My Fishless Tank Cycling Log

[fatheadminnow]

When in doubt do a water change.

Since you are adding a lot of ammonia all the time to the water, it makes the water really acidic and drives the pH down.

This is very common during fishless cycles, and should not come as a surprise.

So yes, I would do around a 50% water change and then see where you are at.

You may need to do another water change after that one if the pH is still low.

-FHM

 

[mayurkirti]

When in doubt do a water change.

Since you are adding a lot of ammonia all the time to the water, it makes the water really acidic and drives the pH down.

This is very common during fishless cycles, and should not come as a surprise.

So yes, I would do around a 50% water change and then see where you are at.

You may need to do another water change after that one if the pH is still low.

-FHM

What about adding the baking soda?

 

[fatheadminnow]

Lets not go down that road yet, unless you know for sure what your kH is.

If they are lower around 1-3 than baking soda might be the next thing to consider.

Like I said, this is very common in a fishless cycle, and almost every cycle diary I have seen, there had been multiple accounts throughout the cycle where the pH had dropped. But once the cycle is over, and your water parameters are in check, and you are doing weekly water changes, then all should be just fine.

Plus, if you add baking soda now, it is not going to raise the pH of your water, it is going to raise the Kh (hardness) of your water.

With a high KH, lets say higher than 3; this is going to hold your pH at a more steady position.

What baking soda does is raise the Kh of your water, which in effect has a relation with the pH.

Higher (4+) KH = more stable pH.

Lower KH (3-) = less stable and more prone to fluctuate pH.

So for now, just do a water change and all should be fine.

-FHM

 

[mayurkirti]

I have done the water change and updated the log. pH has raised now. I added ammonia since it was due. I will probably do another water change tomorrow based on the test result.

Thanks!

 

[fatheadminnow]

Your welcome!

Yeah, your pH should stabilize after tour cycle is complete and you have fish and are doing your weekly water changes.

If then your pH is still dropping (after the cycle) though out the week between water changes, than post back on here and we will further look into the situation than.

Keep up the good work!

-FHM

 

[mayurkirti]

updated day 5 readings

 

[fatheadminnow]

I see that you are not running your filter 24 hours?

You need to run it all the time to have a continuous flow of ammonia (food source) for the autotrophic bacteria.

When your tank cycles and you are still not running your filter 24 hours a day, you may have a lot of frequent ammonia spikes!

Make sure your filter runs all the time. If it is too noisy for it to run at night, buy a quieter one.

-FHM

 

[mayurkirti]

Its been running pretty must the whole time this week. I turn it off for 10-15 minutes when doing the water changes.

 

[fatheadminnow]

Its been running pretty must the whole time this week. I turn it off for 10-15 minutes when doing the water changes.

Oh, that is fine to turn it off for dong water changes.

I thought you had it turned off for like the whole night or something, which would be a big no no.

-FHM

 

[mayurkirti]

I have actually made that mistake once and learned from it thanks

 

[waterdrop]

OK, hi there mayurkirti,

You fishless cycle looks good. I see you are getting good help from OM47 and FHM and I agree with all the things they've said. Each 1ppm of ammonia is processed by the A-Bacs into 2.7ppm of nitrite(NO2) and then 3.6ppm of nitrate(NO3), so as OM47 said, if you top up the ammonia too frequently it just ends up producing even more excess NO2 and NO3 compounds. The NO3, when dissolved in the water will also separate into a larger fraction of non-acid and a smaller fraction of nitric acid (if I'm remembering its name correctly), which is the main component that drives the pH downward as you cycle. That's why pH tests are part of your daily log records and why you are seeing those drops to pH=6.2 and below, where cycling stops. At this stage the large (90%) water changes are the correct way to go to remedy the low pH condition and get things going again.

You look to be solidly in the "nitrite spike" stage of things. They've told you correctly.. seeing those shiny purple (or sometimes even a weird green/blue!) sunken drops in the test tube and then getting a weird reddish purple that's hard to interpret are indeed just signs that nitrite is still spiked above what the test can measure. But good for you for being skeptical, as its true that its important under most circumstances to only pay attention to the color at the correct point in the stopwatch time. You do seem to have benefitted from plenty of A-Bacs having already reproduced during your fish-in stage prior to starting the fishless. Most fishless cycles would not have started out with ammonia drops happening nearly that quickly.

Your next milestone to watch for will be nitrite(NO2) dropping to zero ppm at the 24h test rather than still being spiked. The next milestone after that is for nitrite to drop to zero within 12 hours and it can take quite a while to go the distance between those two milestones.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[mayurkirti]

Thanks, waterdrop. I have stopped adding ammonia at 12 hour marks (I did it only once). It makes sense now.

I am trying to be patient doing daily nitrite tests for the day when I see it drop. Its only been a week now (feels like a month has passed). I think I have at least 2 more weeks to go before I see any drop in nitrite.

pH looks like dropping again and it may need another water change.

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, if pH has been in the 7s and drops past 6.6 or so you can anticipate action will probably be needed...

 

[mayurkirti]

Updated day 7 and 8 readings.

Did a 70% water change to raise the pH from 7 to 7.2-7.4ish.

 

[mayurkirti]

Updated day 9 and 10 readings