Seeded my tank - how am I doing in the cycle?

[FiveSix]

I'm agitating the surface pretty well. Enough to get some bubbles that are circulated around the tank. I have an API freshwater Master test kit(liquid).

[@rtemis]

5-6, I noticed nitrites a day or so after adding Bio-Spira to my 10 gallon tank. It took my tank almost three weeks to cycle. I did not use any seed material besides the Bio-Spira.

[FiveSix]

WOOOOO! Yeah Guys! I am showing NitrItes! Wooo <= .25 PPM, Ammo is 2 ppm. I'm happy now .

[@rtemis]

Did you use seed material, Bio-Spira or both?

[FiveSix]

Originally Posted by @rtemis

Did you use seed material, Bio-Spira or both?

I used "Cycle" by Hagen which I'm pretty sure did nothing. The store near my house wouldn't give me gravel b/c she said "My Goldfish have a fungus and everything is circulated in the same system. So in your best interest I can't". The funny part is she wouldn't sell me gravel, but was selling everyone else fish. So in desperation i bought Cycle b/c they didn't have bio-spira. Then the next day I realized they have a seperate tank with just plants not connected to the main system. It has no fish, but plenty of snails. So I bought a Potted Amazon plant, swished the rockwool through the water then squeezed the water out. Left it in there overnight before I took the plant out of the pot and threw out the rockwool. I wasn't sure why It took so long and got worried b/c I thought the rockwool would be loaded with Bacteria. I thought maybe something in my tank was killing it off, but I guess I wasn't patient enough. Maybe the rockwool was antibacterial to protect the seedling plant or whatever. Oh well, I'm good now. Just need a couple weeks and it should be FISH TIME!

[marchmaxima]

Originally Posted by @rtemis

5-6, I noticed nitrites a day or so after adding Bio-Spira to my 10 gallon tank. It took my tank almost three weeks to cycle. I did not use any seed material besides the Bio-Spira.

@rt and I were cycling our tanks at roughly the same time. It took me exactly 4 weeks to cycle my tank without any seeding material. I just added raw prawn and waited it out.

It took exactly 7 days to see the first signs of nitrite. Glad you're seeing it now though..

[FiveSix]

Things seem to be going along really smooth. I'm detecting nitrates and I seem to be able to convert about 2-3 ppm of ammonia to NitrIte overnight. Since my NitrAte levels are still under 10 PPM and I'm detecting very high levels of NitrIte (> 2ppm) I think I still have a little ways to go.

Here is my question, Since I have to dose my tank with ammonia everyday to make sure I have food for the bacteria, am I always going to have high NitrItes and when my nitrAtes become greater than 40 ppm I am done? Or should I wait until there are low levels of Ammonia and NitrIte overnight after I dose to 3-5 PPM ammonia. I'm sorry If I worded that in a confusing way.

[neilanh]

When your nitrItes bottom out to 0, you're done. Even with dosing ammonia daily eventually they'll catch up, and that's when you're cycle is complete. By the time that happens, your nitrAtes will probably shoot up to around 100ppm. That's why we do a huge PWC the night before we add fish after completing a fishless cycle. Hang in there, you're almost there.

[FiveSix]

Originally Posted by neilanh

Hang in there, you're almost there.

Nice, Thanks a lot buddy. I was just a little confused because I seem to be converting tons of ammonia and not showing insane amounts of Nitrates. Sometimes I just think I'm colorblind with the test kits :-p.

[neilanh]

It took some time to build up the bacteria that consume the ammonia and convert it to nitrIte. During the time since you first started your cycle, you've been supplying ample amounts of "food" for them in the form of ammonia. So, during all this time while you were waiting for your nitrItes to go up, the bacteria that consume the nitrIte had no food, so there was nothing available before recently to get their colony started. Since you are starting to see nitrAtes, that means they're there, they just need a little more time to establish a colony as large as the ammonia-eaters.