Yay Hooray!

[JMcQueen]

A moment to share.

After cylcing my second tank since JUNE i finally got my first 12 hour double zero this morning.

I changed things about a little in my ammonia dosing and it seems to have done the trick. In addition to adding the full dose every 24 hours, I also added a quarter dose every 12 hours after testings. Could be coincidence but it seems to have worked for me.

 

[Carlovel1]

 

[SadPanda]

congrats.. time to start stocking??

 

[JMcQueen]

congrats.. time to start stocking??

No, going to give it another week or so to ensure the results are consistant and to also allow the plants to bed in a little more

 

[Carlovel1]

Good idea

 

[Skins]

A moment to share.

After cylcing my second tank since JUNE i finally got my first 12 hour double zero this morning.

I changed things about a little in my ammonia dosing and it seems to have done the trick. In addition to adding the full dose every 24 hours, I also added a quarter dose every 12 hours after testings. Could be coincidence but it seems to have worked for me.

 

[JMcQueen]

The aspect that makes it such a personal relief is that its been processing ammonia in 12 hours for about 10 weeks now. Its been the nitrite thats been the problem.

 

[waterdrop]

Interesting observation JMQ, I wonder if the little quarter-dose at 12 hours somehow sent a signal to the N-Bacs in some way. It's probably just a red herring but I always find it useful to file away these sorts of observations in case they can be tried again at a later time with some other case. WD

 

[JMcQueen]

I agree. Probably a total red herring but my own theory is twofold. Firstly, we know wer're trying to get a pulsing of bacteria growth and dieback over the 24 hour period. Therefore Im wondering if the additional ammonia on 12 hours helps to minimise the die back whilst still allowing the pulsing. Secondly, we know nitrite can 'stick' and mixing things up a little can help so maybe this played a part too.

One problem I did have though was that when I removed the heaters (its going to be a cold water tank and the heaters were just to promote growth) the die back must have been greater than the development as the nitrite processing dropped a little.

 

[waterdrop]

I like to reserve the term "die-back" for bacteria actually diminishing in quantity (not enough "food" over days) as opposed to the pause in processing going on in pulsing the "food" source (It's my understanding that bacteriologists would of course not call it "food" because it's processed, not ingested. It's just handy for us to use the term.)

Did you remove the heaters significantly prior to the big water change? Perhaps that -was- a factor!

~~waterdrop~~

 

[JMcQueen]

No, the heaters were removed during the water change.