Me Fishless Cycle

[Phenz]

Hi, i've been cycling my tank and getting results most days

set up my new 75litre tank, but some prawns in it.

1st day - ammonia:0 nitrite:0 nitrate:trace

3rd day - ammonia:4mg/L nitrite:0.3mg/L nitrate:trace

4th day - ammoniaff chart nitriteff chart nitrate: 10mg/L

5th day - ammoniaff chart nitrite:1.6mg/L nitrateff chart - added some gravel from lfs mature tank

Today is the 6th day ammoniaff chart nitrite:0.8mg/L nitrateff chart

and i'm wondering,
a) how is my cycle doing? and B)i've kept prawns in the tank in a net ever sincne i set up the tank, should i keep them in there as they'll always be adding ammonia and letting the
bacteria 'feed' or should i take them out and let the ammonia fall to a reasonable level?

I don't have any fish in the tank, just some shop bought bogwood that i added yesterday and some stones that i had in a cupboard which i bought 4 years ago from ikea but never found a use for.

 

[joloco]

well cycle sounds normal...

did you wash those stones?

as for prawns well its up to you - you can take them out if you have somewhere else to keep them..
they should survive the cycling process but will be quite stressed but i suppose how high on your adgenda the prawns are... - i guess not too high if you've already added them during cycling
why are you keeping them in a net? i would be a bit worried about them starving to death - they need to forage around and they might not get enough food confined to the area of the net...

what kind of prawns are they? are we talking algae prawns or something much bigger?

 

[Phenz]

they're dead prawns that i got from the supermarket, maybe should have made that clear. Just using them as a source of ammonia as they start to decompose, saves adding more ammonia every day and is a steady source.

 

[blue acara]

sounds like its almost cycled...and in 6 days? very fast. did you add mature filter media from the start? your nitrite bacteria grew extremly fast.

 

[joloco]

ahhhhh - i see, silly me- sorry!

 

[Miss Wiggle]

hmmmm well if your getting a good high nitrate reading then there's obviously a lot of bacteria in there doing they're job. I think with fishless cycling your only *meant* to add an amonia source that takes it up to 5ppm..... you've obviously got levels much higher than that which is why the cycles gone so fast, and why your still getting massive ammonia and nitrite readings.... this obviously begs the question why do so many people only dose the tank up to 5ppm, and then spend 6 weeks getting it cycled when it can be done much faster??? i really don't know!

I think your probably ready for fish. remove the prawns and do a massive water change to get rid of the ammonia, nitrite and most of the nitrate then go ahead with your stocking.

I'd get someone else's opinion on this other than mine though as I'm not 100% sure.

 

[Phenz]

I've heard that adding too much ammonia can inhibit the bacteria production but i was wondering, if i have high nitrate levels, does this always mean that i have enough bacteria to support fish safely?

It was a completely sterile tank when i set it up a week ago, a few days ago i got some gravel from a mature display tank at the lfs.

I spoke with a guy and he used a handfull of prawns, roughly the same ammount as me, and he said he could have cycled 4, 4foot tanks with it. i just have a small 20Gallon...

hopefully after a water change i'll be okay.