patience is a virtue...

[jrmjrm]

So, this whole fishless cycle thing is starting to try my patience... I've been in the nitrIte phase for about 2 weeks now, and my nitrIte reading are driving my bonkers. I have the API master test kit and had been testing nitrItes daily thinking they were off the chart because of the similarity of the shades of purple on the test kit. Well, I was reading that you can dilute the tank water with water that you would use to do a PWC, so I did that. I did a 1/2 tank water & 1/2 PWC ready water and it was still off the chart. So, I did a 1/5 tank water & 4/5 PWC ready water test and it read at 0.25 nitrItes... Meaning that the real reading would be 1.25?!? Could this be right? I think that the colors of the test water/chart are so similar that once you get beyond a certain point they all look the same....

My ammonia is dropping within 24 hours, (I'm adding enough to read 0.5 ppm each day) and my nitrAte readings are about 10ppm. I'm getting tired of waiting!!! Should I be adding less ammonia? Logic tells me that the more ammonia I add daily the longer I will have to wait because that means that there will just be that much more nitrItes added to the already high level...

 

[neilanh]

I wouldn't add less ammonia, you need to keep that type of bacteria thriving through the cycle. Personally I'd be dosing more than .5ppm.

It stinks, waiting, I know. But you're definately on the tail end of the cycle. Just keep it up, you're almost there.

 

[maxima423]

how long have you been doing the fishless cycle?

try not adding anything for one day and check your readings and see if it changes, than re add and test and see what are the results, the colors are very similar for NITRITES, thats why i just wait for it to read 0ppm lol, i dont even bother trying to figure out 1ppm 2ppm 4ppm etc

 

[BigJim]

I read the ammonia and nitrite tests as a yes-no indicator. If it's not zero, it's too much.

For a fishless cycle, aim for 4ppm of ammonia. I was happy with my cycle when the tank could process 4ppm of ammonia to nitrates in twenty-four hours.

The fishless cycle is definitely worth the wait. It's nice knowing you can put fish in the tank without worrying about them getting killed by their own waste. My tank built up a whole population of critters during the cycle too. Tubifex worms, nematodes, copepods, and other neat things. Fish are just the features of the tank. Aquariums work best if they've got all the little critters a pond would have in nature.

 

[jrmjrm]

I appreciate the replies. It's so stressfull because I've read just about every fishless cycle article on the web and each says a different thing for adding ammonia during the nitrite phase. Some say keep it up at 4 ppm and others say add some - but not enough to cause a reading, so I figured between 0.5 ppm and 1.0 ppm a day should be OK. So, at this point I probably only need to test nitrite levels every couple days (they're obviously not dropping quickly).

 

[BigJim]

For a fishless cycle you want 4ppm. If you're cycling with fish, you want to stay below 0.25ppm. That's why cycling with fish takes longer.