First Fishless Cycle!

[Fish_Newb]

The tank is a small 6.6usg which was originally set up for a Betta. Probably moving towards some Scarlet Danios or Dwarf Rasboras if I can find some; possibly a Dwarf Puffer or two.

Anyhow, set up about a week ago with plants etc, found out the test strip kit is useless, ordered a liquid one and that arrived yesterday. I have been adding ferts and a few fish food flakes to get the ball rolling (Hence the weird starting levels).
One question I do have is when do you check for each individual level? Ammonia obviously is everyday, but what about everything else?

Tap Water Test Results:

PH.... 7.5.... Ammonia 0ppm.... Nitrite 0ppm.... Nitrate 2.5ppm

Day 1: Ammonia 2.0ppm....PH 7.6.... Nitrite 0.25ppm.... Nitrate 5.0ppm
...... 1ml of 9.5% Ammonia added.
Day 2: Ammonia 5.0ppm....PH 7.6.... Nitrite ----ppm.... Nitrate -----
Day 3: Ammonia 4-5ppm....PH 7.6.... Nitrite ----ppm.... Nitrate -----
Day 4: Not tested
Day 5: Not tested
Day 6: Ammonia 1ppm......PH 7.6.... Nitrite 3-4ppm.... Nitrate 5.0ppm

Any questions or suggestions, let me know!

 

[loachman]

I wouldn't add ferts while cycling personally, but I don't know how heavily stocked with plants you are.

nitrIte I'd do as often as you do ammonia. nitrAte isn't as high a concern (for cycling), and if you're adding fertilizers it'll likely be a poor indicator of cycle progress. You should monitor it at least as often as you are fertilizing though.

 

[waterdrop]

Interesting loachman, I've not heard anyone express that much concern about interactions between ferts and nitrogen cycle water tests. I thought I had read from some of the planted members that the forms of nitrate involved in fertilizers were different from the form of nitrate typically being measured that's related to the nitrogen cycle. I've never carried out any before/after tests with my nitrate test kit and my Flourish Nitrogen liquid, but I suppose that might give an indication, do you think?

For the last couple years over here in the beginner section our take has been that fertilizers don't significantly effect the cycling process and we've considered it more or less a take it or leave it thing, depending on the choice of whether to include live plants during fishless cycling or not. (That choice is of course a different topic, but basically it hinges on the problem of getting too much algae because of the ammonia for the cycle and the light for the plants and many don't want algae ruining their more expensive plants.) In fact, to the extent that the fertilizer chosen happens to have some trace iron, that is considered a good thing for the bacteria, per comments from Hovanec.

Fish_Newb, to add my comments to your question: I agree with loachman about the test taking. You only need to test for ammonia once a day for the first week or two, then perhaps add a few nitrite tests to see if its appearing or has started to spike, after which it can be an added daily test. Tests can stay once per 24 hours (best performed at the same hour if possible) all the way through the nitrite spike, after which 12 and 24 hour tests will start. pH tests should be performed throughout the fishless cycling process to watch for pH dropping but they can be very infrequent at the beginning and gradually become more frequent until they are daily in the third phase along with the twice a day testing of ammonia and nitrite. A lot of tests that people do are "curiosity driven" and nitrate falls more into this category. Nitrate(NO3) tests probably need never be more than once weekly and need not start until perhaps the middle of the nitrite spike period. One of the most important aspects of testing is to have a simple spiral notebook (your "aquarium notebook") and record at least a line of results and/or observations each day, starting with the date and time and tank temperature. Usually beginners echo these stat results in the first post of their fishless cycling thread (like this one) or in a shared google spreadsheet/graph. Good Luck!

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Fish_Newb]

Cheers for the advice waterdrop!

I have been busy with my dissertation for uni the last week or so any unfortunately missed the last two days! Hopefully won't make much of a difference as it is the first week still.

Incidently, my dissertation is to with commercial overfishing... may post on here if there is any interest!

 

[waterdrop]

Interesting fish_newb, I'm sure most of us read news articles on that topic with interest! Couple of days can hurt at all when you're at the beginning and they can't even eat their first 5ppm anyway!

~~waterdrop~~