Yet Another Cycling Thread

[Scouse Lee]

Hi fellas, I put this in someone elses thread but they suggested it would be better on it's own maybe.

Right I bought my kids a 54L Jewell tank 6 days ago as they were forever dragging me into the local garden centre/aquarium, it has gravel, a few plants & a load of SpongeBob Squarepants figures ,(it's ok I've just picked myself up a 4ft Clear-Seal tank & stand for £20 that will be more tastefully decorated ). I filled it up with water when we got it home and put it in a temporary position as I needed to build a unit for it to sit on then on Saturday I bought an API master testing kit & did the tests, results were as follows -

pH 7.6/High pH 7.4/Ammonia 0.25ppm/Nitrite 0ppm/Nitrate 5.0ppm.

On the Sunday I emptied 75% of the water out and moved it to it's permanent location,I also added some Stress Zyme+, Stress Coat+ and a pinch of flake, I then didn't get time to do any more tests until this morning when the readings were -

pH 7.6/High pH 7.4/Ammonia 0.25ppm/Nitrite 2.0ppm/Nitrate 5.0ppm

After reading some stuff on here I went out & bought some Ammonia which I added at 17:15 tonight,(used the calculator to work out the amount BUT after reading some comments here I realise that I probably got the actual amount of water in the tank wrong ), did an Ammonia test at 19:25 and it was 3-4ppm. I also turned my heater up to 30c from 23c.

Ok so some questions, when should I do more tests, ie do I wait a few days for Nitrite to appear or should I test for it now?, when should I do my next Ammonia test & when should I add more Ammonia?, when do I need to do a water change?

Sorry guys I know the answers are here somewhere but I have to say with all the differences of opinion I am getting confused again.

 

[The Taffy Apple]

Test your Ammonia daily (no need to check for NitrItes yet).
Test your PH every couple of days.
When the Ammonia hits '0' (bright yellow) then add more Ammonia, but this could take a couple of weeks.
Once you add your second lot of Ammonia start testing for NitrItes daily, again it could take even longer for the NitrItes to appear.
Once Ammonia and NitrItes are hitting '0' in 12 hours, continue for 7 more days ('Qualifying Week) then do a MASSIVE water change then add your fish.

Keep an accurate account of EVERYTHING you do to your tank from here on in..monitor your PH levels for any sign of a 'crash'...continue to read up in the beginners section on here for better understanding.

Big for choosing a fishless cycle, best of luck with it.

Terry.

 

[JDs4me]

Well done mate, you're on your way!

 

[Scouse Lee]

Cheers guys

 

[OldMan47]

Give it a week Scouse. It takes the ammonia processors a bit of time to get going. After that you might want to test every other day to monitor progress.

 

[Scouse Lee]

Ok so I've been doing a fishless cycle for 9 days now but I'm a bit confused by the results, can anyone tell me if I'm going in the right direction.

06/05/12
pH 7.6/High Range pH 7.4/Ammonia 0.25ppm/Nitrite 0.0ppm/Nitrate 5.0ppm
(8ml Stress Coat+ and 14ml Stress Zyme+ added along with a pinch of flake)

09/05/12 (morning)
pH 7.6/High Range pH 7.4/Ammonia 0.25ppm/Nitrite 2.0ppm/Nitrate 5.0ppm
(2.2ml Ammonia added at 5pm)

09/05/12 (evening)
Ammonia 3-4ppm

15/05/12
pH 7.6/High Range pH 7.4/Ammonia 2.0ppm/Nitrite 4.0ppm/Nitrate 2.0ppm

Do I need to bring my pH down & if so how?
My Ammonia levels gone down & my Nitrites gone up which I think is what should happen isn't it but should my Nitrate level have gone down?
Should I wait until my Ammonia is at 0.0ppm before adding more?

 

[JDs4me]

Looks like your ammonia bacteria are working mate, the ammonia starting to convert to nitrite!

On my cycle I waited for that first ammonia dose to zero before re-dosing. The concensus is then to go no higher than 3ppm on re-dose...I went to 1ppm but some may consider that too low.

My pH was around 8.0-8.2 throughout, a higher pH is considered good for the cycle, so I suggest you don't reduce yours.

I had an odd reading or two for the nitrates, but you don't really need to worry about them too much at this stage.
You now begin to accumulate nitrites...

 

[waterdrop]

Agree. Although a pH of 8.0 to 8.4 has been found to be pretty optimal for our two species of bacteria (that is, optimal for encouraging their rapid growth, whereas the colonies will still grow well in a less basic environment and the bacteria will reside quite happily in a still more acid environment), your pH of 7.6 is high enough to be just fine for your fishless cycle in my opinion. You probably won't need to worry about that aspect.

As a beginner, the main thing you'll probably need to worry about is your own patience. The whole business of growing out good biofilms on all that filter material surface area is a slow process. It is a different world that the fast pace we are used to in our daily lives. When the ammonia you've dosed works its way down to zero of kind of stalls close to zero then it is time to squirt if back up to 3 ppm or so and just continue your testing to watch what this next batch does. What often happens is that -nothing- seems to happen much, and on, and on, and then all of sudden one day it all seems to change and the ammonia will be gone in a day and perhaps nitrite(NO2) will have suddenly appeared on the scene and will start to be there in amounts higher than your nitrite test kit can measure.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Scouse Lee]

Update added at the bottom in blue

06/05/12
pH 7.6/High Range pH 7.4/Ammonia 0.25ppm/Nitrite 0.0ppm/Nitrate 5.0ppm
(8ml Stress Coat+ and 14ml Stress Zyme+ added along with a pinch of flake)

09/05/12 (morning)
pH 7.6/High Range pH 7.4/Ammonia 0.25ppm/Nitrite 2.0ppm/Nitrate 5.0ppm
(2.2ml Ammonia added at 5pm)

09/05/12 (evening)
Ammonia 3-4ppm

15/05/12
pH 7.6/High Range pH 7.4/Ammonia 2.0ppm/Nitrite 4.0ppm/Nitrate 2.0ppm

18/05/12
Ammonia 2.0ppm/Nitrite 1.0ppm/Nitrate 1-2ppm

Ammonia the same, Nitrite down, Nitrate possibly down, has something gone wrong here? I've added another 14ml of Stress-Zyme+

 

[Prime Ordeal]

Hi Scouse Lee

Well first of all there's no point in measuring nitrate until your nitrite has finally fallen to zero because the nitrate kit reads any nitrite as nitrate.

Second, why are you using Stress-Zyme? If you're doing a fishless cycle there's no need for it as all it does is add bacteria that compete for oxygen and nutrients with the actual bacteria you're trying to establish on the filter. It also produces ammonia which will confuse your readings.

It's difficult to say where you are at the moment because you haven't taken daily readings, so I can't see the usual trends which would indicate where you are.

The ammonia does seem to be clearing somewhat though, so keep an eye on the pH and make sure it hasn't/doesn't fall too much.

You need to be making daily readings for ammonia and nitrite at this stage.

 

[Scouse Lee]

Hi Prime Ordeal, I guess I still haven't got the hang of this yet. Ok so I'll lay off the Stress-Zyme & take daily readings for Ammonia & Nitrites and also pH every few days, I was away between the 10th & 14th and also the 16th & 17th which is why no tests done but I'm at home now for at least the next couple of months so should be ok. I'll also take the opportunity to set my 4' tank up. Thanks for the advice & if I mess up again feel free to slap me lol.

 

[Prime Ordeal]

Just update us with the daily test readings so we can tell you what's what.

And if you haven't been informed already then you ideally want temperature at 30C, lots of oxygenation by having the filter disturb the surface as much as possible and the pH should be around the 8 mark.

 

[Scouse Lee]

Yes I'll post the results daily, my temperature is hovering between 29 & 30 & the filter is moving the surface.

 

[Scouse Lee]

Update added at the bottom in blue

06/05/12
pH 7.6/High Range pH 7.4/Ammonia 0.25ppm/Nitrite 0.0ppm/Nitrate 5.0ppm
(8ml Stress Coat+ and 14ml Stress Zyme+ added along with a pinch of flake)

09/05/12 (morning)
pH 7.6/High Range pH 7.4/Ammonia 0.25ppm/Nitrite 2.0ppm/Nitrate 5.0ppm
(2.2ml Ammonia added at 5pm)

09/05/12 (evening)
Ammonia 3-4ppm

15/05/12
pH 7.6/High Range pH 7.4/Ammonia 2.0ppm/Nitrite 4.0ppm/Nitrate 2.0ppm

18/05/12
Ammonia 2.0ppm/Nitrite 1.0ppm/Nitrate 1-2ppm

19/05/12
pH 7.6/High Range pH 7.4/Ammonia 2.0ppm/Nitrite 0.50ppm

I've removed the plants as well

 

[Scouse Lee]

Last 2 days results in blue including the 4ft tank that I've now set up

06/05/12 - pH 7.6/High Range pH 7.4/Ammonia 0.25ppm/Nitrite 0.0ppm/Nitrate 5.0ppm
(8ml Stress Coat+ and 14ml Stress Zyme+ added along with a pinch of flake)

09/05/12 (morning) - pH 7.6/High Range pH 7.4/Ammonia 0.25ppm/Nitrite 2.0ppm/Nitrate 5.0ppm
(2.2ml Ammonia added at 5pm)

09/05/12 (evening)- Ammonia 3-4ppm

15/05/12 - pH 7.6/High Range pH 7.4/Ammonia 2.0ppm/Nitrite 4.0ppm/Nitrate 2.0ppm

18/05/12 - Ammonia 2.0ppm/Nitrite 1.0ppm/Nitrate 1-2ppm

19/05/12 - pH 7.6/High Range pH 7.4/Ammonia 2.0ppm/Nitrite 0.50ppm

20/05/12 - Ammonia 3-4ppm/Nitrite 0.25ppm

21/05/12 - Ammonia 3-4ppm/Nitrite 0.25ppm

4ft Tank

19/05/12 - 7.5ml Ammonia added

20/05/12 - pH 7.6/high Range pH 7.8/Ammonia 5.0ppm/Nitrite 0.0ppm

21/05/12 - Ammonia 5.0ppm/Nitrite 0.0ppm

I know you must get fed up of answering the same old questions guys but I really appreciate your advice, obviously not bothered about the 4ft tank as I've only just set it up but the smaller ones been on the go for 18 days now,(although only added Ammonia 12 days ago), I'm a bit worried I've done something wrong as not much seems to be happening, maybe it was the fact that I started off with plants in or that I added Stress-Zyme & Stress Coat, I don't know. Should I persevere or start again?

Thanks
Lee