Fishless Cycle. Am i doing it rite.

[Cossack1977]

Im 8 days into a fishless cycle and just want to make sure its going ok.
Is it normal to have a reading high in both ammonium and nitrite.

ammonium: 5mg/l
nitrite: 5mg/l

bacteria seeded in the form of noodles from and exstablished tank.

 

[luxum]

Yes, that's fine. Now that you have nitrite you should cut your daily dose in half. Soon the ammonia will drop and it will be at zero 8-12 hours after you add the ammonia. The nitrite spike will take forever to drop, but it will. Just keep at it.

 

[Cossack1977]

i dropped the amount of ammonia i have been putting in by half about 2 days ago and there has been no movement on the ammonium figures. Is that normal or does that take a few days to drop also?

 

[nirvanarama]

yeah, it sounds fine

ammonia can drop after 3-4 days, while nitrite can take 2- weeks!!
but patience is the key!!

 

[kgrehm]

If i were you I would just wait and not add any more ammonia to the tank untill it goes down. That way you can see how much of the other bacteria you have so that you wont be having more time than you need.

 

[BirdofPray]

Do the nitrites go down gradually or is it like a spike, where one day they will be completely gone.

 

[tstenback]

Do the nitrites go down gradually or is it like a spike, where one day they will be completely gone.

They normally drop in a matter of hours. I had one tank that registered 5ppm of nitrite at midnight and at 7:30 am it was at .2. So they drop like a rock.

 

[tstenback]

Cossack1977:
If your ammonia level is holding steady then keep adding it however if it keeps increasing every day then stop adding it for awhile. I say this because if it stays the same every day then it means the bacteria is using what you put in and you are left with what you started with. This bit you started with will also be consumed in the near future. If it keep going up it means that something has stalled the process and adding more often causes a very long delay. HTH

 

[luxum]

Do the nitrites go down gradually or is it like a spike, where one day they will be completely gone.

The times i have done this, for several weeks it will be so high it's off the chart, then one day, BAM! Zero.

 

[Cossack1977]

ok.

im at day 10 feels like ages.
ammonium and nitrite reading still the same.

5mg/l

Ive still been adding the same amount of ammonia since the nitrite spiked.

I guess fishless cycles are a hit and miss thing. Reading some post it can take any where from 10 days to 7 weeks.

I could do a cycle with fish in 2 weeks on average.

Im really starting to get sick of just looking at plants in my 75g tank

 

[Cossack1977]

13 days in and both ammonium and nitirite readings are zero.

is this possible to go from 5mg/l to 0 overnight

tested twice just to be sure and yep looks like cycle has finished

 

[luxum]

Yay!