need some fishless cycling help

[MMantelli]

So I decided to do a fishless cycle this go around and was wandering if everything seems to be going correctly. I'm using janitorial strength pure 10% ammonia, temp 84-86 f, ph 7.6-7.8

4-26 I filled it up and put in the sponge filter and no substrate
4-27 dosed 2ml ammo brought it to 5ppm
4-28 I put some ceramic rings around the sponges and the bottom water
from the bucket I rinced my 2 canister filters sponges in
4-29/4-30 ammo 5ppm
5-1 ammo 3-4ppm
5-2 ammo 2ppm, no2 0.25
5-3 ammo 2.0, no2 0.5, moved water and filter to plastic tote. added soil and pfs to tank put water and filter back in.
5-4 ammo2.0, no2 2.0
5-5 ammo 1.0, no2 4-5
5-6 ammo 0, no2 3.0 dosed ammo to 4.0
5-7 ammo 0.25, no2 2.0, no3 60-80
5-8 ammo 0, no2 2-5, dosed ammo to 4
5-9 ammo 0, no2 2-5, added plants dosed ammo to 4 (only ambient light untill today)
5-10 ammo 0, no2 0.25, no3 100+ dosed ammo to 4
5-11 ammo 0, no2 5.0, no3 100+, po4 ~3+, dosed ammo to 4 dosed glut
5-12 today ammo 0, no2 0.5-2, no3 100+ did 90% pwc ammo 0, no2 0, no3 10-20 (closer to 10) dosed ammo to 4 also dosed glut, seachem comp and API leaf zone tested 6 hours later ammo 0.25, no2 5.0

So does that seem normal do yall think I mitt be nearing the end of the cycle yet? Man this is tedious.

 

[XxNoobxX]

Well i cant help cuz im in the same situation as urs.. Hope to get some help from someone who knows more about this cycling process :/
I was about to put something about this topic hehehe then i saw urs...

 

[librarygirl]

Ammonia is dropping, you have nitrites and nitrates are rising. All good things. The nitrite phase is the longest so you're just waiting for them to drop to 0 and then you're done.

 

[MMantelli]

Well i cant help cuz im in the same situation as urs.. Hope to get some help from someone who knows more about this cycling process :/
I was about to put something about this topic hehehe then i saw urs...

Lol...Great minds think alike. Did you see the article on here about fishless cycling?

Ammonia is dropping, you have nitrites and nitrates are rising. All good things. The nitrite phase is the longest so you're just waiting for them to drop to 0 and then you're done.

Nitrites are rising and dropping and rising and dropping. Ok cool. I wasn't absolutely sure if what it was doing is what I re s supposed to be doing. Thank you. I wish it would hurry up and finish I'm getting sick of testing every day. This is my third tank I've aquired in the past year but first time doing a fishless cycle.
Thanks.

 

[MMantelli]

so i tested today when i finally decided to get out of bed and after 18hours from the last ammo dose to 4ppm here were the results

ammo 0
no2 0
no3 20

Yay!!! im done!!! so i should dose the ammonia one last time to 4ppm just to make sure or can i go ahead do a pwc and stick my preggo fuellebornis in there. im leaning towards dosing one last time to make sure

 

[RyanBenson]

Well you definitely had more luck than I did. First my ammonia didnt drop for 3 weeks, decided to do a water change and didnt add conditioner so it wiped any BB I had grown. Started over about 2 days ago. This is really testing my patients. I removed all my plants because my ammonia was rising over night. I figured it was dying or decaying plants. For any tips for me? Haha

 

[MMantelli]

Well you definitely had more luck than I did. First my ammonia didnt drop for 3 weeks, decided to do a water change and didnt add conditioner so it wiped any BB I had grown. Started over about 2 days ago. This is really testing my patients. I removed all my plants because my ammonia was rising over night. I figured it was dying or decaying plants. For any tips for me? Haha

well i cranked my temp up to 84-86, added some bio rings from my cichlid tank and also when i changed my filter media in my 2 other tanks i took some old tank water and cleaned every single filter pad in it from both of my canister filters and let it settle then dumped out all but about a cup or 2 of it and then dumped that into the tank i was cycling i donr know if that helped but in my eyes it was kind of a fresh batch of diy bacteria in a bottle... and i actually didnt do a single water change untill after it was able to turn 4ppm of ammonia into 0 over night and after my no2 spiked and started fluctuating.

 

[RyanBenson]

well i cranked my temp up to 84-86, added some bio rings from my cichlid tank and also when i changed my filter media in my 2 other tanks i took some old tank water and cleaned every single filter pad in it from both of my canister filters and let it settle then dumped out all but about a cup or 2 of it and then dumped that into the tank i was cycling i donr know if that helped but in my eyes it was kind of a fresh batch of diy bacteria in a bottle... and i actually didnt do a single water change untill after it was able to turn 4ppm of ammonia into 0 over night and after my no2 spiked and started fluctuating.

Oh, well it did help because I will now try that! I have a 10 gallon tank and I think I need to change the media in It so yeah!

 

[MMantelli]

also from what ive been told plants will like the excess nutrients in the water well at least most of them... even after adding the nasties from my cleaning out my 2 canister filters it took a few days for the ammo to start dropping

 

[RyanBenson]

also from what ive been told plants will like the excess nutrients in the water well at least most of them... even after adding the nasties from my cleaning out my 2 canister filters it took a few days for the ammo to start dropping

Ah ok! Cool! I guess I need to go get new plants unless my other ones are still alive!

 

[Mebbid]

so i tested today when i finally decided to get out of bed and after 18hours from the last ammo dose to 4ppm here were the results

ammo 0
no2 0
no3 20

Yay!!! im done!!! so i should dose the ammonia one last time to 4ppm just to make sure or can i go ahead do a pwc and stick my preggo fuellebornis in there. im leaning towards dosing one last time to make sure

Until you get fish in the tank just dose the ammonia up to maybe 2ppm daily to keep the cycle going. After that you should be golden except for maybe a 90% water change right before you add your stock of fish.

 

[MMantelli]

Until you get fish in the tank just dose the ammonia up to maybe 2ppm daily to keep the cycle going. After that you should be golden except for maybe a 90% water change right before you add your stock of fish.

Cool thanks

 

[MMantelli]

Well I dosed it up to 4ppm oncce more and in less than 18hrs it completed the nitrogen cycle so I did a 80-90% water change and put my fuelleborni that is currently holding in there untill she spits the fry and ill have 2 more right behind her going in there. I'm about to have a ton of fuelleborni babies!!!

 

[RyanBenson]

Well I dosed it up to 4ppm oncce more and in less than 18hrs it completed the nitrogen cycle so I did a 80-90% water change and put my fuelleborni that is currently holding in there untill she spits the fry and ill have 2 more right behind her going in there. I'm about to have a ton of fuelleborni babies!!!

Congrats!! sadly I had to remove all my live plants because I believe tyst they were adding ammonia to my tank. So my cycle has yet to "start". Tested my ammonia in my 10 gallon tank and it was .25 so I did an experiment and put one of the live plants in my 10 gallon tank. The next day the ammonia was at 1. So yeah I removed them all so hopefully it will work so I can get fish in my 55 gallon!

 

[MMantelli]

If you go to ace and get the ace brand ammonia and dose it up to 4ppm and seed your tank with some old filter media it will speed up the process.

 

[RyanBenson]

If you go to ace and get the ace brand ammonia and dose it up to 4ppm and seed your tank with some old filter media it will speed up the process.

Well I have pure ammonia, is there a difference? If so I will go get some!! On the ingredients it says 100% ammonium hydroxide

 

[BLUElobster99]

Use:



Used filter media

Gravel from establish aquarium

Api quickstart

High temp (around 85)


Lights on 24/7



^cycled in 5 days

 

[MMantelli]

I wouldn't reccomend using bottled bacteria I've heard a lot of reports of there bb crashing or going into a mini cycle after using that stuff.

Also as long as there's no dyes or scents or detergents in your ammonia it is good I used janitorial strength 10% ammonium hydroxide. And completed my cycle 100% in 2 weeks it takes some patience but your fish will be better off.

 

[RyanBenson]

I wouldn't reccomend using bottled bacteria I've heard a lot of reports of there bb crashing or going into a mini cycle after using that stuff.

Also as long as there's no dyes or scents or detergents in your ammonia it is good I used janitorial strength 10% ammonium hydroxide. And completed my cycle 100% in 2 weeks it takes some patience but your fish will be better off.

Yeah definitely!