Doggiebags 2nd Fishless Cycle, With Help.....using Seachem Stability

[doggiebag]

geez, calm down guys.......for starters, Im a woman.

Secondly I would like to state here and now that Stability, is not 'my new favourite product'........I had some sitting around doing nothing and thought, as I was doing two fishless cycles it may be interesting to see what happened if I added this to one of them, for fun, not to really believe these things work !!!!!!!! I also thought it may be of interest to others to be able to compare two cycles together, that was all. I actually didn't care if it worked or not, I wasn't fussed either way.
I am not under any delusions guys, just merely trying to learn the right way to look after my fish and get some experienced advice along the way.

As a matter of interest my other cycle seems to be moving ahead of this one at this stage. This one seemed quicker on the ammonia and nitrite in 24 hours stage, but the other seems to be just edging ahead at the 12 hours mark.

Okay, that all cleared up lol Hope we can get back to general advice now and you all know Im not some idiot who thinks I can cycle from a bottle, I know better than that, honest guys

 

[OldMan47]

Sorry Doggiebag. I have only tried to judge your thoughts by your posts. If it was just a bit of humor in the form of excess I missed it. I seldom do know the gender of a person on here so unless the logon suggests a particular one so I usually just say he. Now that I know better I can change that for you.

 

[doggiebag]

no worries, I wasn't trying to be off with anyone, sorry if it came across that way, this can be a very cold medium to judge tone can't it?
Here guys no hard feelings lol

Anyway, Im still here waiting for the 12 hour tests to go to 0, ammonia is there and has been for a while now, just waiting for nitrites to catch up on both tanks now. The waiting is a killer lol
Still, this is still far easier than fish-in cycles, at least my little guys are all safe now, and waiting fort heir new home to be ready.

I really do appreciate the pointers and guidance I get from all you guys, otherwise I would never know when it was going wrong or not. I guess I just thought that once the nitrite bacs were there then the 12 hour bit would be quick, alas no, its another waiting game lol I did a large wc last week to be sure to keep the nitrates down, but the PH is starting to slowly drop, nothing severe yet, gone from 8.0 to 7.6 but will be keeping an eye on it and maybe do another wc to guard against a crash.

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, apologies from me too. I tend to be a straight-up, not very naturally funny guy so I end up trying a bit harder than I should for attempts at humor to spice up the usually dry water topics (see, trying too hard again )

~~waterdrop~~

 

[doggiebag]

Day 20: 18/09/09:
AM TEST: ph 7.8, ammonia 0, nitrite 0 added 4-5 ppm ammonia
PM TEST: ammonia 0, nitrite 0 at last we have 0's at 12 hours !!!!

what do I do now? is this where I do the qualifying week?

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, that's the signal to start the qualifying week. If it fails on one of the days, start the qualifying week over but if it continues to drop 5ppm to zeros within 12 hours each day for a week then you are not only cycled but very unlikely to suffer a mini-cycle when you first add fish.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[doggiebag]

brilliant, thanks so much for your guidance WD......now its gotten exciting, actually I have really enjoyed doing the fishless, the stress levels are much better than fish-in lol and the buzz you get when the levels drop is fab



fingers crossed both tanks stay on zeros now, my wcmm need their new tank to spread their fins.

 

[doggiebag]

Day 21: 19/09/09:
AM TEST: ammonia 0, nitrite 0 added 4-5 ppm ammonia
PM TEST: ammonia 0, nitrite 0.50

Day 22: 20/09/09:
AM TEST: ammonia 0, nitrite 0 added 4-5 ppm ammonia
PM TEST: ammonia 0, nitrite 0.50

Day 23: 21/09/09:
AM TEST: ammonia 0, nitrite 0 added 4-5 ppm ammonia
PM TEST: ammonia 0, nitrite 1.0

Day 24: 22/09/09:
AM TEST: ammonia 0, nitrite 0 added 4-5 ppm ammonia
PM TEST: ammonia 0, nitrite 1.00

Day 25: 23/09/09:
AM TEST: ammonia 0, nitrite 0, 90% waterchange, added 4-5 ppm ammonia
PM TEST: ammonia 0, nitrite 1.0

Day 26: 24/09/09:
AM TEST: ammonia 0, nitrite 0 added 4-5 ppm ammonia
PM TEST: ammonia 0, nitrite 1.0

Day 27: 25/09/09:
AM TEST: ph 7.8, ammonia 0, nitrite 0 added 4-5 ppm ammonia
PM TEST: ammonia 0, nitrite 0.25

Day 28: 26/09/09:
AM TEST: ammonia 0, nitrite 0 added 4-5 ppm ammonia
PM TEST: ammonia 0, nitrite 1.0

Day 29: 27/09/09:
AM TEST: ammonia 0, nitrite 0 added 4-5 ppm ammonia
PM TEST: ammonia 0, nitrite 1.0

Day 30: 28/09/09:
AM TEST: ammonia 0, nitrite 0 added 4 ppm ammonia
PM TEST: ammonia 0, nitrite 0

Day 31: 29/09/09:
AM TEST: ammonia 0, nitrite 0 added 4 ppm ammonia
PM TEST: ammonia 0, nitrite 1.0

 

[doggiebag]

Day 32: 30/09/09:
AM TEST:ammonia 0, nitrite 0, added 4ppm ammonia
PM TEST:ammonia 0, nitrite 1.0 this is getting annoying now, one day 0 the next 1 arrggghhhh, tested at 14 hours 0.25 nitrite

 

[waterdrop]

Hearing this has become so common though that I tend to think right away "the sticking thing in the third and final phase, sigh" Two observations are that I do think if one waits it out long enough it will finally go to solid zero.. my sense is we've seen plenty of those. But also we've seen a few where people who had a very long fishless cycle and then got into a long sticking phase at the end like this just gave up, did the big water change, got fish and then we observed that it did ok. But that choice also carried more risk that the filter might still stumble after first fish and mini-cycle a bit, but I don't have a feel for how much we've seen that.

I suppose you could consider the heresy of an extremely light filter sponge squeeze clean along with a large gravel-clean-water-change and recharge of ammonia to see it that kickstarts it.. after all that's what it will be receiving very soon, after you get fish.. so I sometimes think this might not be such a bad transitional behavior.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[doggiebag]

Thanks WD.........the ph levels are okay and I did do a large waterchange on both tanks a little while ago, so not sure it would kickstart it now? The filter on this and my other one both are okay too, not clogged or mucky, they both look fairly clean, so maybe a light clean my not be wise? Not doubting you, just checking lol

Its just so annoying to get 0's at 12 hours for a day or two then get 1 then 0 next day then back to 1 again........this is the most frustrating bit so far.......both tanks are nearly on 0 at 14-15 hours when they do stick at 1 on 12hours.....not sure what that means lol but it does clear to 0's within 15 hours, and some days at 12 hours, just not everyday.......

will just wait it out maybe another week and see where Im at...........was really hoping it would be done this weekend as Hubby has the week off work next week and it would have been great timing for fish shopping lol

 

[waterdrop]

If you're not planning to fully stock then your cycling might be "good enough" and you could salvage the good timing of your husband's week off. We like to get the extra "robustness" of a filter truly passing the 12-hour-double-zero test but sometimes I wonder what's really going on with these longer "sticking" cases, its not clear that the filter might not already be ready to do well with fish.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[doggiebag]

Im going to be a good girl and try my best to be patient, I am going to do the best by my fish, even if it goes against my impatient nature lol
I had reduced the temp gradually from 29c to 26c over the past 2 weeks as I was concerned about a sudden drop off in temp at the end (had read in another thread about the bacteria dying off when the temp dropped after cycling). I now think this may have slowed the process (I did this at the first 12 hour 0's) so I have today turned both back up to 29c......lets see if it speeds up now..................

 

[doggiebag]

Day 33: 01/10/09:
AM TEST:ammonia 0, nitrite 0, added 4ppm ammonia
PM TEST:ammonia 0, nitrite 1.0

Day 34: 02/10/09:
AM TEST:ammonia 0, nitrite 0, added 4ppm ammonia
PM TEST:ammonia 0, nitrite 0.50

Day 35: 03/10/09:
AM TEST:ammonia 0, nitrite 0, added 4ppm ammonia
PM TEST:ammonia 0, nitrite 1.0

Day 36: 04/10/09:
AM TEST:ammonia 0, nitrite 0, added 4ppm ammonia
PM TEST:ammonia 0, nitrite 1.0

Day 37: 05/10/09:
AM TEST:ammonia 0, nitrite 0, added 4ppm ammonia
PM TEST:ammonia 0, nitrite 0.25

Day 38: 06/10/09:
AM TEST:ammonia 0, nitrite 0, added 4ppm ammonia
PM TEST:ammonia 0, nitrite 0.25

Day 39: 07/10/09:
AM TEST:ammonia 0, nitrite 0, added 4ppm ammonia
PM TEST:ammonia 0, nitrite 0.25

Day 40: 08/10/09:
AM TEST:ammonia 0, nitrite 0, added 4ppm ammonia
PM TEST:ammonia 0, nitrite 0.50

Day 41: 09/10/09:
AM TEST:ammonia 0, nitrite 0, added 4ppm ammonia
PM TEST:ammonia 0, nitrite 0.25

Day 42: 10/10/09:
AM TEST:ammonia 0, nitrite 0, added 4ppm ammonia
PM TEST:ammonia 0, nitrite 0.25

Day 43: 11/10/09:
AM TEST:ammonia 0, nitrite 0, added 4ppm ammonia
PM TEST:ammonia 0, nitrite 0

Day 44: 12/10/09:
AM TEST:ammonia 0, nitrite 0, added 4ppm ammonia
PM TEST:

 

[waterdrop]

Looks like your qualifying week may be starting.

~~waterdrop~~