Fishless Cycle Log

[sjolliff]

On the API test kits if the drops turn dark in the bottom of the tube there off scale, (nitrites)
i only did a couple of doses with 4-5ppm of ammonia now im on 2ppm while the nitrites come down,

my nitrates are up and down yesterday dinner they was aroung 60ppm this morning there 5ppm??

 

[OldMan47]

That is looking better using the nitrates as our indicator DT. The nitrites being converted to nitrates shows that we may come back on scale on the nitrites fairly soon. It should only be a matter of a short time before you can read nitrites again.

 

[Diesel Trout]

Days 28 and 29 are updated.

I didn't test for nitrites on day 28 so imagine my surprise when today I got a nice sky blue in my test tube! I am surprised at how quickly things can change (first nitrates jumping up, now this).

I had decreased the dosage of ammonia the day before so that might have something to do with the nitrites going to zero. Tonight I increased the dosage so we will see tomorrow how the levels are.

 

[OldMan47]

It sounds like you are getting close DT. Now can the filter perform its magic in 12 hours or less?

 

[Diesel Trout]

It sounds like you are getting close DT. Now can the filter perform its magic in 12 hours or less?

Day 30: Double zeros again tonight. I will try to test in the morning if I have time.

 

[Diesel Trout]

Day 31 updated.

I did a 12 hour check this morning and there are still ammonia and nitrites in the tank, so the processing is still not quite there yet. I will check again in the morning starting on Saturday.

The 24 hour mark is still showing 0 and 0 at least.

I think I will do a water change on the weekend to knock down the nitrates and take advantage of the decreased water level to add some plants. I've decided to go with a South American set-up so I'll probably start with some swords.

 

[OldMan47]

That sounds like a good plan DT. As soon as you can get double zeros at 12 hours we can start monitoring for a week just to prove things are safe for your fish.

 

[Diesel Trout]

Days up to and including today (day 35, week 5) are now posted.

Started checking in the morning, at roughly the 12 hour mark (more like 14 hours due to being on holidays!) and am still getting 1.0 and 1.0 ppm for ammonia and nitrites. On day 34 I decided to check again around lunch time to see how the progress was and discovered that ammonia was at 0.5 and nitrite still around 1.0.

Today I did a 50% water change. Afterwards nitrates were still at 80 so I guess they were higher than that beforehand!

Added plants today as well: 3X cabomba, 3X vallisneria, 2X amazon swords and 1X hygrophila compact. This last one was a mistake; I thought I was getting a small sword to go with the rest of my S. American plants. Oh well, I'm sure no one will know the difference!

Here's how the tank looks so far:

 

[OldMan47]

The tank is looking good. You have added another variable to your equation when it comes to monitoring nitrates and ammonia. Plants think both of them are fertilizers and will use them to grow.

 

[Diesel Trout]

The tank is looking good. You have added another variable to your equation when it comes to monitoring nitrates and ammonia. Plants think both of them are fertilizers and will use them to grow.

What will this do for me in terms of finishing up the cycling process? Will this slow down the maturation of the filter colony as the plants 'hijack' some of the ammonia?

By the way at this morning's check there was 1.0 ppm ammonia and 0.25 ppm nitrite.

 

[waterdrop]

No, that amount of plants won't bother the bacterial growth process at all, its more the interpretation of results that OM47 is referring to. Sometimes a bit of the lowering of the readings for things will be due to the plants, in addition to the bacteria. It still doesn't change the fact that ultimately what you want are nice solid zero readings at 12 hours so that you can get in to your qualifying week. You will want to keep an eye on the plants of course if any of them seem to do poorly as you will want to remove any brown/yellow stems/leaves rather than let them increase your ammonia concentration. I haven't been following your thread but you seem perhaps to be in a fishless cycle and getting beyond the nitrite spike phase now.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[OldMan47]

The plants won't affect the cycle at all. The only thing they do is make me a bit cautious when I interpret the chemistry results. I will need to keep in mind that small changes may be the result of the plants and not the bacteria, that's all. Sometimes I get too enthusiastic when I see a small change and, if it the result of plants, people end up disappointed when things don't actually change as fast as I expected later.

 

[Diesel Trout]

Well days 36 to 38 are updated at the top of this thread.

The last couple of days I noticed a small increase in morning nitrites. The vallis and cabomba were looking a little sick so after some consultation with posts in the 'planted section' I discovered that high levels of nitrates can have an effect on plants. My nitrates have been steady at 80 ppm. Were the decomposing plants increasing my nitrites?

So I did a 50% water change, trimmed the vallis and found that my cabomba were turning to mush. I pulled them from the tank and they were pretty much reduced to just stems. Nitrates are still at 80 after the water change.

With all the rotting plant matter floating around and getting sucked into my filter would it be a good idea to open up the canister and clean some of it? Just the foam perhaps?

 

[OldMan47]

Rotting plants are adding a fair dose of ammonia to the water, not just nitrates. If your filter is loading up with plant matter, it would be a good idea to remove it from the water by doing a light filter clean using water change water from the tank. I can't tell 80 ppm from 200 ppm of nitrate in my test kit so I would not simply call it 80 but more like at least 80. How about a nice 50% or bigger water change with a minor filter rinse to get rid of the dead plant matter and some of the nitrates. The plants typically only need less than 20 ppm of nitrates to flourish so the rest is excess anyway.

 

[Diesel Trout]

I have updated test results for days 39-42.

While my nitrites are dropping off nicely (two morning checks with 0 ppm!) my ammonia readings are going up. While morning ammonia has never dropped below 1.0, it is now higher than that some days, and at least one 24 hour check revealed ammonia still not fully processed.

Day 40 morning showed 2.0 ppm ammonia and 0-0.25 ppm nitrites. So I pulled the filter canister and rinsed the foam in a bucket of aquarium water to remove the plant debris. I also dumped the water from the filter (more debris) and discarded the original mature media (carbon) that I added a while back. My tests later that evening revealed ammonia still present (1.0 ppm) but a drop in nitrates. I topped up the ammonia with just 2 ppm more.

Day 41 (Saturday) was my first 12 hour 0.0 nitrite reading, with 1.0 ppm ammonia still present.

Day 42 I still have 0.0 nitrites after 12 hours, but my ammonia had increased to at least 2.0.

My vallis is not looking very healthy, but the swords and hygro look good. I might pull the vallis so see if that improves matters. Suggestions?

UPDATE

Evening quality check indicates that ammonia has not been processed very much today as the numbers were still between 1 and 2 ppm. Why is the ammonia slowing down?