Fishelss Cycling 1 Day In Amonia Almost Down To 0

[StatMan]

So cycling a new tank, well a secondhand one.

When I got the tank it had been totaly emptied it came with an Eheim 2026 Filter and that had been in use up until the day I collected it.

I bought a new filter pad for it on reccomedation of the seller and fired the tank up 48 hours after it had been shut down, there was a small amount of water in the filter when re-connected.

I have added Soil substrate and gravel a few rocks and added the water.

Yesterday added the required amonut of ammonia, as per the site calculator. Following the post here:

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=113861

Hope that works above post topic link doesn't work on Windows 7 IE 8!!

Anyway tested the water today and the ammonia is showing as being yellow which is none or next to no ammonia.

So do I assume that some of the bacteria survived and I am picking up further down the cycle. Is there something Else wrong?

Do I just add more Ammonia tonight and continue, should I do Nitrite/Nitrate tests?

Confused.

StatMan

 

[ahodge84]

I would run the tests for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate after adding ammonia one more time. I would err on the safe side, but it sounds like you did something similar to what I recently did - vastly cut down on cycling time by using "old" filter media. Keep us posted.

 

[Ficious]

I'd think the bacteria would die in 48 hours...but who knows it might have stayed wet...I always use mature media and never have to cycle my tank...keep the tests goin...all three types and let us know

 

[StatMan]

So held off doing anything last night. Came in tonight and tested the water fully, these were the results:

Ammonia, Less than 0.1 mg/litre
Nitrite, approx 0.1 mg/litre
Nitrate, approx 60 mg/litre

I added another 10 ml of ammonia to the tank (240L/ 50L of substrate rock plus filter so approx 200L of water)

Left it for 1/2 hour and tested again, the ammonia still showing as less than 0.1 mg/litre

The ammonia is 10% and knocks you sideways if you inhale it.

So does this mean the tank is dealing with the ammonia, or am I just doing something wrong? I am prepare to spend time getting this set-up right so want to know if I got a lucky break. I do not plan to plant the tank until 3rd week of Feb at the earliest and then fish a week later.

Only thing that is different compared with the article is the Ammonia in the test kit is measured in mg/litre not ppm

Any advice or do Istart to move on through the cycling process?

StatMan


A couple of additional points that might help:

The pevious owner was breeding angels in this tank, when I started up the filter there were about 20 eggs tht appeared in the tank.

One of the rocks had a fw green patches on it, they are now starting to spread slightly across the rock.

StatMan

 

[ahodge84]

So held off doing anything last night. Came in tonight and tested the water fully, these were the results:

Ammonia, Less than 0.1 mg/litre
Nitrite, approx 0.1 mg/litre
Nitrate, approx 60 mg/litre

I added another 10 ml of ammonia to the tank (240L/ 50L of substrate rock plus filter so approx 200L of water)

Left it for 1/2 hour and tested again, the ammonia still showing as less than 0.1 mg/litre

The ammonia is 10% and knocks you sideways if you inhale it.

So does this mean the tank is dealing with the ammonia, or am I just doing something wrong? I am prepare to spend time getting this set-up right so want to know if I got a lucky break. I do not plan to plant the tank until 3rd week of Feb at the earliest and then fish a week later.

Only thing that is different compared with the article is the Ammonia in the test kit is measured in mg/litre not ppm

Any advice or do Istart to move on through the cycling process?

StatMan


A couple of additional points that might help:

The pevious owner was breeding angels in this tank, when I started up the filter there were about 20 eggs tht appeared in the tank.

One of the rocks had a fw green patches on it, they are now starting to spread slightly across the rock.

StatMan

It sounds to me, good sir, that you are ready to roll. Of course, I am sure that you plan on starting with just a few fish and working your way up to whatever you want your "full" stock to be. Keep us posted!

 

[Keithoms]

On a side note, are you using liquid reagent tests, or paper strip tests?

 

[LauraFrog]

What are you using to dechlorinate the water? Sometimes water treatments that remove chloramine as well as chlorine neutralise the ammonia resulting in zero readings.

What is your tapwater nitrate reading?

 

[StatMan]

What are you using to dechlorinate the water? Sometimes water treatments that remove chloramine as well as chlorine neutralise the ammonia resulting in zero readings.

What is your tapwater nitrate reading?

Using Interpet Fresh Start to dechlorinate the water, it says "FRESH START conditions tap water by removing toxic chlorine and heavy metals. It adds a natural colloid which protects fishes' delicate skin and gill membranes. For use only in coldwater and tropical freshwater aquariums."

Tapwater nitrate readin is approximately 30 mg / litre

On a side note, are you using liquid reagent tests, or paper strip tests?

I am using an interpet Easy Test Kit.

This is a tablet based kit

Ammonia - dilute tablets 1 and 2 in 5 ml of aquarium water, leave for 10 minutes
Nitrite - dilute one tablet in 10ml of water
Nitrate - dilute tablet one in 10ml of water, add tablet 2 shak for 60 seconds then wait 5 minutes to measure results.
Broad ph - dilute one tablet in 10 ml of water

StatMan

 

[StatMan]

What are you using to dechlorinate the water? Sometimes water treatments that remove chloramine as well as chlorine neutralise the ammonia resulting in zero readings.

What is your tapwater nitrate reading?

Using Interpet Fresh Start to dechlorinate the water, it says "FRESH START conditions tap water by removing toxic chlorine and heavy metals. It adds a natural colloid which protects fishes' delicate skin and gill membranes. For use only in coldwater and tropical freshwater aquariums."

Tapwater nitrate readin is approximately 30 mg / litre

On a side note, are you using liquid reagent tests, or paper strip tests?

I am using an interpet Easy Test Kit.

This is a tablet based kit

Ammonia - dilute tablets 1 and 2 in 5 ml of aquarium water, leave for 10 minutes
Nitrite - dilute one tablet in 10ml of water
Nitrate - dilute tablet one in 10ml of water, add tablet 2 shak for 60 seconds then wait 5 minutes to measure results.
Broad ph - dilute one tablet in 10 ml of water

StatMan

I have now retested the water this evening having taken no action yesterday

Ammonia <0.1 mg / litre
Nitrite approx 0.7 mg / litre
Nitrate approx 80 mg / litre

I have now added enough ammonia to take the tank back to 5ppm.

So I believe I should test inthe morning and look for a lower Nitrite reading and hopefully still 0 Ammonia, correct?

StatMan

 

[OldMan47]

You sound like you are making good progress. A few more days of testing and make sure your ammonia and nitrite are dropping as low as you can detect. It is entirely possible that your mature filter having just a bit of water in it has kept the bacteria alive. They would have stayed wet and the canister being almost empty means they would have seen lots of oxygen. That means it would almost act like a biowheel for the bacteria that were in there. The only thing missing would be ammonia. If the filter was not cleaned before you set it up, it probably had enough organics in it to decay and even provide its own ammonia source.

 

[StatMan]

You sound like you are making good progress. A few more days of testing and make sure your ammonia and nitrite are dropping as low as you can detect. It is entirely possible that your mature filter having just a bit of water in it has kept the bacteria alive. They would have stayed wet and the canister being almost empty means they would have seen lots of oxygen. That means it would almost act like a biowheel for the bacteria that were in there. The only thing missing would be ammonia. If the filter was not cleaned before you set it up, it probably had enough organics in it to decay and even provide its own ammonia source.

Tested ammonia this morning:

Bsck to <0.1 mg litre added another 10ml.

Tested this evening 12 hours later

Ammonia 0.2mg / litre
Nitrite 3.0mg / litre
Nitrate 80mg / litre

So have added 8ml of ammonia

I guess I am getting close but need to get the Nitrite levels dropping also.

Couple of other bits of information, there was a rock that had a small amount of "dried" algae on it, this has now multiplied several fold.

Also I have as suggested in the article pushed the tanktemperature to 90 deg fahrenheit.

StatMan

 

[OldMan47]

It sounds like you are making very nice progress considering it is only day 4 or 5 of your fishless cycle.

 

[StatMan]

So added another 10ml of ammonia Monday night had to leave early this morning so could not do a test, but had dropped back to low again 24 hours later, however the Nitrite has now gone up to at least 4mg / litre maybe more it was brighter than the highest levle on the scale colour wise.

Nice if you like that deep shade of purple!!

So I guess I am looking for some more nitrite "eating" bacteria to develop.

Looking to move an air pump in as I have now removed one from another tank.

There does not seem to be a reference to whether lighting has any effect on the process, though I have not re-read all the replies to the originalpost recently. I currently have the tank lights set to run for a 12 hour period would extending / reducing this provide any benefit?

Thanks for all the input so far. Appreciate you helping a newbie learn how to do the process properly.

StatMan

 

[StatMan]

Checked again today, ammonia back to zero, 24 hours later Nitrites about 3.0 mg / litre so slightly lower than yesterday.

another 10ml added

 

[Miss Wiggle]

i'm a little confused, earlier on did you say you added ammonia, tested half an hr later and the reading was 0.1mg/l?

because that seems very quick to me, suspiciously quick, the tablet tests are not as accurate as the liquid reagent based ones we normally recommend so I'm slightly dubious if your results are correct.

(by the way mg/l and ppm are exactly the same)