My Fishless Cycle

[Twinklecaz]

Day 38

Nitrite has all of a sudden processed to 1 (from 5 maybe more 24 hours ago). Now, do I get excited that my spike is coming to an end or could this just be because I hadn't dosed any Ammonia for 24 hours due to it not processing yesterday?

 

[PDSimon]

i dunno but atleast yours is going down

 

[OldMan47]

You will find that once nitrite comes on scale it will get processed quite well. The way you can think of it is simple. Let's say that yesterday the nitrite was at 6 ppm, just barely to high to measure. Today it is at 1 ppm. The bacteria that process nitrites moved not only the ammonia you created from ammonia but another 5 ppm as well. Want to bet they can't move another 5 ppm plus whatever you dose for ammonia? The only thing usually left to do at this point is to get the ammonia and nitrites processing in 12 hours instead of 24 hours.

 

[Twinklecaz]

You will find that once nitrite comes on scale it will get processed quite well. The way you can think of it is simple. Let's say that yesterday the nitrite was at 6 ppm, just barely to high to measure. Today it is at 1 ppm. The bacteria that process nitrites moved not only the ammonia you created from ammonia but another 5 ppm as well. Want to bet they can't move another 5 ppm plus whatever you dose for ammonia? The only thing usually left to do at this point is to get the ammonia and nitrites processing in 12 hours instead of 24 hours.

Thanks. Hopefully it won't be too muh longer then

 

[Twinklecaz]

Raaa that's it, my cycle is officially going backwards! Nitrite still 1.00 and Ammonia hasn't processed to 0 AGAIN. I don't get why it would suddenly have started doing this (it's 0.50 24 hours after dosing again)?

 

[waterdrop]

They are living things. Its like my cat. He seems to usually want to eat all you give him but every now and then he just leaves some on his plate and doesn't eat as much that day.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Twinklecaz]

LOl. But what happens if that happens once I have my fish? That won't be good will it? Or will it be different then coz the "food" is constant?

 

[OldMan47]

One of the main reasons we have a "qualifying week" is so that those small variations in bacterial activity happen before we add any fish. The idea is that if it has been reliable at removing any trace of poisons for a week, that pattern is likely to continue.

 

[Twinklecaz]

Poisons??

 

[PDSimon]

ammonia and nitrite are the poisons, you know that

 

[Twinklecaz]

I actually have no idea why I asked that! All I can blame is drink!

 

[waterdrop]

Your nitrite(NO2) really does appear to be coming down off the spike now Caz. Looks to be right on schedule as I see a lot of them transition to the 3rd phase somewhat after a month (although its probably silly to put any sort of predictable time periods on these processes!) Once you get a series of days where nitrite(NO2) has dropped all the way to zero at the 24-hour-after-ammonia-dosing mark then you know you are in the 3rd phase and short nitrite spikes will be fewer and fewer. The goal then moves to seeing when both ammonia and nitrite can drop to zero ppm only 12 hours after ammonia was dosed. A little farther in is when 12 hour testing becomes interesting as usually the 24 hour tests begin to show zeros all the time, or traces. Another of my feelings about the 3rd phase is that both nitrite and nitrate can begin to shoot up faster and the buffering and pH level can be under more pressure to drop and thus to me it becomes a better candidate-time for possible weekend large water changes with ammonia and bicarb recharges. I feel when these are a positive learning experience for practicing the weekly water change technique/details and do not hurt the progress of the fishless cycle nearly as much in the third phase as they might have earler.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Twinklecaz]

Lol well I'll look forward to that then! YOu may have to talk me through that again when I get to it.

Today my Nitrite has risen again slightly to 0.50 but I guess that's not unusual. I'm wondering if it's coz I dosed slightly more Ammonia than I had the day before?

While I'm here, is it these tests that you all say are the best ones---> http/www.charterhouse-aquatics.co.uk/catalog/salifert-ammonia-profitest-kit-p-1974.html

My Ammonia test is running very low (with Nitrite not far behind) and I figure it might be a good idea to get these ones coz a)there's no point buying another API one yet when most of the tests aren't even half gone and b) I figure that if these are the best tests then maybe it's a good idea to have them as you can't mess around with Ammonia or Nitrite.

Also, can someone explain to me what KH and GH are and if I need them?

 

[PDSimon]

carbonate hardness and general hardness...

Basically..................................................................no idea

but if you're looking at fish profiles it might say DH '0-15' or something... which is just general hardness (apparently )

having soft water means it is easier to change the pH...so if my hardess was high then it would be less likely i would get pH drops etc same for adding things like peat which lower pH...hard water would help prevent it

my kit said my KH was 3 and GH was 6 i think. Means I have soft water.

It helps to see what fish and plants will thrive in your water

 

[OldMan47]

There are indeed people here who think the world of the Salifert test kits. Most of us have had the experience that any liquid type test kit works fine for cycling guidance. If the prices are close, you may as well go with the Saliferts. In the US, where I am located, the tests are very different in price per test and the Salifert tests here are only good for a small percentage of the total number of tests.