Si's Fishless Cycle

[PDSimon]

What are you studying? My uni days have been and gone unfortunately...

Product design

Currently designing something to encourage bees in the average garden - random I know!

Ah, there's a market in bee keeping these days...the bee population NEEDS to be helped. I bet if you come up with a new efficient cheap to make bee hive design you could be on a winner

I did the engineering side myself, BEng in electronics and MSc in data-telecomms...hence my love of graphs and my OCD, not sure whether they came before or after the study though

Aye, theres a huge problem with the decline in the various bee populations, hence the project

What i've done is took away the maintenance aspect of a hive into something you bury in your garden to allow bumblebees to find easy and safe nesting sites. Along with a concept campaign to increase awareness and demand for my product

Some engineering i find so interesting but too much of it bores me haha. Not to mention my lack of skills in maths and physics!

 

[kaivalagi]

What are you studying? My uni days have been and gone unfortunately...

Product design

Currently designing something to encourage bees in the average garden - random I know!

Ah, there's a market in bee keeping these days...the bee population NEEDS to be helped. I bet if you come up with a new efficient cheap to make bee hive design you could be on a winner

I did the engineering side myself, BEng in electronics and MSc in data-telecomms...hence my love of graphs and my OCD, not sure whether they came before or after the study though

Aye, theres a huge problem with the decline in the various bee populations, hence the project

What i've done is took away the maintenance aspect of a hive into something you bury in your garden to allow bumblebees to find easy and safe nesting sites. Along with a concept campaign to increase awareness and demand for my product

Some engineering i find so interesting but too much of it bores me haha. Not to mention my lack of skills in maths and physics!

Nice to see projects being created that have a real benefit to the world...must be nice to work on something like that.

I develop software these days, it can be boring and time consuming but it's all about creating something to the best of your ability and seeing the fruits of your labour, just like product design. Hey, one day you'll probably need to work with someone like me, when you do just remember to be thankful cause you didn't need to do all that "dull" stuff

Anyway, getting off topic, when are you doing the next reading?

 

[PDSimon]

What are you studying? My uni days have been and gone unfortunately...

Product design

Currently designing something to encourage bees in the average garden - random I know!

Ah, there's a market in bee keeping these days...the bee population NEEDS to be helped. I bet if you come up with a new efficient cheap to make bee hive design you could be on a winner

I did the engineering side myself, BEng in electronics and MSc in data-telecomms...hence my love of graphs and my OCD, not sure whether they came before or after the study though

Aye, theres a huge problem with the decline in the various bee populations, hence the project

What i've done is took away the maintenance aspect of a hive into something you bury in your garden to allow bumblebees to find easy and safe nesting sites. Along with a concept campaign to increase awareness and demand for my product

Some engineering i find so interesting but too much of it bores me haha. Not to mention my lack of skills in maths and physics!

Nice to see projects being created that have a real benefit to the world...must be nice to work on something like that.

I develop software these days, it can be boring and time consuming but it's all about creating something to the best of your ability and seeing the fruits of your labour, just like product design. Hey, one day you'll probably need to work with someone like me, when you do just remember to be thankful cause you didn't need to do all that "dull" stuff

Anyway, getting off topic, when are you doing the next reading?

It is good, really enjoy it

and yes, very similar really, same process of creation! Your not wrong, engineers are a must, not to mention materials scientists and various other people

i will shortly, just finishing some clay modelling so i can wash my hands!

 

[PDSimon]

ok ammonia is definately 2ppm now.

ammonia = 2ppm
Nitrites = 1 ppm (probably 1.5)

Nitrites have gone up! Is this quite a lot? It seems it. Especially seeing that ammonia took longer than average to go down.

edit: so i will be wanting to wait until ammonia gets to about 0.25 realistically before adding ammonia? or really wait exactly until its 0?

2nd edit(lol): I'm a bit confused about the 'nitrite spike' - you say start adding 3ppm rather than 5 after the spike.. I take its bigger than the 1ppm jump i've had now haha. I need to do a little reading

 

[kaivalagi]

Take a look at this graph again:

I'd say your maybe at the day 13-14 mark on there? The shapes in the graph must be estimated though so can't say for sure.

I'm guessing you would drop to 3ppm when ammonia is zero after 24 hours from adding 5ppm, which would likely still be before the nitrites have peaked...

To me the end of phase 1 is when you read zero ammonia before and after a 24 hour period which you dosed in (5ppm), end of phase 2 is when you read zero nitrites after 24 hours from dosing (3ppm) and phase 3 is all about making sure they stay that way for a week with 5ppm dosing again...

Waterdrop, I think we need your input here again

 

[PDSimon]

Take a look at this graph again:

I'd say your maybe at the day 13-14 mark on there? The shapes in the graph must be estimated though so can't say for sure.

I'm guessing you would drop to 3ppm when ammonia is zero after 24 hours from adding 5ppm, which would likely still be before the nitrites have peaked...

To me the end of phase 1 is when you read zero ammonia before and after a 24 hour period which you dosed in (5ppm), end of phase 2 is when you read zero nitrites after 24 hours from dosing (3ppm) and phase 3 is all about making sure they stay that way for a week with 5ppm dosing again...

Waterdrop, I think we need your input here again

If waterdrop could drop ( ) in I think he'll agree

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, nice definition by kaiv there of phases... I tend to get impatient trying to find short sentences to describe it and lately I've settled on in to saying simply that the middle phase is the nitrite spike whereas the first and third are the periods before and after it!

The definition of the nitrite spike is simply the period when the nitrite(NO2) test result matches the highest reading your nitrite(NO2) test kit can give you. (So they vary by what kit you have, unfortunately, as Nutrafin peaks at 3.3ppm and API peaks at 5ppm I believe.) Of course, the real amount of NO2 continues to go way on up and then back down but we just can't see those high numbers with our kits (there are some cases where people will do purposeful dilutions on their test water to get an estimate but I don't usually bother with those.)

I also tend to just oversimplify and think of the time when ammonia begins to be processed from 5ppm to zero ppm daily and the time when nitrite begins to appear as being roughly the same and as being a sign of the nearing of the end of the first phase. In truth, these two events each have a life of their own and can appear at somewhat separate times. Si is having a typical one I've seen a lot lately where the nitrite(NO2) starts to appear before the ammonia has begun to get itself processed all the way down on a daily basis. I just interpret that to mean Si had somewhat more N-Bacs and somewhat fewer A-Bacs than our average case, but none of that will matter in the long run. Most of our thread watching is like trying to give encouragement to people watching pots boil, lol.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[PDSimon]

Thanks water drop

I've just added a whole sponge from a smaller mature tank I added a load of gunky water too haha it looks a mess but what doesn't clear up i'll clear up a bit.

I'll test the water on later tonight.

 

[OldMan47]

Why did you wait so long to clone a filter PD? That should get things moving very quickly.

 

[PDSimon]

Why did you wait so long to clone a filter PD? That should get things moving very quickly.

My brothers been really busy and so am I. I tried to get it the other week but I couldn't. He doesn't live here either.. It's better now than never? I'm only just over a week in anyway...

edit: The tanks so messy the filter floss blocked up the filter already - cleaned it now though. I left the old filter floss in the tank too..don't know if it matters (just floating around).

 

[PDSimon]

First test since adding the mature media. Nothings changed much.

 

[PDSimon]

My pH has gone down from 7.8 to 7.4 since I took the rock out.

Funny thing is though, I tested the bucket of water the rock in and the water is 7.4 too.

Whats going on?

 

[kaivalagi]

My pH has gone down from 7.8 to 7.4 since I took the rock out.

Funny thing is though, I tested the bucket of water the rock in and the water is 7.4 too.

Whats going on?

Could be a co-incidence, pH can fall with a fish-less cycle I think, hence monitoring it and doing extra large water changes if required....7.4 is fine though

Did you scrub the rock thoroughly and even boil it before it went in?

 

[PDSimon]

My pH has gone down from 7.8 to 7.4 since I took the rock out.

Funny thing is though, I tested the bucket of water the rock in and the water is 7.4 too.

Whats going on?

Could be a co-incidence, pH can fall with a fish-less cycle I think, hence monitoring it and doing extra large water changes if required....7.4 is fine though

Did you scrub the rock thoroughly and even boil it before it went in?

It was too big for a pan so I poured boiling water over all of it.

Maybe something inside one of the holes highered the pH?

I am keeping an eye on the pH just incase it does drop... I could always put the rock back in if it gets a bit low

 

[kaivalagi]

I am keeping an eye on the pH just incase it does drop... I could always put the rock back in if it gets a bit low

Could do, but I bet it won't up it now based on what you've said about the bucket it's in

It's all down to what fish you're going to want to add! Any closer to making a decision on the fish?