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

[-Jo-]

Been a fair few days since ive been on here! its taken me a while to see a reduction in Nitrites and at last it has settled on blue! woo!!

My tank reading for tonight is:

Ammonia: 0.25ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 10ppm

I have not added any amonia to the tank tonight as it is still on 0.25ppm and not 0. Is it time to move onto 12 hour testing?

very happy to at last see a blue nitrite test tube instead of instant purple

 

[Mowbz]

Ha brilliant!

I would wait till it is doing the full 4ppm to 0 in 24 hrs before switching to 12hrly, but that might only be a few days away to be honest!

 

[-Jo-]

phew thats great news! Its been just over a month and im finally getting there. ha! very excited to have finally seen blue nitrite! Will let you know when its finally getting rid of ammonia completly in 24 hours!

 

[-Jo-]

just a quick question really! worrying a bit!

I added ammonia to the tank last night to keep it topped up. These are my readings after 24 hours:

Ammonia: 0.50ppm
Nitrite: 0.50ppm
Nitrate: 40 ppm

Is it ok for the Nitrite and Nitrate to be creeping up again? considering that Nitrite was on blue yesteday, and now its on light purple. I thought it would hang around on blue now. I am hoping that tomorrow, the ammonia would have dropped back to 0ppm as before and the Nitrite also.

 

[-Jo-]

after my last post, my nitrite has been going back to light blue when the ammonia is reaching 0ppm - which is a great sign. However, im getting slightly annoyed that the variations in time that the ammonia and nitrite go back to 0ppm vary - sometimes its 24 hours, sometimes its a lot longer, and tonight im noticing that ammonia is 0.50ppm and nitrite is 0ppm.

I cant actually say that the ammonia and nitrite is being 'consumed' in 24 hours because it varies. Im just hoping it gets more settled into 24 hours as i literally cannot wait to test it for 12 hours!

 

[Mowbz]

Your still doing ok.

A little while after the ammonia spikes, the nitrite will, then the nitrates will creep up, this is normal, and represents each part of the nitrogen cycle. The nitrite spike will happen a few hours after the ammonia shows on its way down (much longer near the start of the cycle, so you dont notice its "rhythm" much). When the ammonia hits zero, its common for the nitrite to take a few hours to catch up.

Its still going well, you just need to wait for the nitrite to catch up with the ammonia in terms of both zero'ing inside 24hrs.

Nearly there!

 

[-Jo-]

thank you for your reply - very helpful as always!

Currently Nitrite has gone back to 0ppm, Nitrate is still very high, and ammonia is 0.25ppm. I have a feeling i may have been a little to extreme with the dosage of my ammonia perhaps this time!

 

[Mowbz]

Nitrate will indeed likely be through the roof at the mo, you can do a water change when ammonia and nitrite next hits zero if you want, entirely up to you. If not, any plants in there will be eating it. (cant remeber if you put them back in or not!)

Even if you were "extreme", it seems like the nitrite has beaten the ammonia back to zero this time, so you might see a "bump" in nitrite a few hours time as it process the last bit of ammonia, but will be fine to dose again.



EDIT Spelling

 

[-Jo-]

no i havent put the plants in yet. I wanted to put them in when I do the big water change at the end of the cycle - and then leave it a few days to settle with the plants before getting the fish. Im hoping it wont change the water too much adding them in last minute!

 

[Mowbz]

You'll notice your nitrates wont be rising as much as they were, but its good for the plants to use it, and its less water changes in the maintenance of the tank

 

[-Jo-]

thank you for that! my nitrates havent budged for a few days - at about 80ppm. ammonia is still at 0.25ppm which is a pain! cant wait for the ammonia to be 0ppm in 24 hour periods. its day 39 now! ha!

 

[snazy]

Are you still dosing every 24 hours?
The ammonia should really be going to 0 by now. Wait before you redose ammonia for it to clear to 0 and see how long it takes. The ammonia or nitrIte bacs won't die off if kept hungry for quite a while. Test your Ph and NitrAtes. What are they?
If you did not do a water change since starting the cycle all these acidifying processes can produce stuff that can crash your Ph and as a result slow down the cycle.

 

[-Jo-]

I have done 1 water change during the cycle, and will do a 2nd one when the cycle has finished. or would you suggest doing another one before the end of the cycle?

I have been waiting for ammonia to drop to 0 before adding ammonia into the tank. I tested it at 5pm last night and ammonia was 0.25ppm. I tested it at midday today and ammonia read 0ppm - so i have added 4 drops of ammonia. so ammonia went down to 0ppm in 19 hours, which is a good sign! especially as im on day 42!! Im getting a little frustrated that im not on 12 hour cycling! ha!

 

[-Jo-]

OK, so its Day 43 today, and im a little confused. I did a complete tank test last night - here are the results:

Ammonia: 0.50ppm
Nitrite: 0.25ppm
Nitrate: 80ppm
PH: 6.6
High PH: 7

My ammonia and nitrite do drop to zero - but its very irregular. Sometimes it takes 19 hours, sometimes its 24, and sometimes it takes a few days. It hasnt stuck to a particular pattern yet (eg the 24 hour period or 12 hour period) as its changing all the time it seems. I would have thought that by now I could safely say - yes, ammonia and nitrite are definitely going down to 0ppm in 24 hours.

I am having my water tested in 4 hours (by my sister as im at work) as then that would be a complete 24 hours as this morning my ammonia is reading 0.25ppm. so it is going down, but im just hoping that it gets to 0ppm.

Should I be doing any water changes yet? I jave already done one during the cycle - do i need to do another one before the end of the cycle? Im just confused as I would have thought I would be seeing a more regular pattern now.

Thanks for your help!

 

[snazy]

I am not sure what you mean by Ph-6.6 and High Ph-7.0, but looking at your previous posts it seems you had a Ph of 7.6 and High Ph-8.0
What is the Ph of the water normally? Has the Ph dropped? If yes, then do a huge water change again as you can stall your cycle if the Ph keeps dropping.
As for the ammonia and nitrite not dropping to 0 in 12 hours I think this is not entirely necessary depending on your initial stocking plans.