My Fishless Cycle

[Twinklecaz]

Ok thanks WD. Remind me, I don't top the Ammonia up again until it's down to 0 do I?

 

[waterdrop]

That's correct. Being impatient and topping it up too soon doesn't help the A-Bacs (ammonia oxidizing bacteria) since they only need small amounts of ammonia at this point but it does dump even more overall nitrogen into the system, which will just fuel a bigger nitite spike later on, which just slows down the N-Bacs or leads you to need a few more "kickstart" water changes during the fishless cycle.

Now, when I say to be patient and let it drop all the way down to zero, I'm hoping that it will go down and just reach a clear zero ppm for you in a quick manner. There -are- some cases where beginners seem to get very, very picky about seeing very mild shades of the ammonia indicator reagents and their logs show that they sit there very near zero and quibble over this. In those cases, the test should just have been read as zero and the tank re-dosed with its 3,4,5ppm of ammonia. Things don't need to be that subtle during the early stages of a fishless cycle.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Twinklecaz]

So basically when it's about on the zero colour I should just top it up again rather than waiting for it to be the exact same colour?

What do I redose it to? 3/4? Just I'm gonn have to be careful coz obviously there's less water in there now isn't there.

 

[waterdrop]

No, again you're probably worrying about amounts that are a bit too small to need worrying about. You really have quite wide latitude in the tank dosing percentage *at the beginning of the fishless cycle* (as opposed to the end where you'd really like to try for the 5ppm type of number.) My personal opinion is that RDD, in his article, has helped us make it easy for beginners by simply saying to go for 5ppm. But in truth you can just get some ammonia in there... 1ppm, 2ppm, 3ppm, 4ppm, 5ppm... it simply doesn't matter right at the beginning as long as you are testing it at reasonably frequent intervals and will get more in there when needed. As long as the concentration is not up there at 7 or 8ppm it will be fine.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Twinklecaz]

Ah ok thanks. I'm sure it'll be a few more days before it's down to 0 anyway I just though I better be ready for when it does happen.

 

[waterdrop]

Oh I think you're doing great! Its good to be careful and better to ease your ammonia dosing up to what you want by being a little low at first as its easier to add a few more drops of ammonia than to change water out! Pretty boring in the beginning stages, isn't it!

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Twinklecaz]

LOl yeah. But it's good coz it's given me time to really think about my fish etc.

I also have MTS already as I've decided then when it's all been up and running for a while I am going to get a small tank too and just have a shoal of (probably neon) tetras in it.

 

[waterdrop]

You can read about my own neons over in ryefish's cycling thread. I'm a huge fan of tetra shoals in a tank with nice plants, wood and maybe stone features. Neons were one of the very first tropical fish that popularized the hobby way, way back and their reputation as beautiful fish is well-earned. WD

 

[Twinklecaz]

Oh I was wondering what kind of fish you're into. Ok cool I will.

I will post today's test results when I do them when I get in but I predict they'll be 2.00 ppm lol.

 

[Twinklecaz]

Day 10:

Decided to do the set tonight.

Ammonia 2.00 ppm

Nitrite 0.50 ppm (so that's gone up)

Nitrate I would say about 8 ppm (so that's gone up too)

PH 7.6.

So there's definitely movement there although slight.

 

[Twinklecaz]

Day 11:

ammonia :2.00 (did look like it was gonna be 1.00 at first but then it darkened)

 

[waterdrop]

Don't be afraid to start a log, edited over and over into the top of your very first post in this thread. Its really nice when each am/pm testing session is a single line and we can just scan straight down the ammonia numbers, NO2 numbers etc. I'm sure you've seen it in other threads. What we're always doing is building a mental graph in our heads as we scan down and we can see if a different substance is going up and whether pH is moving or staying steady, stuff like that, but its more the whole column of numbers we're interested in, rather than just the last day. WD

 

[Twinklecaz]

Oh ok, I'll have a look and sort it out later.

 

[Twinklecaz]

Ok I've made my first post into a log. Yesterday (day 12) I'm sure my Ammonia reading looked to be darker again. Can that be right?

 

[waterdrop]

Good! Nice log.

There just aren't enough A-Bacs yet to make a dent in the ammonia that the ammonia test kit can see yet very much, that ok, its normal. You have a different positive sign in that the last nitrite test looked to be a tad higher than the previous one, so that's a different sign that there are some A-Bacs in there doing something.

~~waterdrop~~