Fishless Cycle

[catwoman]

Oh man, I wish I had thought of leaving the lights off . my boyfriend put some real plants in right off the bat so wanted the lights on 12hours a day. I don't know how we will get all the algae out. I guess the lights prolonged the cycle, too. good thing is that you only make these mistakes once. always pays to do more research.

 

[canarsie11]

You guys were not kidding aout the nitrite spike. My nitrites spiked on the 24th, still up there 5 days later. I try to forget about it, but its hard to forget about a 75 gallon tank in your office where u work everyday. But still being patient!

 

[Sky042]

The other advantage to doing the fishless cycle aside from not harming fish is that when its done you can stock your tank with many more fish then you would when doing a cycle with fish. You can put in nearly a full load and have a complete bacteria bed ready for it.

 

[canarsie11]

Hi as i told you guys my nitrites spiked on 04/24, I just checked my nitrites they are at zero, you guys told me when they drop they drop like a rock.

I have just fed my tank a dose of ammonia. What should I do next?

 

[MadCow]

I would wait 24 hrs and do your full battery of tests. Ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate just to be sure your that the ammonia has been processed and your cycle is definitely complete (I am overly cautious I guess). If all is well, then I would do a massive water change of the 75-90% variety to get your nitrates as low as possible before introducing your fish. Test again after a few hours (I waited overnight) for nitrates to be sure that the water change did it's thing. If all is ok, it is time to add your fish. I took a cup of water with me to the LPS to have them run the full battery of tests, more for my own peace of mind that my tests were accurate. JMO. Good luck, and enjoy the new tank. Your patience is about to pay off.

 

[canarsie11]

Thanks, I agree. What is one more day? Anymore advise?

I really could not beleive it, I just saying to myself I will just check my nitrites b4 I go to bed.

So I put the nitrite drops in, then put it to the side. I added some drops of ammonia, was cleaning up the area around my tank, look up and it was completely diff color as previous days, check chart 0

It went from darkest color to zero, I could not beleive it.

So I will wait about noon tomorrow and do full set of tests, if they come back in my favor, I will do water change, and then drop my tank temp to 79, and go window shopping for my fish!

Anymore advise please let me know!

 

[MadCow]

Wouldn't hurt to drop temp now. To give it time to come down. I had to do 2 tests when my nitrite dropped as I didn't believe the first was right. Mine went from top of scale to 0 as well. Also make sure that if you DO NOT add fish right away that you continue adding your maintenance ammonia each day to keep your bacteria alive. If you do not add fish right away and add ammonia you will have to do the nitrate test, water change, nitrate test thing again as nitrates will rise fast while adding ammonia. I know mine did as I prepared to add fish, then ended up waiting a week for my fish to come in and had to test, water change, test again.

 

[canarsie11]

So if all my test check out tomorrow should I feed tank tomorrow, if I plan to get fish on sunday?

I guess what I am really asking, when should last dose of ammonia be added prior to adding fish? .

 

[MadCow]

I added my last dose of ammonia after I did my water change the night before buying fish. I do not know if this was necessary or not. But I didn't want to risk losing any bacteria.