Fishless Cycling

[Dr. Bogger]

The water conditioner i use is Insto Chlor by Jungle... it says Removes Chlorine & Chloramine.... it says nothing about ammonia.
the only filter media im using is a Bio-Wheel Filter, and those normal carbon filter media.

 

[rdd1952]

In that case, I'm not sure what is removing the ammonia but it doesn't seem to be getting processed by the bacteria or the nitrite would be rising. Are you using any other chemicals besides the Insto Chlor?

 

[Dr. Bogger]

nope, thats the only thing im using... i did however add some aquarium salt to the tank, but that it.

 

[Dr. Bogger]

Ok, time for a update

I just tested the nitrites again, and this the liquid test is black... i'm guessing "black" is off the scale? my chart only goes from Light blue, to a dark red/puprle type color... but the test came out as black... any idea if that is normal?

Ugh... now this is weird, i just looked over at it right now, as im typing, and its like a very very very light green type color... almost a clear green.... hmm... any ideas?

My Nitrates are still at about 7.0ppm.

The ammonia as i said before, is still gone within 8 hours, so i've been adding it twice a day... is that good? or should i only limit myself to once a day?

 

[rdd1952]

Sounds like you have the same API test kit that I use. Mine also goes from light blue to purple but I have never had it go black and then to light green. I will say that when I was cycling and my nitrites were off the chart high, I never let the color completely settle in. As soon as I put the drops in, they immediately turned purple in the bottom of the tube so I knew they were still off the chart. I just poured the test water out and didn't shake it up and wait on the final color. I guess it could have done the same thing. I think somone else mentioned something similar in an earlier post but I'm not going to hunt it as I am still stuck with dial-up until my new modem arrives (already typed this once and when I clicked "Add Reply", I had been disconnected and had to do it over). As for the ammonia, I would continue to add it any time it drops back to zero. You have to keep the bacteria fed or they will stat to die off.

 

[reg]

I'm in week 5 of the fishless cycle. After the 1st week the ammonia went to zero, and was dropping from 4ppm to zero daily. After the 2nd week the ammonia no longer drops all the way to zero, and the nitrite has been WAY off the chart for 3 weeks. Since the end of week two my nitrates have been at 8 ppm. Can you offer any advice? The water is at 86 degrees, and the ph is currently at 6.6.

 

[rdd1952]

reg, are you using a nitrate sponge or something to remove nitrate in your filter? I don't think you can on the Whisper 30 but just checking. If not, ten it sounds like the nitrite isn't being processed at all yet or your nitrates would be higher. If you could find someone with some mature filter media that you could seed your filter with, that would help. Other than that, I'm not sure what you can do. You may want to do a partial water change. Some think that helps when things stall.

 

[reg]

Thanks everyone for all the help! After a six week(!!!) long fishless cycle, on day 42 the nitrites fell to zero blah blah blah two days ago after my water change I retested the water and added my fish!!!!! My 8 pearl danios and 6 cories are so happy, and I owe it all to all of you! For those of you still cycling-don't lose hope!!!! There is a light at the end of the tunnel!!!!!

 

[Bones1987]

So, I was reading a lot of the cycling stuff around here, then I started to wonder. You said that flakes left at the bottom would eventually turn into ammonia, right? Well, couldn't you just drop a bit of flakes into the water and let it sit to create the ammonia to get the cycling process started? Of course, once its given off enough you would clean it out, but this sounds like it could work to me, but I'm just a begginer! So, Could Clarify for me? Also, do people usually have either an air pump connected to something (such as an air stone, bubble wall, or a little decorative piece, you know!) OR live plants, or is it typical to have both? I have the bubble wall thing and a little bubble decration and wasn't sure if I should get live plants or the plastic kind, not being sure that the live plants wouldn't have enough to breathe off of due to the air already being put into the tank (this is my first time really getting into the whole keeping fish thing, I've had the goldfish and bettas before when younger, as most have, but I think this could be something that I really enjoy and could put a lot of effort in, so excuse what I think might be "dumb" qestions for you guys )haha. Thanks for everything all of you! I've really learned a lot off of reading from here!

 

[Dr. Bogger]

WHOHOOO!!! MY TANK HAS FINALY FINISHED CYCLING

OMG, I CANT BELEAVE IT lol... ok i'll shut up

Anyways, I wanted to point out, the PH Level WILL effect the cycling... if your PH drops below 6.0ppm, the cycling will hault for some reason... You can fix this my doing a 50% water change everytime it happens, or by using some PH Increaser Additive.

As i am typing this, i am doing a 90% water change, to lower the Nitrates.

man, i am like so excited lol.

Anyways, ill give u some more info about this later on.

 

[NutMutt]

Ok, got a 125 gallon tanker.. What if I just dump my ammo from my 10-gallon Quaratine tank in there whenever it gets too high? There is plenty of space since I did not fill the 125 completely.

Outside of the chance of introducing any unseen diseases, will this help speed up the nitro cycle in my new tank? I guess I could just go out a purchase some pure ammo, but not sure exactly where to find it.

 

[Dr. Bogger]

Ok, got a 125 gallon tanker.. What if I just dump my ammo from my 10-gallon Quaratine tank in there whenever it gets too high? There is plenty of space since I did not fill the 125 completely.

Outside of the chance of introducing any unseen diseases, will this help speed up the nitro cycle in my new tank? I guess I could just go out a purchase some pure ammo, but not sure exactly where to find it.

If your 10 gallon tank is already cycled, you could put your old filter media into your new tank, that wil help speed up the process a lot... but just dumping water into the tank will not help, as the bacteria does not live in the water.

 

[NutMutt]

No, I know it is not in the water. Even says so at the beginning of this thread. I figured the ammo is what I need to build up quickly, not the bio-filter... That I can worry about later considering it takes so long to establish. Also, the 10-gallon is quaratine tank, so has yet to cycle. But some ammo is in there when I introduce a new fish (10 to 15 day wait) to my 30-gallon main tank.

I don't think it will be easy for me to find pure ammo, is all.

 

[aaronc]

Hi NutMutt

I don't think that will help you. You will need much more ammonia that is likely to be your 10gallon.

There are some other sources of ammonia. You can use fish flakes but it is very hard to measure it accurately.

Where abouts are you, maybe someone can suggest a local source of ammonia

Regards
Aaron

 

[Jcartwright]

Once it drops to 1 ppm raise it back to 3 or 4 ppm. Do that everytime it drops back to 1 until the nitrite finally drops to 0 and then your done. Do the big water change and add fish.

Where and how do you add the drops? Do you put them straight into the tank or mix them in the tube supplied with test then add mixture to tank?

and

How big of a water change do i need to do, after the cycle, in a 180 litre tank?