Newbies fishless cycle record so far

[Squirrelbuddies]

Is an algae bloom typical with fishless cycling?? I'm on day 12 (fishless) with my 55 gallon and my readings are:

Ammonia: 2.0
Nitrite: 2.0
Nitrate: 5.0

My other tank (20 gallon) which was cycled with fish (I was not aware of fishless cycling at the time... ) is on it's sixth week and readings are:

Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: .25
Nitrate 5.0 (down from 10.0 the day before)

I have lots of plants in this tank. Just a trace of algae.

Should I expect either tank to experience an algae explosion?

 

[paulthegreat]

I do not know if this will help but I kind of skipped the fishless cycle and used some gel tab called Tetra Bactozym. They put in the bacteria that consume both ammonia and nitrite and my tank was fish ready after less than two days. On day two I put in four Black widow tetras and four glowlight tetras I still have all of these plus I put in a lot more fish within the next ten days. Out of 24 original fish I have only lost 1 Swordtail and 1 neon. I have had various algea blooms but I plucked out the hair algea and only have small tufts on occasion. I do a 40% water change every week to ten days and add a bit of tetra aqua safe and a bactozym tab with water changes and filter cleanings. My test strips I get from work(dairy lab) show nitrite and nitrate. I do a partial water change when the nitrates get up to 40ml/l or so. I use a sump pump style vacuum hose to suck out the poop and aereate the gravel(5-8mm English sea gravel). I test the pH on a Mettler/Orion pH meter at work 7.35 at last reading. I had a nitrite spike at about day four and by day six I have not had any nitrite since. This tank was started on 28 Aug. 2004. hth

 

[wonger]

After two days of no light the white fine floss algae has now completely gone and water is back to crystal clear, but this is the fifth day of zero nitrites and nitrates, will switch light back on tommorow

 

[wonger]

Day 17 and things are looking up again

 

[wonger]

Day 20 and we now have nitrate

 

[jflowers]

Congrats

Soon be all over.

Jon

 

[wonger]

wow again after 10 drops of ammonia yesterday my reading is right down at 0.25 ppm, now adding 15 drops

 

[wonger]

Well its day 28 and the ammonia is being eaten up at 15 drops a day, i guess my nitrite must be spiking way off the chart as its not readable, its reads around 2 ppm for about 30 seconds when the drops are initally added to 5ml test tube of tank water, but then quicky changes to a colour not on the card, so now its a matter of how long will it take for the nitrites to reduce i guess?

Having fun anyway, plants growing well, especially the Combomba, its growing like mad, i read it likes soft water and here in Scotland we have very soft water, so i guess thats really helping it, funnily enough i read Combomba is quite hard to grow

 

[wonger]

Day 33, ammonia reads 0 ppm, nitrite reads 0 ppm, nitrate reads 15 ppm, tank now cycled, yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeehaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

I think it could of cycled quicker than 33 days if i had not had an algae bloom that caused the nitrites and nitrates to zero and also if i had not been adding 15 drops of ammonia each day, when it was clear the nitrites were way off the chart and spiking for days until i reduced the amounts added, very pleased anyway with my first fishless cycle attempt.

Going to add a few drops of ammonia each day, just enough to provide food while trying to keep levels as near to zero as possible as we wont be buying any fish until the weekend