Question About My Fishless Cycling

[SarahB]

before i write them , i was just wondering if i am doing things right , and if they look as what they should be ??

Ammonia / nitrites / nitrates

started 29/02/08 added 7 mls so 4.9ppm / na / na

31/01/08 4.9 / na / na

i added a few plants on the 01/02/08

01/02/08 2.4 added 5mls to bring up to 4.9 ish / 0.8 / na

02/02/08 4.9 / 0.8 / na


didn't test for a few days then

05/02/08 4.9 / 1.6 / na

06/06/08 1.2 added 7 mls to get between 4.9 - 7.3 / 1.6 - 3.3 (not clear) / 110




i only started testing for nitrates tonight and it came as 110 , was owndering would it really be this high ?

does the fishless cycling look ok so far ??

 

[doresy]

Hi, looks pretty good so far. Havn't reached June yet..... Last test Typo?

Are you using a API Liquid test kit? If so are you paying particular attention to the shaking times as it is very impotant (nitrate test)

Have you tested your tap water for nitrate?

 

[rdd1952]

I don't know where you are located (since you do your dates dd/mm/yy, I assume you are not in the states) but I will second the thought that you need to test your tap water for nitrate. Most people in and around London in particular have 40 ppm or more in their tap water pretty much all the time with it getting higher on occasions.

I would say that your ammonia seems to be processing nicely but the nitrite most likely hasn't yet (thus the belief that the nitrate is already in your tap water). That's normal as nitrite bacteria takes longer to develop. I would cut the amount of ammonia you are adding back to enough to rise it to no more than 4 ppm and only add it once a day (which it looks like you are doing). If it indeed does turn out that the nitrate is in your tap water, you may have to do some water changes once the nitrite gets off the chart high to bring it back down to kind of see how things are progressing. They won't slow the process and may actually speed it a little.

 

[SarahB]

ok thanks for help , and thanks for noticing typing error lol , i was just about to test my tap water for nitrate , but i may do tomorrow instead.

i live in east anglia in england , we have very hard water here , so i wonder if that would affect the nitrate ??



thanks for replying guys

 

[rdd1952]

I think hard water with nitrate present seems to be pretty common around the UK. CFC, a mod and one of the long time, often refers to the London tapwater as "liquid rock".

 

[SarahB]

i forgot to add that i removed a fair few dead leaves from my plants in tank today , could that be the cause for the high nitrate ??

 

[rdd1952]

Dead plants will eventually lead to nitrate as they go through the decaying process but wouldn't be responsible for an inordinatey high level. I think the tp water will be the culprit.

 

[SarahB]

Dead plants will eventually lead to nitrate as they go through the decaying process but wouldn't be responsible for an inordinatey high level. I think the tp water will be the culprit.

i have just tested my tap water and it is 5 for nitrate , where as my tank it is still 110


my ammonia is now at 2.4 and nitrites at 1.6


could anyone shed some light on why my nitrate is so high ?? or is it as its in the middle of fishless cycling ???

 

[rdd1952]

Not really certain why your nitrates are so high. It looks like your nitrite has dropped some so you may be moving toward getting cycled but it is very odd for the nitrite to drop before peaking off the chart. If it were me, I think I would do a large water change of 90% or so to get all the levels back near zero. Then add enough ammonia to raise it back up to 4ppm and see what happens. That way you will be albe to tell if the nitrate starts to rise again meaning that both ammonia and nitrite are being processed.

 

[SarahB]

my nitrites were at the top of the chart as 3.3 is the highest on the testing kit chart , but they were only there for 1 day ??

im confused

 

[SarahB]

so should i say do a 50% water change now then ?

 

[rdd1952]

I would go closer to 75 to 90 percent. You want to make sure you do enough to get the nitrite back to a measurable level but more importantly, you want to get the nitrate as low as possible too so you see when it starts to rise. For me, most nitrate kits are almost impossible to distinguish colors on after about 40 ppm and since you have nitate in your tap water, you need to get the tank water as close to that as you can.

 

[SarahB]

i did the 90% water change on the day i posted this .

i have been adding up to 4ppm of ammonia and it is processing in less that 12 hours . (been topping up each day )

so it's been 7 days and my nitrites are still off the chart . (even though its hard to read on my colour chart )

any ideas ? its making me really fustrated now

 

[rdd1952]

It sounds as if things are going normally. Have you been able to see the nitrates rising since you did the big water change and started adding ammonia again? That is really the key. If ammonia is being processed, you know you have that bacteria present. If the nitrate is also rising, then you know you have some bacteria processing nitrite too meaning that it shouldn't be long before the nitrite drops.

 

[SarahB]

i havent really been testing the nitrates apart from when i did the water change which reduced them significantly. i know being patient will make it all worth while in the end , but its just soo boring seeing nothing really happening .

just gotta focus on how happy the fish will be when i get them compared to if i did a fish in cycling