HELP with fishless cycling

[SchoolMarm]

Okay, I am trying to do a fishless cycle. I am doing it in my math class. My objective was to have my class measure the water, test the water and graph the results. That way we could see the ammonia and nitrite spike. And it gave me an excuse to have fish in school!!!

I have a ten gallon tank with a bubble wand and bio wheel filter(Penquin 170, overkill I know but we are doing goldfish.) I did research on this forum and have been adding ammonia, perfume free etc., and cycle. As well as water from my established golfish 20 gallon tank at home.

The articles I printed were
http/www.aquaria.com/aquasource/cycle2.shtml
http/www.tomgriffin.com/aquamag/cycling.html

Now I have added the Cycle ( I know real fish people don't like the chemical bacterias) every day, beacuse I miss read the directions. I have added two new fish to my goldfish tank at home, so I am scared to bring that filter pad in.

No nitrite after a week. Am I on the right track? Do we just need to be patient?

Thanks

 

[Alien Anna]

Once the bacteria start growing in there you'll notice a rapid change. However, the bacteria have to get in there in the first place. You don't need a lot - certainly not enough to send your home tank into a mini-cycle, just a bit of gravel (get some mangy stuff with fish poop and all) and a bit of filter floss if you can spare it and stuff it inside an old sock, which you can then suspend in your new tank.

 

[Where the river goes]

It took my tank 3 weeks before I saw any nitrites. The nitrites spiked about a week and a half ago and haven't gone down yet. This is the 6th week of the fishless cycle.

 

[Alien Anna]

It took my tank 3 weeks before I saw any nitrites. The nitrites spiked about a week and a half ago and haven't gone down yet. This is the 6th week of the fishless cycle.

Is this the same tank where you turn the filter off every night? In which case, I think that might well be the reason - your bacteria are dying off every night.

 

[Where the river goes]

yup, it's the same tank.

 

[SchoolMarm]

Thanks Alien Anna. I believe I got the articles from one of your earlier posts. I am bringing in some gravel from home.

Thanks

 

[SchoolMarm]

Howdy!

We are still not picking up nitrites, but I feel we are close. I brought in a sponge from my filter at home.

Does anyone think that fact we are not here on weekends to add ammonia we are prolonging the cycling? The bubble wands and filter continue to run, of course.

Thanks

 

[kevy]

I only added ammonia in my 10 gallon every 3 days or so. (It took about 1 week to cycle) Then again I had live plants and the dying leaves probably gave enough amminia to keep the bacteria alive.

What is the temperature of the tank? If I'm not mistaken higher temperatures speed the growth of the bacteria, so maybe a tank left in a cold school over night could harm the bacteria. I really don't know that much about cycling tanks so I could very well be completely wrong.

 

[SchoolMarm]

The nitrite has appeared!

Thanks, Wendy

 

[platypus]