Fish Less And Dosing

[tmiller]

So just for clarification,
My fishless tank is easily processing 3-4ppm of ammonia in 12 hrs ( actually a bit quicker) and was curious.
Should I raise it back up right away or just dose the ammonia once a day?
I'm assuming once a day due to this line

Once the ammonia is dropping from around 4 ppm back to zero in 12 hours or less you have sufficient bacteria to handle the ammonia your fish load produces. Continue to add ammonia daily as you must feed the bacteria that have formed or they will begin to die off.

I do have Nitrites and Nitrates off the chart so that is a good sign IMO

 

[Prime Ordeal]

You can safely let the ammonia fall to zero and dose again the following day, it won't harm the bacteria at all (contrary to the advice in that quote).

 

[tmiller]

Kinda what I thought but good to have clarification.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

I will see Prime's one day and raise him a few days. And I will still have room to re-raise when he raises me. Contrary to the urban myths on most fish sites, the bacteria are much hardier than you normally will read. Not only can they survive no food for quite some time, they are also tougher, once established, in terms of rinsing filter media too.

What is actually dangerous for the bacteria is higher levels of ammonia or nitrite- over 5ppm. When levels exceed these numbers you are inhibiting the bacteria and as the ppm rises more, you are starting to kill them. The easiest way to stall a cycle is to dose more ammonia than is really required since that will also lead to too much nitrite and the result is almost always a stalled cycle.

 

[CezzaXV]

The generally done thing is testing every 12 hours and dosing every 24.

 

[tmiller]

So dose once a day, keep nitrites below 5ppm with water changes, easy enough thanks for the clarifications

 

[drobbyb]

+1 to TwoTankAmin. I noticed on my last fish-less cycle that once my nitrites got over 5 ppm it took them forever to drop until I started performing water changes. No need to overfeed the bacteria. Once you get your nitrites processing well, start dosing daily again for your qualifying week. This should eliminate any "blips" that might endanger your new stock.

 

[tmiller]

I am loving the feedback..
Another question.
I dropped my dosing to around 2.5 to 3ish and noticed within 8 hrs my nitrites were super high and ammonia gone, Nitrates are showing quite measurably...

I am NOT going to stock this tank to capacity right off by any means, but rather stock juvenile fish that will grow to capacity over the course of a year or so.

Would it be wiser to dose to maybe 1ppm and see more readable test results?
I really don't need a huge colony of bacteria right off.

Thanks for all the info

 

[Prime Ordeal]

1ppm is far more sensible in general and particularly when, as in your case, you don't intend to fully stock immediately.

The 5ppm dosing is massively excessive and is a hangup this forum will eventually grow out of.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

I really wish Prime was correct when he says this site will grow out of the overly heavy and counterproductive ammonia dosing. This is not the only site that keeps promulgating the 4 and 5 ppm levels of dosing. This is one of the greatest urban aquarium myths that abound on the internet. It is why there are so many threads about stalled cycles or cycles that take months not weeks..

A few members here do champion the lower levels, but I am afraid we are just a few small voices shouting into hurricane force winds

 

[tmiller]

I would have to say after my questions, and experience I personally will stick to the lower doings.
The first few readings after nitrites started to show using 4ppm were completely useless (totally off the scale).
After I drained, refilled, and dosed much lower I was able to monitor ALL lvl's much easier.(with irregular at my connivance water changes.)

I started two tanks on 5/16. One with donated media, one without.
The tank with donated media is happily, and fully processing around 1ppm in 12hrs on 5/25 and will be drained, refilled n and have roughly 11-13 inches of fish (55 gallon tank)added in the next few days if readings stay stable.
I will monitor for a bit after to make sure they are not exceeding my bacteria's capacities.

The tank without media added is still somewhere in the nitrite spike stage and needs drained down so I can get a decent reading on them.

I actually aimed for .50ish and as I started to see Nitrite possessing I am slowly upping to maybe 1.5ppm tops (I have low stocking goals at first).

I WILL NOT argue the 5ppm with any since I haven't personally seen the stalled cycle but can see how it could happen.
I also somewhat understand the "go big" attitude.

But For me the lower numbers Make perfect sense and worked quite nicely.

 

[FishFanatic04]

I have said in a few places that dosing high wastes a lot of time and energy. I even cycled a few tanks by doing water changes daily...my tap water has 1.0 ppm ammonia.

 

[pdludbrooke]

I have said in a few places that dosing high wastes a lot of time and energy. I even cycled a few tanks by doing water changes daily...my tap water has 1.0 ppm ammonia.

I always dosed 3 ppm Ammonia during my cycle, I felt the 5ppm was a bit excessive, and I do feel IMO you should keep the nitrites down as prime ordeal has said in a previous thread, with water changes same temp as your cycling tank.

 

[tmiller]

I have said in a few places that dosing high wastes a lot of time and energy. I even cycled a few tanks by doing water changes daily...my tap water has 1.0 ppm ammonia.

My tap being at .25 may need a nudge but totally viable in my limited experience.

I would propose a graduated dosing schedule i think you could reach the 5ppm (why??) within the same time frame without any disruption and still monitor all readings.. but what would i know just yet...

you all , thanks are not enough for the info gained here!!!