Strange Cycle?

[SkiFletch]

So, having never actually monitoring a cycle before I dont have a lot of experience in this so I'm wondering if what I'm seeing jives with what you guys do. Here's whats been going on in my tank. Was trying the cycle for days 1-7 WITH fish until my poor guy died on me, and have been going SANS fish since: All measurements taken at the same time of day BEFORE adding any treatments (water change or Hagen Cycle). After each reading a 20% water change was performed daily.

pH NH3/4 NO2 NO3
8 4 0 0
8 3 0 0
8 3 0 0
8 4 0 0
8 4 0 0
8 3 0 0
8 4 0 0 (fish passed)
8 2 0 0 (first fishless NH3 added)
8 4 0 0
8 2 0 0
8 2 0 0
8 2 1 0
8 2 5+ 0 (NO2 pegged at max on my scale)
8 2 5+ 0



So if I read all these cycle articles and graphs correctly, shouldnt by ammonia be on the decline or gone by now? Clearly the ammonia eaters have gone into exponential growth as the pegged Nitrite readings indicate, but they aren't eating all the ammonia I'm giving them yet? Is there a problem here or should I be seeing the ammonia dissappear perhaps in another 2 days?

I'm adding 2 drops of highly concentrated ammonia daily (since starting fishless cycle) which is enough to raise my concentration of ammonia by 6ppm in the 20 gallon tank. Verified this with my testing kit and apparently my maths and chemistry was right . The test kit is a Tetratest liquid version as new as the readings are. Also, tapwater stats are 8/0/0/0.

As always your help is appreciated

 

[rdd1952]

It will take a while for the ammonia to drop to zero in a quick (less than 12 hours) manner. If you're adding enough ammonia daily to raise it to 6 ppm and it is back down to 2 ppm when you measure 24 hours later, you are processing a lot of ammonia.

My personal preference is to only raise ammonia back to around 2 or maybe 3 ppm daily. You will still have enough bacteria to handle your fish load but it won't take forever for the tank to cycle.

As you said, your nitrite is off the chart (nitrate will be too soon). Because of the amount of ammonia you are adding daily, your nitrite may be pushing 20 ppm. It will take a while for the bacteria to catch up with that, probably at least 3 weeks.

 

[SkiFletch]

3 weeks? jebus

 

[modernhamlet]

8 2 0 0 (first fishless NH3 added)
8 4 0 0
8 2 0 0
8 2 0 0
8 2 1 0
8 2 5+ 0 (NO2 pegged at max on my scale)
8 2 5+ 0

This looks like textbook fishless cycling to me. You're totally on the right path now. Given the unfortunate initial events before you went fishless, I'd predict you'll finish up quicker than 3 weeks, but try to be patient! Just remember, once you're done you can stock pretty much fully. That's a big compensation for those few weeks.

Just 5 days to a nitirite spike is very good... expect about 10 days of high nitrites before those drop rapidly over just a couple of days. The ammonia will work itself out long before then.

Good luck!

 

[SkiFletch]

Goodie, thanks modernhamlet. I'm going to keep dosing as is. Now I just have to plan my final stock

 

[SkiFletch]

Ok now I'm confused... Today's water stats, checked 3 seperate times: pH 7.8, Ammonia 0.25, Nitrites 5+, and Nitrates 50!?!?!?!?!

Is my tank defying the laws of microbiology and physics? Seeing the ammonia drop to nearly zero made me happy, and seeing the nitrite still pegged also appeared normal, however going from 0 to 50ppm in one day of nitrates? Is that possible?

Just a word of note, I'm still doing daily 20% water changes after chemistry readings and my tapwater STILL is without nitrates in it, so I highly doubt that was the source.

Your thoughts?

 

[kimbowee]

Perfectly normal! You will probably also notice large fluctuations in your pH pretty soon too. Don't worry, sounds like its going good now!

 

[SkiFletch]

Perfectly normal! You will probably also notice large fluctuations in your pH pretty soon too. Don't worry, sounds like its going good now!

Normal huh? I guess I just thought it would take longer for those nitrite-eating bacteria to grow and establish cause it took a long time for my ammonia eaters. Guess I'll keep changing the water, adding ammonia and wait for those nitrites to come down.

Licking my lips here as I really want to add some fish now

 

[rdd1952]

Ok now I'm confused... Today's water stats, checked 3 seperate times: pH 7.8, Ammonia 0.25, Nitrites 5+, and Nitrates 50!?!?!?!?!

Is my tank defying the laws of microbiology and physics? Seeing the ammonia drop to nearly zero made me happy, and seeing the nitrite still pegged also appeared normal, however going from 0 to 50ppm in one day of nitrates? Is that possible?

Just a word of note, I'm still doing daily 20% water changes after chemistry readings and my tapwater STILL is without nitrates in it, so I highly doubt that was the source.

Your thoughts?

Your nitrates shooting up that high simply means that the nitrite is being processed successfully so no need for alarm there. As for the water changes, they are unnecessary during a fishless cycle and will actually slow it down. Hold off on them until your nitrite drops to 0 and then do a big 75 to 90 percent change and you are ready for fish.