Fishless Cycling For Dummies

[Kat1103]

How high do u want the ammonia and nitrates to be before nitrates appears?

 

[eco23]

I was on day 7 and my nitrItes were around 1ppm when nitrAtes first showed up. I was keeping the tank dosed with ammonia to 4ppm daily. I heavily seeded my tank with filter media which I think really helped it along.

 

[Mog]

Nitrates at 5.0 after 4 days???

Hi,

I'm following this guide to cycle my 75 gallon tank.

I began the cycle this past Friday. pH was at 6.8 and I dosed ammonia to 4.0. The ammonia stayed at 4.0 until tonight, where it registered at 2.0

I never tested nitrites prior to tonight... I was going to wait til Friday (a week), but decided to check it for the first time. It's reading 5.0+

There's 140lbs of Eco-complete, 8 or so new, low light plants and a few of those "betta bulbs" I dropped in. Yes, I was curious
I treated the water with Amquel and Novaqua and the water is reading 84 degrees. I had the lights on for 6 hours or so the first two nights and then 2-3 hours a night since (for the plants).

My LFS gave me a sponge from their plant tank, which I cut in half and put into the 304 Fluval, mid compartments with the bio. I also bought 3 potted plants and left the potting material in the tank... figured it would help seed.

So my question is... could this be the "spike"? After only 4 days? Or is there something else going on that I should be concerned about?

Any help would be appreciated,

Mog

 

[eco23]

Hi,

I'm following this guide to cycle my 75 gallon tank.

I began the cycle this past Friday. pH was at 6.8 and I dosed ammonia to 4.0. The ammonia stayed at 4.0 until tonight, where it registered at 2.0

I never tested nitrites prior to tonight... I was going to wait til Friday (a week), but decided to check it for the first time. It's reading 5.0+

There's 140lbs of Eco-complete, 8 or so new, low light plants and a few of those "betta bulbs" I dropped in. Yes, I was curious
I treated the water with Amquel and Novaqua and the water is reading 84 degrees. I had the lights on for 6 hours or so the first two nights and then 2-3 hours a night since (for the plants).

My LFS gave me a sponge from their plant tank, which I cut in half and put into the 304 Fluval, mid compartments with the bio. I also bought 3 potted plants and left the potting material in the tank... figured it would help seed.

So my question is... could this be the "spike"? After only 4 days? Or is there something else going on that I should be concerned about?

Any help would be appreciated,

Mog

Hi Mog, welcome to the forum. This is a great article you're on right now to get you on the road to fishless cycling. I actually just posted my own article earlier today to hopefully answers questions that occur during the process of going through it. Hopefully it can provide a few answers for you -
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forum...guide-and-faq-to-fishless-cycling-148283.html

 

[Mog]

Thank you Eco23 for the welcome, link and information.

I just tested my nitrates and they are reading 20 ppm. Now both articles mention the nitrates getting high... but don't give you an actual number.
I was following the guide and didn't think I would have any results so fast, so never tested and thus, have no base to start with. Is 20 ppm low, medium, high?

I'm guessing the nitrates should still spike and go off the chart? I'll continue to monitor all 3 from this point on...

It would be nice, if the tank is that far "into" the cycle after only 4 days... but I'm still really surprised, especially a tank that size.

I'll check the numbers tomorrow night and see what happens. If the nitritates are still going up, I'll do a 50% change as recommended.

I'm just really surprised to numbers like this at this point... I was hoping my nitrites would start to go up by Friday, never expected them to be 5.0+ after only 4 days

Thanks again!

 

[Bettababe1011]

20 ppm is medium. It's not low, but not high like forty would be.

 

[eco23]

Thank you Eco23 for the welcome, link and information.

I just tested my nitrates and they are reading 20 ppm. Now both articles mention the nitrates getting high... but don't give you an actual number.
I was following the guide and didn't think I would have any results so fast, so never tested and thus, have no base to start with. Is 20 ppm low, medium, high?

I'm guessing the nitrates should still spike and go off the chart? I'll continue to monitor all 3 from this point on...

It would be nice, if the tank is that far "into" the cycle after only 4 days... but I'm still really surprised, especially a tank that size.

I'll check the numbers tomorrow night and see what happens. If the nitritates are still going up, I'll do a 50% change as recommended.

I'm just really surprised to numbers like this at this point... I was hoping my nitrites would start to go up by Friday, never expected them to be 5.0+ after only 4 days

Thanks again!

It seems like you definitely got some great, healthy seeding material! It is absolutely possible you are this far along already with enough filter media placed into the tank. The nitrAtes are the end product of the cycling, so they don't "peak" like the nitrItes will. They basically continue to rise as the cycle progresses. 20ppm of nitrAtes is actually not all that high of a number (it's perfectly safe for fish), but it's a great number for where you are now. I think mine climbed up around 80 before I brought them down with a pwc.

 

[Mog]

Thanks again! One last question... I've been doing my testing with an API Freshwater kit. I see people listing higher or more accurate numbers than I could possibly get with this kit. Is there another product that people use, that may be more accurate? For example, saying their ammonia is at 5.0 or 6.0. My chart goes from 4 to 8. Are they just guestimating?

I'm really excited about the progress so far... I was expecting it to be 4-5 weeks before the cycle completed and I could add some inhabitants At this rate, it seems like it will be a lot sooner!

 

[Deckape]

Thanks again! One last question... I've been doing my testing with an API Freshwater kit. I see people listing higher or more accurate numbers than I could possibly get with this kit. Is there another product that people use, that may be more accurate? For example, saying their ammonia is at 5.0 or 6.0. My chart goes from 4 to 8. Are they just guestimating?

I'm really excited about the progress so far... I was expecting it to be 4-5 weeks before the cycle completed and I could add some inhabitants At this rate, it seems like it will be a lot sooner!

If they are using API then they would be guestimating. Sounds like you're doing a good job. Check the getting started section if you get time. Eco23 wrote a nice article on fishless cycling you may want to read. Thanks for cycling your tank for fish, not with them.

 

[Mog]

Thanks. I've been following the Fishless Cycling for Dummies article by RJRofFL and then read Eco23's Complete Guide and FAQ to Fishless Cycling. Both great reads and have been a tremendous help.

I'll highly recommend both to anyone new or needing to brush up on Fishless Cycling.

 

[guppy grandma]

Hi, wish I had seen this before I asked my daft question, because the answers are there. Excellent article, thanks for the pointer.

Migs