Questioning my fishless cycle currently

[tnice17]

46 gal bow front, 20 gal sump (2-3 inches live sand, live rock rubble)

Started cycle beginning of Jan with house hold ammonia.

Got there and the nitrites dropped, and so did nitrates a little. Torn on to keep adding ammonia or to do the 90% pwc for end of cycle

Nitrites dropped the next day or so and haven't seen nitrates this high since. (1 week) Added ammonia yesterday and went down with in 24hrs.

What would you guys suggest?

 

[corinne118s]

Well nitrites have to be zero to finish a cycle. Wait it out and dose some more ammonia

 

[tnice17]

Well those results were a week ago. Nitrites are zero now.

 

[corinne118s]

Ok so I think just dose ammonia again an if it's gone in 24hrs you should be good!

 

[tnice17]

Great!! I added some yesterday to be safe and keep bacteria alive so might be PWC time today and a trip to the lfs! Thank you!

 

[spoonman]

Dose today and post results in the morning. You need to have 0 ammonia, 0 nitrItes and you will have a ton of nitrAtes. Then big PWC to get the nitrAtes down and you are done!

 

[tnice17]

I dosed ammonia yesterday so I'll post results tonight when the 24 hr mark occurs.

I have never seen the nitrates get higher than the pic I posted. I will test water again now and show results (dosed ammonia at 5pm yesterday btw)

 

[tnice17]

This morning, added ammonia last night

 

[tnice17]

might want to add this as well...

i need to go away for work for 2-3 weeks, so i will be having a friend come over and keeping an eye on my tank (im leaving tomorrow)

what would be my best course of action?
-PWC and add 1-2 small fish for constant ammonia source.
- leave as is and have friend add ammonia ( might drop to 0 once in a while because the ammonia disappears so quickly now) and do PWC when i return from work

 

[tnice17]

Ok so I dosed up to 4-6ppm and added more fish food. I'm able to return to town Thursday so I hope that's enough ammonia for the next 3days.

I hope I have all nitrates when I return!

Comments anyone?

 

[NyteGTI]

this will probably take longer than you think. I know logically if your bacteria eats 2ppm /day that 6ppm = 3 days but normally when I overdose ammonia it takes about 5-7 days for them to chomp through it

 

[tnice17]

I see, sounds logical.

I guess I'll see when I return Thursday/Friday.

Thank you.

 

[spoonman]

I would leave as is and check when you get back. Post the readings and work from there. My build is in my signature. You may get some information from that. I documented almost every day of cycling.

 

[tnice17]

I would leave as is and check when you get back. Post the readings and work from there. My build is in my signature. You may get some information from that. I documented almost every day of cycling.

seeing your readings was very helpful. thank you!

maybe my ammonia souce isnt as consistant as it should be? i added fish food as well

i also have to add 2-3 gals per week due to water evap (both tank and sump are covered and temp is 82 degrees

 

[tnice17]

Ok so weird today

Got back from work (remember I left on Monday with 6-8ppm) and the ammonia was at .25ppm! Around 11am

Nitrites were around 2-5ppm
Nitrates were around 10ppm.


Now the weird part. tested again just now after I added more ammonia previously and nitrites were at 0. But nitrates haven't budged.. If anything went lower.

I'm very confused.

Ammonia source went high to low back to high, so nitrites went up but when the ammonia went low it starved the nitrites and they went back to 0 vs the ammonia being constant and nitrites being consistent then converted to nitrates

 

[tnice17]

THE READINGS LOOK HIGHER THAN THEY ACTUALLY ARE!

And in 28 hrs

I added more ammonia but I don't get why everything drops so much! The nitrates are supposed to stay the same correct?

 

[rdnelson99]

First off, the API kits are not the best for Nitrates. You may have higher levels than what it indicates. Second, are you running a skimmer? If so, that is reducing your nitrates some. Alone, it wont get rid of all but could account for the lower reading than you would expect to see.

IMHO, if you dose to 4 ppm ammonia and in 24 hours you have no ammonia and/or nitrite, you are ready to do some serious water changes and add livestock. Just add slow. One or two fish then give it a couple weeks before adding any more.

 

[tnice17]

No skimmer (I do have a aquaC remora when the cycle is over)

I mean i had tons of ammonia 28 hrs ago and now the ammonia was almost gone! So that's good... Correct.

But nitrites ate still present... Should I not worry about them and do the big PWC and add a 1-3 small fish?

 

[rdnelson99]

If you still have nitrites after 24 hours you are not ready yet. You need to be able to dose to 4 ppm ammonia and have the bacteria convert all of that to nitrite and then to nitrate within 24 hours before you are ready for fish.

 

[tnice17]

Ok yea that's what I always thought.

Idk I'm confusing myself because of how quickly the ammonia drops.

I might resort to the shrimp to have a more constant ammonia source.