Hi - I'm on my 6th day of a fishless cycle to establish BB in my new 26 gallon tank. Note i started the cycle with an AngelsPlus BB seeded filter. Within 48 hrs of putting in the seeded media i saw ammonia to nitrite conversion. Slow at first and then more quickly. Nitrates started showing up around the same time but the rate of conversion is much slower.
Right now I am seeing 3-4ppm of ammonia fall to 0ppm within 24 hours. Have done this twice in last two days. But the nitrites, which have been hovering around 5ppm, are converting much more slowly to nitrates. Right now I show nitrites maxed out at 5ppm and nitrates only at 40ppm... After having gone for
3-4ppm to 0ppm of ammo twice in 2 days.
I understand that the BB need time to colonize but my question is this: do I continue to dose ammo to 3-4ppm even though there is still a bunch of unprocessed nitrite? Or should I wait for those nitrite>nitrate BB to sufficiently grow and process the existing nitrite before adding new ammo?
Obviously the colonies of nitrifying bacteria are not equally balanced yet. And while i want to complete this cycle quickly so j can stock the new tank I don't want to push too hard and cause it to stall out. Any advice on how to approach this would be really appreciated! Thanks.
Right now I am seeing 3-4ppm of ammonia fall to 0ppm within 24 hours. Have done this twice in last two days. But the nitrites, which have been hovering around 5ppm, are converting much more slowly to nitrates. Right now I show nitrites maxed out at 5ppm and nitrates only at 40ppm... After having gone for
3-4ppm to 0ppm of ammo twice in 2 days.
I understand that the BB need time to colonize but my question is this: do I continue to dose ammo to 3-4ppm even though there is still a bunch of unprocessed nitrite? Or should I wait for those nitrite>nitrate BB to sufficiently grow and process the existing nitrite before adding new ammo?
Obviously the colonies of nitrifying bacteria are not equally balanced yet. And while i want to complete this cycle quickly so j can stock the new tank I don't want to push too hard and cause it to stall out. Any advice on how to approach this would be really appreciated! Thanks.