Liverbird's New Fishless Cycle

[Liverbird36]

Right, i'm back too double 0's but not sure what to do next. Have increased the ammonia back to 4.0ppm. If i'm getting double 0's for over a week does that mean it's cycled. Not sure where to go from here.

 

[Liverbird36]

Right, i'm back too double 0's but not sure what to do next. Have increased the ammonia back to 4.0ppm. If i'm getting double 0's for over a week does that mean it's cycled. Not sure where to go from here.

Ahhh just found the info I need in the resource centre. 12hr testing for the week now i'm guessing, although the Ammonia is definitely being processed within that as have checked. I'm sure i'll figure it out somehow.

 

[PDSimon]

Yup, stick to 2-3ppm of ammonia until your processing the nitrite in 24 hours. If its already processing in 24 hours you can start adding 5ppm and test every 12 hours but only ever add ammonia the same time everyday(assuming ammonia is 0 everyday!)

Your nitrates have gone up very quick? never seem a rise that quick...

 

[Liverbird36]

Yup, stick to 2-3ppm of ammonia until your processing the nitrite in 24 hours. If its already processing in 24 hours you can start adding 5ppm and test every 12 hours but only ever add ammonia the same time everyday(assuming ammonia is 0 everyday!)

Your nitrates have gone up very quick? never seem a rise that quick...

Thanks for your response Si. The Nitrites are being processed within the 24hr period so have increased the Ammonia back to 4-5ppm. I admit i'm a bit concerned at how quickly the Nitrates are rising and I did a 100% water change the other day. Any reason do you think why this may be happening ? It made me wonder how many water changes am I going to have to do and how regularly once fish are in there !! I just can't seem to keep the levels down. Luckily, the water changes I have been doing are having no adverse effect on the tank cycling. Is it because my tank is only small or any problem with the filter ??

 

[PDSimon]

It seems to be too strange, I've never seen nitrates go up that quick (not that I'm experienced I only just finished cycling myself..!) but it may be worth asking someone else. It may be a test error? Nitrates are often wrong never mind when your fishless cycling and theres loads of nitrite and other chemicals that 'seem' to affect the results of a nitrate test.

next time you test the nitrate bottle really give it a good whack into something several times because WD told me crystals can gather so make sure you do that and shake it for atleast 30 secs!

 

[Liverbird36]

It seems to be too strange, I've never seen nitrates go up that quick (not that I'm experienced I only just finished cycling myself..!) but it may be worth asking someone else. It may be a test error? Nitrates are often wrong never mind when your fishless cycling and theres loads of nitrite and other chemicals that 'seem' to affect the results of a nitrate test.

next time you test the nitrate bottle really give it a good whack into something several times because WD told me crystals can gather so make sure you do that and shake it for atleast 30 secs!

Gave it a good shake for 2mins today and to be honest the colour wasn't a lot darker than yesterday as I was expecting it to be so maybe your suggestion has helped. Nitrites are being a pain though as keep dropping to zero for a few days and then go up to 0.25ppm for a day and then drop again

It's making it awkward to know how much ammonia I should be adding; so when it's at zero I add a larger amount, and when it's at 0.25ppm I add a smaller amount. Not sure if that's the correct way to go though. Thanks as always for your input Simon, i'd be lost without it

 

[PDSimon]

Keep adding 5ppm, they just are struggling to process it all at the moment, its not a fluent process where ammonia processes in 6 hours and nitrite in the other 6, both the times vary day to day and the outcome of your results will show that... Be patient and it'll soon hit 0 everyday.

Just to clear that up, the nitrite spike is where it goes up right? so you reduce the overall nitrogen because some cycles (like mine) the nitrite spike goes on forever and ever (I think mine was over 100ppm of nitrite lol..).. yours is so close to 0 now and its processing it all ok so 5 is perfect

You're welcome, I was in the exact same position as you not so long ago!

 

[Liverbird36]

Keep adding 5ppm, they just are struggling to process it all at the moment, its not a fluent process where ammonia processes in 6 hours and nitrite in the other 6, both the times vary day to day and the outcome of your results will show that... Be patient and it'll soon hit 0 everyday.

Will do. I'm not really getting to the frustrated point yet as the cycle has been going really well and was expecting at least a couple of weeks where the Nitrites would take some time to come down. When they did hit zero and stayed there for several days I got a bit excited thinking I was near the end and then I go and do something stupid like putting my filter in a tank of Chlorinated water

I think I was expecting it to be a gradual up and down thing with the Nitrites so it threw me a bit. I'm happy that you seem to think that it's ok. I know how well you understand the cycling so will take your advice and just ride with it, after all, i'm only on day 27 i've no reason to start getting impatient knowing how long yours took !!

 

[Liverbird36]

Yay !!! Nitrite back down to zero !!!

not sure how long it'll last for lol. Going to start my 12hr testing from today.

 

[Twinklecaz]

Ah,the joy of the 12 hours! I've nearly missed my train every day this week coz of it!

 

[Liverbird36]

Ah,the joy of the 12 hours! I've nearly missed my train every day this week coz of it!

yeah it is going to be a bit of a pain in the you know what's. thinking of those lovely Gourami's should make it more bearable lol

 

[Twinklecaz]

I know, that's what I do - think of the fish, think of the fish lol.

 

[Harlequins]

Good luck with your fishless cycles,you're both getting there

 

[waterdrop]

To me, this fishless cycle is looking very good. My only small concern is that the one real nitrite(NO2) spike we've seen has been very short (only a few days in duration?) and it took place prior to the 30 day mark of the overall fishless cycle. Both of those are warning signs to me that we want to watch this cycle and make sure it doesn't nitrite spike again on us. We've had a few fishless cycles where we observed a short strong spike like this, then they behaved as if they were cycled but then they spiked again. So this is one where I feel the "qualification" procedures will help to further ensure that its really cycled.

I think everyone has been repeating the qualification idea correctly: you make sure your ammonia dosing is back up to creating a 5ppm concentration in the tank. (You re-dose ammonia at the add-hour of each 24 hours if ammonia reached zero ppm sometime within the previous 24 hours.) Usually ammonia is the first to easily drop to zero ppm within 12 hours and nitrite(NO2) will take more than 12 hours but less than 24 hours. Once you see nitrite(NO2) join the ammonia in dropping to zero ppm within 12 hours you can start a qualification attempt. You watch it drop both ammonia and nitrite to zero ppm within 12 hours each day for a week (since its dropping to zero, you'll obviously be dosing back to 5ppm each day at the add-hour.) The qualification week was meant as a way to try to tease out another nitrite spike from the system if its going to have one. It was also meant as a final tough test going on during that last week while you're trying to figure out what fish your LFS is really going to have and therefor which fish will truely go in to your initial stocking of the tank.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Liverbird36]

Thanks WD. I have to admit, i'm a bit sceptical that it's going to stay at zero too. I'm half expecting when i re-dose tomorrow for there to be Nitrites again. I'm in no hurry to stock the tank so i'm going to take it easy with it and not rush it. Got a feeling there's something around the corner waiting to jump out on me. I will do the 12hr checks but will in my mind imagine i'm still in the middle stage and that way if something does go a bit wrong then I won't be disappointed.