Fishless Cycle Help!

[Barliman]

Hi Delapool! To answer your question, no I never saw a Nitrite increase. Just Nitrate. I didn't change anything, I just tested daily.

My guess is, the CYCLE product I added, which is supposed to remove Ammonia and Nitrite to allow "instant" fish addition.

So I think as soon as the CYCLE wore off, because I did add the specified dosage (which is a 3 day process), I think that removed the ammonia to begin with. But it does not work to create a biofilter. It's just a quick fix, which I later learned.

I really don't think Cycle did anything to harm or short-circuit the cycling of your tank. From what I've read of the product, both fluval's literature and reviews on Amazon (real reviews, not "This stuff am really gud" ), it strikes me as similar to Stability: it can speed up your cycle, not provide an instantly cycled tank, unlike the claim of your LFS guy. In fact, you've probably boosted the establishment of a BB colony in your tank.

For now, I'd just relax and follow the instructions in the article someone else linked you to: soon you'll be ready to add fish.

 

[Blueskytechnolo]

I finally got there. Seemed like forever. You will definitely see the nitrites in the cycle.

 

[lindalovestony]

Hi Bluesky, how long did it take you overall? And how many gallons do you have? Also, did you use any bacteria additives or just seeding material etc. from scratch?

I'm really excited for you! Hope mines get rolling soon.

I did a 75% water change yesterday, conditioned and boosted the ammonia to 2.0, today it's at a 1.0, but no nitrites yet, we'll see tomorrow.

Today I will also add stability, and see what happens

 

[Blueskytechnolo]

I have a 29 gallon. No seeding material. Always dosed ammonia to 4 ppm. I didn't use bacteria in a bottle. The whole process took 34 days. At day 30 my nitrites disappeared ( due to 80-90% water changes daily) with every change I dosed it back to 4 ppm ammonia and it was always gone the next morning. After 3 days of that I added my fish. My readings are 0ppm ammonia 0ppm nitrites and 5ppm nitrates. Hang in there , it will happen. I wanted it to happen in 2 days but obviously that didn't work.

 

[Blueskytechnolo]

 

[lindalovestony]

Thats really neat Bluesky! I'm getting there! lol

I'm excited to check my ammonia/nitrites tomorrow! Hopefully it's at 0 since today it dropped to 1ppm. Then at least I know I'm on the right path.

Just thinking ahead here. Say my ammonia is 0 tomorrow, what is the next step? Should I be testing nitrites/nitrates?

What should I expect to see?

So step 1.

Add ammonia, watch it drop, redose ammonia

Step 2? Should I be doing water changes at all, when, how much?

From what I have read/learned over these last weeks, and please do correct me if I'm wrong!

Ammonia is the feed for the first bacteria colony which converts ammonia to nitrite.

So as Ammonia drops, we should expect to see nitrITE starting eventually show up as it increases to a detectable level, while nitrate is still at 0.

Now that there is nitrITE, a second bacteria colony, which now feeds on nitrITE, converts it to nitrATE.

So as you redose ammonia to further increase nitrITE, this feeds the second colony (and the first) and again eventually the levels of nitrATE become readable. And that is our end result or cycle completion.

So to test how effective the system is, we redose ammonia to 2-4ppm (~approx how much the fish would discard) and if in 24hrs we end up with 0 ammonia, 0 nitrITES and X nitrATES then it's success.

So while we wait get fish, we keep dosing ammonia to 1ppm to keep the colonies alive, we readjust temperature to the proper, and do a huge 90% water change to get rid of the nitrATES to preferably 5ppm?

During this time I can add my cichlid pH buffer, water conditioner, prime perhaps? to ensure I have optimal conditions for my fish?

And how many fish should I add a time? Or perhaps I can throw in my pleco in first by himself?

 

[DolphinCall]

It can get easy to overthink a freshwater cycle. It sounds like you're working with some hard water issues for starters. If you have well seeded filter material including a good amount of substrate, rocks, ornaments, etc. , your going to be fine. Make sure your tank doesn't get a lot of natural light or you'll have blooms so green algae feeding off of any phosphate residue available. Exposure to too much light will also bring unwanted sunlight that can radically expose your tank to temperature spikes which can crash your system if the temp rises enough to start bringing the O2 out of solution. Get yourself a couple of hardy 'starter fish' like tetras or even live breeders like mollies. Start with about one half inch of fish per gallon of water. Make sure your pH is just a but on the base side of the spectrum >7.5 or so and your water temp no higher than 78-80F. The starters will give your tank plenty of ammonia that should turn into a nice nitrite spike overnight and then break down into nitrates that will be managed properly as long as you change about 20% of the water every 30 days. If you can, pour the water from your water source the night before you make the change so it can adjust temperature and begin to dechlorinate. If you have an old air pump, use it with a piece of hose to expedite this, as well as pushing lots of O2 into solution. There's a stress guard that is good for coating your fish during a n H2O change. I just can't remember what it's called offhand. Pour three or four ounces into the new water right before you're changing out the old and all should be safe. After a month or so you won't detect any nitrite at all, and that's indicative of healthy water flow and probiotic filtering of detritus. It's important not to ever over feed your fish or you could endanger the balance you worked so hard to accomplish! They'll try to trick you into making you believe you're starving them to death. Don't fall for it and you should have a happy healthy tank for years. You may want to consider some aquatic plants as they look nice AND produce O2 and eat both nitrates and phosphates as natural fertilizers. Good Luck! [emoji41]


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[DolphinCall]

The product I was thinking of is called Stress Coat and should be easy to find. Keep your eye on your pH levels with water so high up the curve. 7.0 is Ph neutrality and it's a good idea to be between there and 7.5. And remember...warmer water holds less oxygen. Water temps over 80F can prove deadly.


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[lindalovestony]

Not going anywhere still *sigh* 3 weeks into cycling! joys