yet, which is why the test turns purple immediately, it means the nitrite is off the scale high. And no nitrite eaters means no nitrate. It's not even worth testing for nitrate until you see nitrite back into the measurable range, i.e. below 5ppm, which may be a couple of weeks yet.

 

[-Jo-]

Hey!

Its odd that your tank is doing 4ppm of ammonia in 24hrs and you have NO2 and no NO3... Do you have any plants in there at all?

I would stick at the 4ppm in 24hrs for a week and see if some nitrates come through. Its still 0.25 sometimes, i wouldn't move forward to 12hrly just yet.

But its still a good sign, something is happening as you have NO2

It is strange i know im very confused! ha! especially as when I added my pictures of my water tests 8 days ago my Nitrate was at 5.0ppm, but now theres nothing. I don't have any plants in there at the moment - they are in a vase waiting to be put in when the cycling is done.

 

[Mowbz]

Oh well!

Carry on dosing with 4ppm until both ammonia and nitrite are down to zero, its going to be at least a week, perhaps a few, then you can look at switching 12hr

By that time, you'll likely have nitrates, lots

 

[-Jo-]

Oh well!

Carry on dosing with 4ppm until both ammonia and nitrite are down to zero, its going to be at least a week, perhaps a few, then you can look at switching 12hr

By that time, you'll likely have nitrates, lots

Will do Hopefully my plants will hold out in the vase! ha! will report back when i see zeros for ammonia and nitrite!

 

[-Jo-]

Ok, so I have just tested my water. Yesterday there were no nitrates, and now my tank is full of them!

Yesterdays readings at 7pm:

Ammonia - 0.25ppm
Nitrite - 5.0ppm (skyhigh)
Nitrate - 0ppm

added 5 drops of ammonia.

Todays readings at 7pm:

Ammonia - 1.0ppm
Nitrite - 5.0ppm (skyhigh)
Nitrate - 40ppm (although it could be more - colour is difficult to tell)

added 5 drops of ammonia.

I hope this is good progress that nitrates are showing - its quite a large leap from nothing to a really high reading in 24 hours. Im hoping its a good sign!

 

[Mowbz]

I would drop off the dosing at 1ppm and wait for zero, as its just going to build up to the point your at 4ppm before you dose otherwise.

I would wait for it to hit zero before dosing again, and give the nitrites a chance to catch up

Other than that, it still looks good, nitrates are a good sign nitrites are working, the purple should fade to blue soon, then you can switch to 12hr!

 

[-Jo-]

Brilliant, thanks for that advice. Will definitly start waiting for the ammonia to drop to 0ppm now. maybe im overdosing my tank with ammonia at the moment ha!

will keep you posted!

 

[DBT85]

You might want to do a Nitrite test with 50% tank water and 50% tap water. That way you'll essentially half the amount of Nitrite present and it might be low enough to give you a reading you can measure and then double to work out exactly where you are.

If you were to do this test and it still went the same purple then you know that your Nitrites are over 10ppm. If you did it and you got a different colour of say 3ppm then you know its only at 6ppm.

If you did do it and it was the same colour purple you could try doing a test with 1ml of tank water and 4ml of tap water (the line on the tubes is 5ml). That would mean you'd be able to measure Nitrite PPM upto 25ppm albeit only roughly. It still would give you an idea of how much you have in there though.

I've been backing off my Ammonia dosing to get the Nitrites back down to measurable levels since I can't change the water at the moment due to work.

 

[snazy]

Keep in mind too that most nitrAte tests normally convert nitrAte to nitrIte in order to get the nitrAte level. Which means that when there are present nitrItes, your test may always be showing a nitrAte reading. But that doesn't mean that there is any conversion of nitrItes to nitrAtes.