Fishless cycle

[Fishyfanatic]

About two weeks ago I bought 2 new AC filters for our 10 gal fry tanks. They would not fit on the lip of any of the other tanks so I decided to try my hand at a fishless cycle using pure ammonia. I figure it's the perfect time to experiment with it and gain first hand experience. I have not been dosing daily because the first shot of ammonia lasted for over 2 days.

July 7th I started the cycle by adding 1.5 ml of pure ammonia.
July 9th I tested the water and had 4 ppm of ammonia. I also dosed another 1.5 ml of pure ammonia.
July 12th I tested the water and had .5 ppm of ammonia. I also tested Nitrite and have a reading of 2.0. I dosed another 1.5 ml of pure ammonia

Can this be right? I am already going into the Nitrite stage? It's only been 5 days.

 

[Zagz]

It has happened to me FF. So I say yes it can happen with pure ammonia.

 

[Fishyfanatic]

I'm definately going to start testing the water daily. How long did it take for you to cycle the tank when the Nitrites came so fast?

 

[Zagz]

Best cycle I've had with ammonia dosing, 13 days. I kept ammonia at 6ppm and it went really fast, I turned the heat up to 83 as well. Worked great, don't know if I was an abnormality or not but it did work.

 

[justrelax]

i had a similar experience when fishless cycling with pure ammonia. dosed to 4ppm daily and i think it was a week later i had fully completed the cycle. i had seeded substrate and decor, which i'm sure helped. sure liked not having to look at a rotting shrimp... good luck!

 

[Fishyfanatic]

We don't have a heater at the moment so it is room temp. The heater was flaking off the black stickers so we ditched it.

 

[SCFatz]

Like you I would think thats pretty fast....and I would be surprised.

But unless you assume that both tests have failed,which can not be the case imo,the cycle is moving on.

Is everything being used brand new?Any chance for accidental bacteria transfer?

 

[Fishyfanatic]

Everything is used besides the filter. But the tank had been sitting without an ammonia source (except for a few MTS) for the past few weeks.

 

[SCFatz]

Just thinking outloud really....but perhaps the MTS kept some bacteria alive (why wouldn't that be) and now you are just overloading the bacteria population with a much larger ammonia source.

Did you test the tank before the initial dose?

 

[Fishyfanatic]

No, I didn't test it beforehand. Never thought about it. Maybe I should test for Nitrates.

 

[SCFatz]

I would do that and stop adding ammonia for the moment....or at least a lot.

I would also suggest a control sample (from the tap) and run both at the same time.The difference between 5 and 0 with the AP test is tough to see.A second vial of known zero is a sweet thing...it makes a big difference in seeing low level nitrates.

 

[joannde]

I had ammonia conversion that quickly also. Not to put a damper on things, but my nitrite conversion took just about forever anyway (I actually don't know how long it took for the second phase because I caved in and added Bio-Spira)

 

[JRagg]

I had ammonia conversion in about 7 days, and the whole cycle took just under a month. I'd recommend only adding about 8-10 drops (0.5mL) per day of ammonia. Otherwise, you're going to have a cubic butt ton of nitrates when this is all over. I had over 80 nitrates at the end, and I was adding 8 drops every other day. My nitrites quickly went off scale.

 

[scalesojustice]

does the shrimp method work in freshwater as well? for some reason i thought that was for saltwater. perhaps just because of the way the articles i read were written.

is the pure ammonia adding a more efficient way to go?

 

[rich311k]

Shrimp works for fresh water as well. The pure ammonia is easier and starts faster, with the added bonus of not having to watch a shrimp decompose in your living room.

 

[scalesojustice]

Thanks for the info!

as a follow up question, when you add your drops of ammonia, do you add them all at once or space them out over the day?

TIA

 

[JRagg]

All at once. Doesn't really matter if you consistenly do it at the same time of day either. Doesn't matter if you skip a day occaisionally, just so long as you don't go too long without adding drops as the ammonia->nitrite bacteria may die off.

 

[scalesojustice]

Cool, thanks for the answers.

it seemed a bit daunting at first, but it seems easier than throwing fish that i would constantly worry about them dying.

 

[dont155]

What type of ammonia is being used here? I'm using a 10% solution which is still kind of strong. It only takes 1.5 mL of it to bring 29 US gallons to about 1 ppm. I'm currently dosing at that rate every 12 hrs. Which means 2ppm every day.

Ammonia readings are returning to zero within the 12 hrs, and Nitrites are currently offscale high. I have a reading of approx 5ppm of Nitrates.

Should I reduce the ammonia amounts added?

 

[rich311k]

You could drop it to 1 ppm a day. If you dilute your sample 50% in tap water (assuming tap test clear for nitrites), you can find out you nitrite reading by multiplying the result by 2. If it comes out over 6 ppm I would do a 50% water change so you dont have to wait forever for the nitrite part of the cycle to complete.