An Update, an observation, and two questions

[shawmutt]

Update: I'm on day 9 of my fishless cycle. Ammonia goes from 5 to 1ppm in 24 hours, ites are 2-5ppm (hard to tell the colors, I have blue eyes ) ates are 20 ppm, my pH has stabilized at 7.8.

Observation: I don't know if anyone else had this problem, but I found that the one bottle type of ammonia test acted weird when trying to get a reading--It would get all cloudy and be really hard to tell what color it was. I used the two bottle test and got much better results.

Now for the questions:

When can I add fish? Is there a rule? (e.g. if ammonia goes from 5pmm-0ppm in 24 hours, or 2ppm-0ppm) I'm adding 4-5 small Yellow labs all at once.

Long story short, my father-in-law is a biologist. I told him I was doing the fishless cycle. He never heard of it, and he wanted to know where the inital bacteria that cycles the tank comes from. I scrubbed out my fish tank and everything I put in the tank with bleach water, and added fresh tap water. I'm cycling the tank with just plain ammonia, nothing else has been added. It's obviously working, because I have ites and ates. Any idea where the initial bacteria for the cycle comes from?

 

[RogerMcAllen]

I would assume that there are just residual bacteria "seeds" in water. Once they get a place to "take root" they do.

 

[Allivymar]

The nitrifying bacteria are obiquitous...they're all around us looking for a place to colonize and a supply of nitrogenous waste. I don't know if theres any in the water supply; would depend on what the water companies are using to keep the water clean, or if its well water. But they're in the air too.

As for when to put fish in, ammonia and Ites should be at zero. You COULD do a major water change before adding fish, and keep a close eye on the nitrites on a daily basis. Depending on what fish you put in, some salt will also help keep nitrite poisoning at bay.