A little assistance with my cycle...please..??

[dschave]

So I started cycling on 6/26 with the numbers below:
pH - 7.6
Ammo - 2
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 0

On 7/2 I seeded with some established filter media

On 7/6:
pH - 7.4
Ammo - 3
Nitrite - 0.5
Nitrate - 2

7/8:
pH - 7.4
Ammo - 0.25
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 3

7/13:
pH - 7.4
Ammo - 0.25
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 5

Did a 50% water change...just in case I was missing something on the Nitrites

7/14:
pH - 7.8
Ammo - 0.1
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 4

I was, of course, adding ammonia the whole time. Shouldn't I had seen a Nitrite spike...or at least a decent bump?

 

[Rodeo one]

How big is the tank & are you dosing ammonia everyday ? If so, what is your ammonia reading 1 hr after dosing? If you ve never seen nitrites then I don f think it s cycled...

 

[dschave]

60 gallons and I test everyday and dose back to 3-4 ppm. I'm up to adding large amounts, ~12ml of ammonia at a time, and it drops to next to nothing by the next day. Since 7/6, I've never had a 24 hour reading above 1.

 

[dschave]

I'm running 2 AQ70's and I've placed some established filter media in both. I checked them and they are circulating my entire tank ~4.5 times per hour.

 

[Mebbid]

Yes you are right about the nitrite spike but depending on how well seeded the filter media is then you could potentially skip the entire process and just go to having a cycled tank. You will know your tank is cycled when you go from a 4ppm dose of ammonia to 0ppm ammonia / nitrites and all nitrates in a 24 hour period.

How long are you letting the water circulate before testing the ammonia levels when you add more? If you are doing a fishless cycle then your nitrate levels should be around around 20ppm even after the 50% water change. It makes me think you aren't adding enough ammonia and the high results to the test could mean that it's not circulating through the whole tank.

 

[dschave]

The seeded material is from 2 different, very established tanks, and each of my 2 filters houses one unit.

I'll usually add ammonia then check within 3-4 hours to see the levels and make sure I'm at least above 2, and not exceeding 4. I just checked my notes and this is what I did:

7/9 - 2145
Ammonia - 0.1 ppm
Nitrate - 3 ppm
added 12 ml ammonia

7/10 - 1200
Ammonia - 0.1 ppm
added 20 ml ammonia

7/10 - 2000
Ammonia - 4 ppm

7/11 - 2300
Ammonia - 0.1 ppm
Nitrate - 4 ppm

7/12 - 1800
Ammonia - 0 ppm
Nitrite - 0 ppm
Nitrate - 5 ppm

 

[Mebbid]

Wow, nice notes. Wish I had done that when I started my fishless cycle. But yeah, it looks like your cycle is on track.

 

[dschave]

So I need to keep going like it is until I see a large amount of nitrates? 5 ppm is the highest Nitrate reading I've gotten and 0.5 ppm the highest Nitrite.

The picture below is generally what I see whenever I test...with the fluctuation in ammonia, depending on when I dose, of course. The Nitrite has only gone to a light purple a couple times and the Nitrate pictured is about the highest I've seen.

 

[Mebbid]

Is your tank planted? Its really really strange to not see a huge spike in nitrates. Could your kit be outdated?

 

[dschave]

No plants at all. It came in the day before I started cycling. Ordered it from Amazon. Just had the bottles checked and they say 5/2018.

 

[Fishperson]

I am not sure. Maybe your ammonia test kit is faulty so you are only adding very small amounts, which is easily processed by the small amount of nitrobacter bacteria, which explains the lack of a nitrite spike and lack of a large nitrate reading. Get the water test somewhere else and see.

 

[dschave]

I've added ad much as 20ml at a time and its all gone within 24 hours or less

 

[dschave]

Update: Just to make sure I was getting an accurate Nitrate reading, I went home and beat nitrate bottle number 2 like it owed me money and retested. Results are as follows:

7/15 - 2245
Ammonia - 0.1 ppm
Nitrite - 0 ppm
Nitrate - 5 ppm

I then dosed 20 ml of ammonia

7/15 - 2359
Ammonia - 6 ppm

7/16 - 0645
Ammonia - 2 ppm

I'm going to predict that my ammonia will be practically 0 by the time I get back to the house and test it....as that has always been the case.

 

[Mebbid]

Well. As long as you aren't getting nitrite and ammonia readings after 24 hours then I would go for it and do a 90% water change and then add some fish.