My Fishless Cycle

[waterdrop]

There's nothing quite like learning hands-on eh? My feeling sometimes about kits like the biorbs and the other smaller full-box sets is that when you walk into a shop with no information and just a desire to have a nice tank at home, its reassuring to find a kit that seems to provide you with "what's needed." But then if you happen on to a great hobbyist site like this one and begin storing up great swaths of know-how then the kit aquarium flip-flops on you and begins to feel confining, making you wish you were now free to go back and choose each of your individual pieces of gear!

~~waterdrop~~

 

[joeskandal]

tell me about it mate. i just cant turn heat up to build up bacteria. i have a bigger heater from my 100 litre tank that i might swap over. i reckon the little heater will be enough to maintain the heat of the bigger tank and the big heater should be enough to warm up the 60l to a nice 30+ degrees. gonna have to do that tomorrow.
Im going away on Friday, should be okay to just let it carry on itself for a few days, and take readings when i get back.
im away Friday-Tuesday...

 

[joeskandal]

well the heaters have been swapped, and the temperature is slowly climbing.

 

[waterdrop]

 

[joeskandal]

going away tomorrow though, so its gonna have to be put on hold for a few days

 

[joeskandal]

Just got back from a little holiday away, and my ammonia has finally dropped to 0.50, wooooooooo!!!!!
So i have added some more, 3mm, and i will begin to start testing nitrite daily.
i cant wait for it to start dropping down again.

 

[waterdrop]

OK good, we like to see ammonia start dropping in two weeks.. keeps our averages at about what we tell people!

Its about time to start adding in nitrite(NO2) tests too, so that you can see if that is beginning to appear at all.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[joeskandal]

Yeah, cool.
I cant help but think it would have been a bit sooner, but like i say, i have been away.
I dont think it will make much difference though, maybe if i had left it a bit longer though, we would have a different story.
So basically now im testing nitrite as well as ammonia, waiting for the ammonia to drop again, and then add more?

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, no need to test nitrite every day yet, perhaps every third or every other day until it starts seeming interesting to you. On the ammonia you just have to be patient and always wait until it has dropped to true zero ppm. Seems like forever the first time but very quickly it becomes every day. You don't add ammonia immediately when ammonia hits zero but always at your normal "add hour" out of the 24 hours (your normal morning or evening testing time for most people)... Eventually testing at both 12 and 24 hours will be important and so you pick times that are 12 hours apart but when you are awake and home. Your "add hour" is one or the other but it always stays the same. Make sense?

~~waterdrop~~

 

[joeskandal]

yeah.
sweet, cheers.
i think once it gets to that stage i will be doing it at 8 or 9 am and pm.
i will probably be adding the ammonia at the am test.

 

[waterdrop]

Yeah, very similar to what my schedule was --WD

 

[joeskandal]

Wow!!!!
i tested Ammonia just now, and it is zero already.

Nitrites are above 5.0
So now i will add ammonia again, and keep an eye on nitrite and ammonia levels.
This is working a lot quicker than i had imagined.
Because of the mature media maybe??

 

[waterdrop]

Congrats! It looks like it really wants to move out of phase one and into phase two (the nitrite spike stage.)

Yes, you now want to add enough ammonia to bring you back up to 3-5ppm concentration again. You should establish a regular time of day for doing this. I just wrote a post about this to "gregcool" in a nearby thread:

Add-Mark Post

Let me know if you have questions about that.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[joeskandal]

excellent, wd, thanks a lot.
I have added some ammonia just now. i know its a little later than the time i had been planning, but once i test tomorrow morning, i will test at correct time tomorrow and add more ammonia hopefully.
fingers crossed.
Thanks a lot for all your help by the way, i really appreciate it.

 

[joeskandal]

Definitely getting there. my ammonia has dropped almost back to 0 in 12 hours.
Its at 1.0 now, it will be at 0.0 this evening when i test again no doubt.