Some chemistry to bear in mind when cycling.

[mattrox]

Awesome, then we can give accurate advice.

I have some conjectures to test from the outset....

Increased temp ---> Faster cycle (bacteria reproduce quicker at warmer temps)

Increased agitation ---> Faster cycle (the nitrogen cycle consumes oxygen)

higher KH ( therefore pH) ---> Faster cycle (The nitrogen cycle produces acid and a pH crash will kill bacteria start the cycle again) ie in soft water a cycle requires pws, it might be acicity that is the problem in the "stuck cycles" we see on the boards.

The rest would be interesting to see.

 

[XimeD]

+1 on all of mattrox's points.

The additives wil have the added variable of shelf life, so without getting crazy I would just use the newest one you could find to make sure that there are live bacteria in the bottle (a bottle with dead bacteria will give a false negative with respect to your control)

I have expreience with Nutrafin cycle and biozyme, biozyme is supposed to have an unlimited shelf life and I would be really interested in seeing if there is a significant difference.

 

[Deep Seven]

An update. I got my ammonium today. My 8g QT is pretty much ready for cycling. I'm going to play around a bit practicing dosing the tank properly. When I'm happy my numbers all add up I'll begin cycling and keep logs of test results and actions taken.

I hope to be up and running tomorrow or tuesday at the latest. (I think I have tuesday off, if so I'll try and get as much done as I can.)

 

[mattrox]

Itching to see the results!

 

[Marconis]

I'm excited to see this, too. I haven't had an aquarium (a proper one, at least) to cycle in years. I just started mine yesterday, but I took the standard approach and dosed ~4ppm of ammonia and am going to let it go from there...it's worked for me in the past (minus a stalled cycle on one tank) so I'm gonna stick with it. I'd like to see how your method works!

*Btw, where can I find something like a medical syringe? My mom works at a medical group so a couple years back she just got me one of those and dosing was so simple (once I found the perfect measurements for specific ppm). I am not going to be seeing her anytime within the next two weeks, so I'd like to buy one to make dosing easier, because I think I may have dosed a wee bit over 4ppm because I am using kitchen measuring spoons.