Just Got My First Nitrite Reading!

[Owen386]

Hey All,

Just Wanted To Say HI !

New To The Hobbie Stumbled upon these Forums WonderFull Source Thank You! MY Names is OWen Im From Boston,Ma and I am starting with a 20 gal Fresh Water Planted show tank as my Cherry. (already Thinking about a 55gal bow front and Have No Idea What Im Doing..... LOVING IT!!)

Just started my FIRST fishless cycle on Thursday(Techinicaly started it last Sunday but added amonia with suffates in ingredients BIG NO NO!!! only 100% ammonia will do!(try hardware store) felt I needed to do nearly 100% PWC)today is sunday, and I just ran through the tests..... and got my first Nitrite reading 1.0 Very excited!! keeping amonia levels around 2-4 Waiting for that Nitrite Spike and Then that NitrAte Reading, and Amonia to Drop and I will be sitting PRetty Right? Last night (Saturday)I was lucky enough to get a whole filter media from a buddys tank and that has seemed to boost my nitrogen cycle immensly my Question to all is do I continue to go ahead with fish-less cycle i.e never letting amonia drop to less that 1.0ppm? Also will I still be looking for nitrite spike, nitrate presence, etc... as if I was just doing fish-less cycle without seeing this huge boost by using seed materiel? Thanks

-OWen

If this is in wrong place I ApoloGise Admins Let ME know and I will Correct

 

[KittyKat]

Welcome and it's nice to see that you're well on your way to being ready for fish

Top up with ammonia no more than once every 24 hours and no more than to 5 ppm.

You will be finished once your ammonia an nitrate both test 0 ppm 12 hours after you last topped up ammonia to 3-5 ppm for a week (qualifying week).

 

[Skins]

Hello and welcome to the forum

Keith.

 

[Owen386]

Update: Today is Monday So been two days since I saw the Nitrite Reading Afraid maybe that spike was just do too the Seeding?? Amonia Stuck at 3-4 NitrIte not present Amonia Not proccesing Have been checking every 12 hrs. Nothing, will check again in 12 hrs if amonia still not proccesed will do PWC maybe add some fish food. I think maybe I was further in my cycle because of Seed MAterial and Nitrite Reading but am actually just at begining and seed material did nothing besides get my hopes up??? Guess only Time will Tell??

-Owen

 

[KittyKat]

Today is Monday So been two days since I saw the Nitrite Reading Afraid maybe that spike was just do too the Seeding?? Amonia Stuck at 3-4 NitrIte not present Amonia Not proccesing

Doesn't sound like it was a spike at all, but more like just some nitrite already in the water which you added to the tank. At least you know now that you have at least some nitrite -> nitrate bacteria.

Have been checking every 12 hrs.

You don't need to check that often, feel free to drop to checking every 24 hours.

Nothing, will check again in 12 hrs if amonia still not proccesed will do PWC maybe add some fish food.

That won't make any difference! Ammonia is ammonia is ammonia. You would only decrease the concentration of it and then add a little bit more.

I think maybe I was further in my cycle because of Seed MAterial and Nitrite Reading but am actually just at begining and seed material did nothing besides get my hopes up??? Guess only Time will Tell??

A fish-less cycle from scratch usually takes 4-6 weeks. I think one with seeded media will still take about 2-4 weeks You only added a little bit of bacteria where there was enough to process amounts of ammonia so little that they would not even register on a test! Every day, the bacteria increase in number by about 2.5-3.5 times, so it will take some days before there are enough of them to deal with the ammonia

 

[Owen386]

Yeah............ Hate Time SomeTimes LOL

Will hold off on Water Change Thanks! Didn`t mean to call it nitrIte spike, only NitrIte reading that was my choice of words apologise for that, will write more Specifically check wording etc.... will switch to testing every 24 hrs. Thanks no need To kill Myself... Guess I Was only hoping someone would give me some miracle advice (probably ignorant) and have me looking at Fish Tomorow, but then probably dead fish in a week! Glad Im doing it the right way I will just Give it Time and Be Patient, Thanks For the Advice KAt! Will Update in week or so unless some dramastic change occurs.

Also
A: would it help to keep adding seed material if more became availiable to me?
B: Have two live plants in the tank any adverse effects on cycle?

-Owen

 

[KittyKat]

Guess I Was only hoping someone would give me some miracle advice

No miracles, only hard work and the healthy fish to reward you

A: would it help to keep adding seed material if more became availiable to me?

Hmm.. probably won't make much difference at this point..

B: Have two live plants in the tank any adverse effects on cycle?

They need light and light + ammonia = algae. Also they will use up some ammonia, but I wouldn't worry about that.

 

[Owen386]

Today Is Wed. Day 6 of fishless cycle seen no drop of amonnia and no trace of nitrite, except for slight increase on second day maybe due to when I added seed material from friends tank? or user error? Not sure. Anyways, is this normal till have no ammonia being proccesed and no traces of NitrIte or am I doing something Wrong??? Should I give it few more days before I start to troubleshoot? Thanks!

-Owen


After Reading More it seems like this amount of time is short if anything to see any ammonia proccesing and nitrIte readings. Just thought with so much seed material I Would have boosted Cycle little bit, guess everyones cycle is different (time wise)Should I be adding ammonia to keep at constent 5ppm or wait till it hits zero and see nitrItes to add more? Thanks

 

[KittyKat]

Usually ammonia starts to drop 10-14 days in, sometimes sooner if you're lucky, longer if you're not.. so nothing to worry about yet.

 

[Owen386]

Hey,

Hope all is Well For Evryone,

Comes to my Attention that I`m using an over the back filter wich contains carbon in Filter, MY question To Ya`ll Is this going to inhibit Good bacteria from forming during my fishless cycle? I have read tons and tons of stuff on Internet and Really cant find a deffinitive answer.

Current Status Of Cycle:

Day 8 Ammonia >1.0 ppm Nitrite = 0! Need for concern? Have not added any ammonia since initial dose, No PWC either.

-OWen

 

[KittyKat]

Comes to my Attention that I`m using an over the back filter wich contains carbon in Filter, MY question To Ya`ll Is this going to inhibit Good bacteria from forming during my fishless cycle? I have read tons and tons of stuff on Internet and Really cant find a deffinitive answer.

Shouldn't make any difference, but it is not doing anything anymore anyway. Is the filter one of those BIO-Wheel things?

Day 8 Ammonia >1.0 ppm Nitrite = 0! Need for concern? Have not added any ammonia since initial dose, No PWC either.

You don't need to redose until ammonia is 0 ppm and you would only need to do a water change if you accidentally dose ammonia over 5 ppm.

 

[Owen386]

Wow your Quick Kat, Appreciate All the Advice as I am A Newb Sadly

Sound like Im right on track then, just got little nervous alot of forums sayin not to use carbon unless treating for illness or somehing along those lines.

when you say "Shouldn't make any difference, but it is not doing anything anymore anyway" what do you mean "its not doing anything anymore anway" ? leads me to belive the carbon in the filter media is only temporary?

I dont know excactly what I bio Wheel is but this is the filter I`m using: http/www.petco.com/product/102601/Aqueon-Aquarium-Power-Filters.aspx?CoreCat=MM_FishSupplies_AquariumFilters


-Owen

 

[KittyKat]

Wow your Quick Kat, Appreciate All the Advice as I am A Newb Sadly

There's only one way to learn..

Sound like Im right on track then, just got little nervous alot of forums sayin not to use carbon unless treating for illness or somehing along those lines.

That is true, but it is now all used up and is just another surface for the bacteria to grow on. So no, don't replace it with new carbon and do feel free to replace with a standard sponge or ceramic media after you finish cycling.

when you say "Shouldn't make any difference, but it is not doing anything anymore anyway" what do you mean "its not doing anything anymore anway" ? leads me to belive the carbon in the filter media is only temporary?

Activated carbon adsorbs various substances out of the water. There is a general agreement that it saturates itself within a matter of a few hours to about three days and after that can not adsorb anything more. So, in essence, it does no more than any other piece of media after this point. We call this sort of media "chemical filtration media".

 

[CrazyAirborne]

welcome to the forum from another newbie! I cant wait to get my cycle going!

 

[Owen386]

Hey All,

Hope all is well

Day 9 update: Down to zero ppm Ammonia But still NO NITRITE. That test doesent even give me a hint of turning purple, blue! blue! blue!! Have not checked Nitrate, Ph 8+ thats what it is in my taNK and also whats coming outta my tap. You all think I should top up ammonia now to 2-4ppm even though there is no pressence of nitrite or wait a day and see if they show up. Thanks


-OWen