question about the nitrite part of the cycle

[harmy4993]

started my cycle about a week ago and been doingtonsand tons of reading since then. last i counted i have 45 bookmarked pages on fish and plants.

anyways on to my question. i read somewhere that the bactira from the nitrite part of the cycle doubles every 8 hours( the bactira from the nitrate part every 13 hours). if it doubles every 8 hours would my reading double every 8 hours? if i had a reading today of .25 wouldnt it mean that in 8 hours i should have a reading of .50 and so on?

[saffikeagan]

Unfortunately, there is no exact numbers, anyone who says so is a bit full of it. Though there are general trends, the ammonia spiking then starting to fall, then the nitrites spiking, then the nitrates building up significantly, your cycle will progress and complete in it's own time with it's own numbers. Unless it stalls.

[harmy4993]

Originally Posted by saffikeagan

Unfortunately, there is no exact numbers, anyone who says so is a bit full of it. Though there are general trends, the ammonia spiking then starting to fall, then the nitrites spiking, then the nitrates building up significantly, your cycle will progress and complete in it's own time with it's own numbers. Unless it stalls.

ya im aware there is no way to predict when a cycle will complete itself or go on to the next stage.

i was just curious about the bactira doubling every 8 hours.

[saffikeagan]

well, let's put it this way. On the graphs one tends to see they tend to have a concave curve at the beginning of the spike quickly going vertical then turning convex. That would indicate an initial exponential growth, that slows quickly. Most populations follow this type of growth pattern unless there is an external pressure exerted that disrupts the process.

Biology 101...I can't believe I remember back that far!

[Sum22]

Depressing. I'm very close to the 3rd week of my cycle and I have 0 nitrites.....

[harmy4993]

Originally Posted by Sum22

Depressing. I'm very close to the 3rd week of my cycle and I have 0 nitrites.....

just curious what your ammonia level is? notthat i have an answer as im new at this but this process is intriging to me.

[Sum22]

It is a nice steady 4ppm. Yours?

[harmy4993]

mine was somewhere between 4 and 8. darker then the 4.0 but lighter then 8.0 untill last night which would have been day 6. then last night it went to a 3 or 4. (those shades of green are hard for me to read.) with no nitrite reading. then today it was still at 3 or 4 but had a nitrate reading of .25.

i have no idea if this had any effect with getting some nitrite or if it is messing up my test but after rereading one of the articles on fishless cycling it said to add a couple of fish food flakes crushed up( about a grain of rice worth) to the tank. i did that monday night andnow i have nitrite readings.

-Buy/borrow a small bottle of pH down. Add 1-2 drops per 4 gallons of tank water. These pH products contain large amounts of phosphates which your bacteria need to grow. This small amount will not affect the pH of the tank and will supply all the phosphate needed. Lots of "my cycle stopped/stalled" posts can be attributed to phosphate deficiency. A small amount of fishfood can probably also be substituted in place of this.

whole article here
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/articl...cle/Page1.html

also what size tank do you have and do you have any plants?

[Sum22]

The tank is small. 7g QT tank running 2 filters. I'm moving next week so I haven't set the full tanks up yet. I figured I could get a jump on the process by setting up the fishless cycle in a qt tank, then move the filters to their appropriate tanks after I move. I was hoping I'd get some nitrites by now though. No plants, but I've added some fish food to see what happens.

[harmy4993]

good luck. let me know how it goes.