My progress with the cycle

[Thumpah]

Hey all, my first post here and just after abit of advice really!

Been dosing a fishless cycle 180l rio tank with ammonia and its been about a week since i started but only dosed ammonia the first few days

Right now its showing:
4ppm ammonia
2-5 ppm nitrites
30ppm nitrates

(Also running heater at 27.7 degrees during the cycle)

Am i right in thinking i just leave it now for the ammonia & nitrites too drop and if they start getting higher to do a 10% water change?

Thanks,

Thumpah

 

[Essjay]

Are you following the method on here? This was written so that nitrite can never get high enough to stall the cycle.

Your ammonia is a bit high. How much did you add? 3 ppm is the recommended dose.

You are now at the stage of testing every third day until you reach a day where ammonia is below 0.75 and nitrite is above 2.0. Once you reach that stage, you need to add 3 ppm ammonia.
Then test every second day until you reach a stage where ammonia is zero then zero again 2 days later - you need two zeros, two days apart. After the second zero, add enough ammonia to get 1 ppm.
Now test every day until the next target is reached. That is when ammonia is below 0.25 and nitrite is below 1.0. At this point, another 3 ppm ammonia is added and the water tested next day. If both are zero, the cycle is finished. If one or both are not zero, test every day until ammonia is below 0.25 and nitrite is below 1.0 then add 3 ppm ammonia and test next day - keep going round this loop until you do have two zeros 24 hours after adding ammonia.

 

[Thumpah]

Ahh brilliant! Thanks for the much more detailed version of what i found on google!!

I added ammonia till it was showing 4ppm (checked daily)

Thankyou very much for the quick reply! ill keep updating!

 

[Essjay]

Here is that method in full

Cycling Your New Fresh Water Tank: Read This First!

Cycling Your First Fresh Water Tank What is Cycling and Why is it Important? Fish waste, and especially fish breathing, plus uneaten food and other organic matter breaking down in a tank all produce Ammonia. This can quickly become toxic to fish if it is allowed to build up to any measurable...

www.fishforums.net

 

[Essjay]

Most other methods say to add ammonia every time it drops to zero. Each 1 ppm ammonia is turned into 2.7 ppm nitrite, so those methods create a lot of nitrite. We now know that at 15-ish ppm nitrite the cycle stalls but our test kits can't measure that high so we have no idea if we have reached stall point.
It used to be thought that the ammonia eating bacteria starve to death if they are not fed whenever ammonia drops to zero but we now know they don't die that quickly. The person who wrote that method used the knowledge that the bacteria can live a lot longer than 24 hours and if followed properly nitrite can never get high enough to reach stall point.

 

[Thumpah]

Ok so three days later ive tested again

Ammonia: between 0.25 & 0.50 ppm
Nitrite: minimum 2 ppm but cant tell if its over 5 ppm
Nitrate: between 80 & 160 ppm??


So am i right in guessing to redose with ammonia?

Also PH seems to have dropped down to 6.6 from 7.2

 

[Essjay]

only dosed ammonia the first few days

I added ammonia till it was showing 4ppm (checked daily)

So you've only added a total of 4 ppm altogether? If that's what you've done, yes add more ammonia to get a reading of 3 ppm.

Then start testing every second day until you get zero ammonia, then zero ammonia again 2 days later. On the second zero ammonia day, add enough ammonia to get 1 ppm. This is to give the ammonia eaters a snack while the nitrite eaters grow, without making too much nitrite.

 

[Thumpah]

Well i added enough ammonia to get upto 4 ppm and since then havnt added any. Today is the first time ive tested for 3 days since that first post like you said and the ammonia has gone down to about 0.35 or so?

Im worried about how high my nitrite & nitrate levels are & if i add more ammonia its going to just increase them even more so or is it okay?

 

[Essjay]

If you are worried about your nitrite, you can do a dilution test. It won't be terribly accurate without precise measuring equipment but it will give you an idea. Assuming your tap water has no nitrite, mix some tap water and tank water half and half and see what the nitrite level is. If it's still showing the maximum colour, try 1 part tank and 3 parts tap.

I wouldn't bother with nitrate for now. Nitrate testers turn nitrate into nitrite and then measure nitrite. If there's already nitrite in the water it gives a false reading for nitrate.
And high nitrate doesn't stall the cycle. That's why we have to do a big water change at the end of the cycle, to get nitrate back down to tap water level.

 

[Thumpah]

ammonia is down to 1 ppm after one day so ill test again tomorrow and hopefully be 0 then test 2 days later for another 0 right?? then dose back upto 1 ppm??

 

[Essjay]

That's right. Once you've added the 1 ppm, continue testing every 2 days until you reach a day where ammonia is under 0.25 and nitrite is under 1 ppm.
Then add 3 ppm ammonia and test next day.

 

[Thumpah]

tested ammonia on 2nd day & 0.25 ppm reading... what would you suggest??

PH dropped down again to 6.2

Nitrite either 2 or 5 or over.. hard to tell!


should i water change to bring PH back up?

 

[Essjay]

That pH is quite low for cycling. If a water change brings it back up you could try that.

A quick check on-line suggests that Alfreton has middling hardness so the dropping pH shouldn't be due to low KH, though you might want to check your postcode really does have water around the 10 German degree level.

 

[Thumpah]

It was 7.2 for ages I don't understand why it's dropped?

 

[Essjay]

The usual cause of a pH drop is low KH (carbonate hardness). Mine is low at 3 dH and I did have a pH drop.

Nitrite and nitrate are acidic and there is quite a lot of them in a cycling tank. Carbonate (KH) reacts with acids and keeps the pH stable. When there is not much KH it gets used up so there is nothing left to stabilise pH so the acidic things cause the pH to fall.
KH and GH (hardness) are usually low, high or middling together, though it is possible to have high GH with low KH. I used a business address in Alfreton to look up their hardness, and their GH was around 9 dH so I would have expected alkalinity to be high enough to prevent a pH crash. Unfortunately few water companies in the UK give KH on their websites (and where they do they call it alkalinity).

Could I ask you to check your hardness, please, as if it is very soft that would explain the pH drop. If you are not sure where to look tell me the name of your water company and I'll find the page.