Fishless cycling

[Essjay]

What does the bottle say? The website I looked at says to dose in mls not drops. From https://apifishcare.com/product/stress-coat

Add 5 ml. per 10 gallons

so that's 5 ml in 38 litres or 0.4 ml in 3 litres.

 

[NannaLou]

@Essjay has beaten me to the conversion 37.8 (38) ltrs.

 

[IdoA]

On the Api website there is a built in dosage calculator. So it said 3 drops per liter!

Did that and added the water. Liter by liter.

All is good now I suppose, I hope the bacteria isnt gone

 

[Essjay]

I just looked at the calculator and entered
5 ml
10 gallons
3 litres
that's the dose rate for Stress Coat, 5 ml per 10 gallons, and the volume to be treated, 3 litres, and it gave me the answer 0.4 ml.

 

[IdoA]

Hey!

I tested the water today and the nitrite are through the roof!

5.0 ppm nitrite and the ammonia looks to be around 1.0 ppm.
Is this looking okay?
Im concerned about the ammonia.. should it of dropped more? Since nitrites are so high I figured it should?

 

[Essjay]

How much ammonia have you added altogether?

Each 1 ppm ammonia is turned into 2.7 ppm nitrite so it only takes 2 ppm ammonia to disappear for nitrite to get over 5 ppm. Don't forget that testers can only measure as high as the highest colour on the chart; any level over that still reads as the highest colour. If your test kit only goes as high a 5 ppm, your actual level could be exactly 5 or anything above 5.

 

[IdoA]

How much ammonia have you added altogether?

Each 1 ppm ammonia is turned into 2.7 ppm nitrite so it only takes 2 ppm ammonia to disappear for nitrite to get over 5 ppm. Don't forget that testers can only measure as high as the highest colour on the chart; any level over that still reads as the highest colour. If your test kit only goes as high a 5 ppm, your actual level could be exactly 5 or anything above 5.

I see... I think that my mistake was that I added another dose of ammonia as it said on the dr tim instructions page,
before any nitrites showed up...
Will I be fine?

 

[Essjay]

I would follow the method on here rather than Dr Tim's. TwoTankAmin wrote it so that if followed exactly, nitrite can never get high enough to stall the cycle. I would leave it for now, but don't add more ammonia till you reach the next stage in our method.

Test every second day until you reach a time when ammonia is zero, then zero again 2 days later. When you have those two zeros, add enough ammonia to get 1 ppm not 3.
Once the 1 ppm dose it added, test every day until you reach a day where ammonia is less than 0.25 and nitrite is less than 1 ppm. If ammonia drops wait until nitrite has also dropped. When you get to this stage tell us and we'll go on from there.

 

[IdoA]

I would follow the method on here rather than Dr Tim's. TwoTankAmin wrote it so that if followed exactly, nitrite can never get high enough to stall the cycle. I would leave it for now, but don't add more ammonia till you reach the next stage in our method.

Test every second day until you reach a time when ammonia is zero, then zero again 2 days later. When you have those two zeros, add enough ammonia to get 1 ppm not 3.
Once the 1 ppm dose it added, test every day until you reach a day where ammonia is less than 0.25 and nitrite is less than 1 ppm. If ammonia drops wait until nitrite has also dropped. When you get to this stage tell us and we'll go on from there.

Thanks for that!
Will keep you updated!

(An unrelated question, After the tank cycles, Can I keep 2 Corys in the 10 galoon?)

 

[outofwater]

Thanks for that!
Will keep you updated!

(An unrelated question, After the tank cycles, Can I keep 2 Corys in the 10 galoon?)

You should put 4 or 6 of them (they are social fish, like to shoal and just have their mates around), however the quality of life would be compromised, 10g is too small UNLESS you go with pigmy cories, and you'd have to be cleaning it constantly or your water parameters would not hold. A 10g tank looks big and in stores they put a lot of fish in them, but they are there temporarily. A 10g, in many people's opinion, my own now too; is good for a betta and snails and/or shrimp, or nano fish, like bumblebee gobies, although those are often presented as "intermediate care" fish and in a 10g tank would be recommended as the only species there.
I have a 10g tank with a single male dwarf gourami and 2 snails but thats because he turned out to be a bit too much on the aggressive side for the rest if my fish in my original 29g tank. So to him went my plant/quarantine tank, that's another story, but it's a good example of how the size of tank and fish (and their temperament) dictate your choices, because you want your fish to thrive, not just live there.

 

[Essjay]

I agree, cories are shoaling fish which need at least 6. And the dwarf species need at least 10.

 

[IdoA]

Thanks everyone!

Today the ammonia is 0!
But nitrites are still very high (I think 5ppm but not a 100% sure). What should I do now?

Im afraid the bacteria wont have any ammonia to feed on.. Should I add more ammonia?
Thanks again.

 

[outofwater]

What's your nitrates reading? And when was the last time you added ammonia?

 

[IdoA]

What's your nitrates reading? And when was the last time you added ammonia?

I didn't test for nitrates yet but I added the ammonia about 2 weeks ago

 

[IdoA]

Just did a 50% water change as recommended on the dr tim website.

I hope everything will be fine..
Should I add more ammonia?