Freshwater 10g version 2.0

[kjwcpm]

Finally found a good home for the Green Spotted Puffer. Now, it's time to fishless cycle this thing and start out right!

Tank is planted with a couple of corkscrew vals and some wisteria. Also has a nice "lava base rock" for building some good bio pockets. Off to get some Ace Hardware ammonia today, and let the cycle begin!

 

[librarygirl]

That's great, good luck!

 

[kjwcpm]

Ok, the first self dose of Ammonia was a bit strong. Shot it up to 8ppm. 75% PWC and significantly lowered the ammonia dosing and will check again.

Question - is Prime the right conditioner to keep using? I know it doesn't wipe out the ammonia and nitrites but just converts them to a safer form if you have a fish in situation. But will it do anything to delay the appearance of nitrites and nitrates in a fishless cycle?

Quite honestly, I now hate the colors light blue (no appearance to date of nitrites to start the cycle) and yellow (no nitrates in the tank)....lol

 

[librarygirl]

Ok, the first self dose of Ammonia was a bit strong. Shot it up to 8ppm. 75% PWC and significantly lowered the ammonia dosing and will check again.

Question - is Prime the right conditioner to keep using? I know it doesn't wipe out the ammonia and nitrites but just converts them to a safer form if you have a fish in situation. But will it do anything to delay the appearance of nitrites and nitrates in a fishless cycle?

Quite honestly, I now hate the colors light blue (no appearance to date of nitrites to start the cycle) and yellow (no nitrates in the tank)....lol

Yes Prime is OK to use, it won't affect your levels at all, I'm using it during my fishless cycle too.

Ammonia is potent lol Next time you need to redose just add a few drops at a time, let it swirl around for a half hour or so and then re-test. Keep doing this until you get to your desired ammonia level and count your drops as you go. I find keeping a log helps.

Yeah the light blue and yellow are going to be sickening for a while. lol Do you have any seeded material in your tank from another established tank?

You might not see a drop in ammonia for a little while, can take 1-2 weeks to drop initially. There's really no set timeline for these things, lots of factors are in play, but it'll happen eventually. At least you won't have to do multiple pwc per day and worry like crazy like you would if you had fish in the uncycled tank.

 

[kjwcpm]

Unfortunately no seeded material in the tank so far. Hoping to pick some up next week if things don't change much.

Week 1 complete. No change in water - still 4ppm ammonia and no sign of trites...the effort continues.

 

[librarygirl]

Week 1 complete. No change in water - still 4ppm ammonia and no sign of trites...the effort continues.

It's pretty common not to have any changes for the first week or two, so don't worry about it. To save your sanity you could test the water every 2-3 days instead of every day until you see some changes happening.

 

[kjwcpm]

Thanks for the encouragement. That's kind of what happened this week, where I was away on business for a few days. I have another trip lined up for next week too, so that will help.