Fishless Cycle Journal so far... is this weird?

[Grafx]

I had started a brand new 60 gallon setup.
Filter: eheim 2215
Heater: 250w eheim
Testkit: api liquid master freshwater kit

I had seeded it with USED sand substrate from someone. And topped the tank with superbac live nitrifying bacteria. I added my ammonia and had a reading of 6 Ammonia, 0 nitrite and 0 nitrates. (all ppm)

On day 9 of my cycle. I had a reading of 3ppm ammonia, 3.5ppm nitrite and 0 nitrate. The downside of this I noticed snails in my tank and the seller failed to mention he had a snail population in his tank and i didn't even know what kind they were. So I sucked it up and decided to COMPLETELY remove everything from the tank, and hose it all down, and then scrub it with white vinegar and hot water. Bleached my rocks and plants. I took apart my filter and took out any small snails I found in the media.

OK, redo the tank time! 3 hours later, 90$ on brand new cichlid sand from the store, All set up, running again (glad i did, came out a ton nicer looking)



24 hours it's been since i added all new water and ammonia and redid the tank, here are my readings.

Day 1
Ammonia: 1.5ppm
Nitrite: 3.5ppm
Nitrate: 0ppm

Before I decided to redo the tank. previous to day 9, there was high ammonia, no nitrite or nitrate. So im assuming I got nitrite readings cause of the filter keeping the nitrifying bacteria from the old setup. Alright fine. So I figure it's a good thing, my cycle is continuing.

Day 4
Ammonia: 0.25ppm
Nitrites: 6ppm
Nitrates: 20-25ppm

Ok so my tank is quickly cycling. Should I add more ammonia? So I do, and bring it up to 1.5ppm.

Day 7
Ammonia: 0.4ppm
Nitrite: 6-8ppm (off the chart) is a bright purple,
nitrate: 25ppm

I do a 40% Water change to bring the nitrites to a readable level. After the water change.... it did nothing. same readings!

Day 9 (today)
Ammonia 0.2ppm
Nitrite: 6-8ppm
Nitrate: 30-35ppm


i'm kind of lost what to do at this point. my nitrites just wont drop. and ive been told its at a toxic level to the nitrate converter. so what do i do? the water change didn't help.

 

[Grafx]

Day 10
Ammonia 0ppm
Nitrite 5.5ppm
Nitrate 30ppm

a week now with no considerable change.. sigh

 

[taylorodw]

Hello Grafx and welcome to AA!

You are actually in good shape. Keep in mind, nitrites declining and leveling out at 0 is the final stage of the cycle. This normally takes 3-6 weeks. You are lucky to start with seeded material!

You want to keep dosing ammonia and do a water change if nitrites stay off the chart for 7 days or so - at some point, they usually will go off the charts and return to 0 naturally. It is less often that they go down to 0 directly after a water change, unless the bacteria was very near to the break-even point anyway.

Your cycle just needs a chance to work for a bit. Keep up the good work.

 

[Grafx]

I was told if I keep dosing ammonia into the tank, the nitrite levels will just reach toxic levels that the nitrite->nitrate bacteria won't be able to even grow. And to just let the nitrite drop into good readable levels before adding ammonia again

Is this true?

 

[BigJim]

You have to keep feeding the ammonia to keep the ammonia to nitrite bacteria going. You can reduce the amount you're dosing and do PWCs to control the nitrites. I recently did this on my 40B and with a bag of established biomedia from another tank, the cycle only took about a week.

 

[Grafx]

Day 13
Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrite: 5ppm
Nitrates: 90ppm


Almost done!?

 

[Grafx]

Day 16
Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 25-30ppm


Cycled! ... I think? why is the nitrate so low!? weird! lol i never did a water change

 

[Jason7894561230]

Do you have plants in there? Anyway yes your cycle is done!

 

[Grafx]

just fake plants, real slate, and 2 pieces of real driftwood from an established tank.

 

[findad]

I would bet on the driftwood holdin a ton of beneficial bacteria and helping the cycle

 

[Grafx]

what would explain the low nitrates without a water change and when it was 100ppm 3 dayus ago

 

[findad]

not sure, i have a similar cycle going on myself, and all i seeded with was a filter cartridge and bio wheel????

I guess i will stop questioning it and start stocking it

one thing I think I was doing was, not shaking the nitrAte #2 solution enough and was getting some false readings??

 

[BigJim]

Did you perform the tests correctly? One of the nitrate test solutions does need to be well shaken or you'll get inaccurate readings.

The driftwood would hold a lot of bacteria. I cycled a tank in about the same period of time using a small bag of established biomedia.

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

Day 16
Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 25-30ppm


Cycled! ... I think? why is the nitrate so low!? weird! lol i never did a water change

Nitrate tests convert nitrate to nitrIte first, then test that. So if you have any nitrIte in the water, your nitrAte test will be thrown off. Now that you have no NirtIte, your NitrAte test is accurate.

Think about it, you only had 5-9 ppm NitrIte for a couple weeks, and then got converted to nitrAte. There's not 100ppm getting converted in that time frame. Even if your ammonia drops to 0 and you add 4ppm daily, over 2 weeks that would get converted to about 56 ppm Nitrate in the end. Most of the time, you're only keeping ammonia around 1-2 for a few weeks, so half of that would be 25-30 ppm Nitrate after full conversion, assuming no losses in the process (which there are)