Fish-less cycling a 55 gallon tank

[Gus]

Hello,

I'm 2 weeks into cycling a 55 gallon tank. I seeded the filter with stuff from my small 10 gallon tank (an old filter and gravel), and I'm already seeing about 10 ppm of Nitrates. I initially dosed 6 ppm of Ammonia, but 11 days into the cycle, when the Ammonia was down to 1 ppm, I dosed it again to bring it back to 6 ppm. Should I keep the ammonia to 6 ppm?

Also, when is my tank officially cycled? This is my first time cycling with Ammonia, and what a big difference from cycling with fish! I sure don't miss those water changes or dead fishes.

Ph is in the 8's. This is gonna be a Mbuna tank, so I used a lot of big river rocks and silver sand.

Thanks!

 

[marchmaxima]

When I do a fishless cycle, I only dose ammonia to 4ppm. But that's me. Your tank is officially cycled when you dose Ammonia and 24 hours later it has dropped to 0ppm + your nitrates spike.

What about NitrITE? what are those readings at the moment?

 

[Gus]

Nitrites are about 1 ppm. So it'll be ok if I let the ammonia go down to zero and dose it again with 4 ppm? Or should I keep the 6 ppm? I'd like to get the max amount of bacteria right away, so I can introduce all the fish at one.

Thanks!

 

[maxst2]

What is your

Ammonia -
NitrItes -
NitrAtes -

Ideally you want 0- def want, 0 - def want, and under 10ppm for nitrAtes

By adding more ammonia your just doing what you'd do with fish and uneaten food...etc.

So.. IMO.. let your perimeters get to the ideal there and then prolly can add a few fish... let them start a bio-load with that then add some more. rince and repeat.

 

[summit]

I would keep dosing the ammonia to 4ppm everyday. If you let it run to 0 you could starve the ammonia eating bacteria and kill them off, dosing to 4ppm each day is a fail safe to make sure this does not happen, 6 may be a little high as you can actually add too much ammonia and kill off the ammonia eating bacteria. 4ppm of ammonia is equal to a very large fish load from my research.

Also test for nitrites everyday, they will probly rise from 1, so keep testing for nitrites everyday or every second day as well until you see a 0 reading.

Once you can dose 4ppm of ammonia and see 0 for ammonia and 0 for nitrite after 24 hours of dosing your tank is cycled. You can test your nitrates to be sure, they should be very high if you have not done any water changes. You then want to add fish right away so there is still an ammonia source, I fully stocked my 69 gallon after fishless cycling with 4ppm

My advice anyways

 

[Gus]

Cool, thanks =)

 

[Gus]

I went to the store today, and I bought an Aquaclear 110. The Emperor 400 makes A LOT of noise, and I'm tired of it to be quite honest. I'm gonna run both filters for a the duration, and eventually I'm getting rid of the Emperor 400.

 

[Gus]

I also bought a new testing kit, and I have the same card problems. It came with just one card with all the colors (I guess they are trying to save money) but the colors don't match the old cards, should I use the new card or the old ones?

Bacteria is still processing ammonia, so that's the good news.

 

[summit]

aquaclear is a good choice in my opinion, usually very quiet, even more so if you run it without the lid. As far as the test kit, I have read about this on a few forums, and to my knowledge there is no answer as of yet, maybe return it for another brand until this mess gets sorted out? Sounds like someone screwed up at API!

If you wanted to stick with the API, I would use these results as a base and you can tell if the levels are rising or dropping comparing it to the initial base level that you took already today, that way you know when nitrite/ammonia is dropping or rising compared to the base reading today.

 

[XimeD]

I also bought a new testing kit, and I have the same card problems. It came with just one card with all the colors (I guess they are trying to save money) but the colors don't match the old cards, should I use the new card or the old ones?

Bacteria is still processing ammonia, so that's the good news.

For the API cards, I have both the big card with everything on it and the little individual cards. With the ones I got I only saw a big difference for nitrAtes and nitrItes and only above the 5ppm and 0.25ppm colors respectively. I trust the individual ones more because the readings on the large one didn't make sense.

Have in mind that 1 ppm of ammonia forms 2.7 ppm of nitrite then 3.6 ppm of nitrate.

On the large card I was getting a reading of 160ppm nitrAte when I had only dosed 4ppm of ammonia. That's when I got that other individual nitrAte API kit (I thought something was wrong with the one I had) and using that new individual card I would get a reading of 20ppm nitrAte which made a lot more sense.

Regarding the fishless-cycle: I have read that ammonia above 8ppm and nitrites above 5ppm will stall your cycle. I cycled my 75gal in 3 weeks with the first 1.5 weeks dosing only to 2ppm and then increased the dosing to 4ppm of ammonia (I did this to avoid a nitrite spike higher than 5ppm). It worked well for me.

 

[Gus]

Yeah, I highly doubt that API would change the testing liquids formulas, this has to be a printing SNAFU.

When the Ammonia goes down to .25 ppm, I dose 60 drops, and that brings it up to like 5 ppm or so. I have yet to see more than 1 ppm of Nitrites, Nitrates are in the 20's.

The good news is that the bacteria is processing about 4 ppm of Ammonia in 25 hours, so I'm getting there I think.

 

[summit]

Yeah, I highly doubt that API would change the testing liquids formulas, this has to be a printing SNAFU.

When the Ammonia goes down to .25 ppm, I dose 60 drops, and that brings it up to like 5 ppm or so. I have yet to see more than 1 ppm of Nitrites, Nitrates are in the 20's.

The good news is that the bacteria is processing about 4 ppm of Ammonia in 25 hours, so I'm getting there I think.

How long have the nitrites been at 1 for out of curiousity? Sounds like your ammonia eating bacteria colony is pretty much done, now its just those nitrites! I did 2 fishless cycles this year on some new tanks, first time I did fishless personally, and found my nitrite stuck on 1 for 3 weeks, I did a 40% water change and the tank was cycles a few days later.

 

[Gus]

How long have the nitrites been at 1 for out of curiousity? Sounds like your ammonia eating bacteria colony is pretty much done, now its just those nitrites! I did 2 fishless cycles this year on some new tanks, first time I did fishless personally, and found my nitrite stuck on 1 for 3 weeks, I did a 40% water change and the tank was cycles a few days later.

I've been running the tank for about 2 weeks now. I'll follow your advice, after the bacteria eats this last dosage of Ammonia, I'm gonna make a PWC to see if I can speed things up. Thanks for the tip!

 

[Gus]

Today I did a 50% water change, and I've got rid of the Emperor 400, that thing was making too much noise, it was like having a helicopter in the living room. So right now I'm running the Aquaclear 110, so I guess I'm basically back to square one. I dosed 60 drops of ammonia after doing the water change, and it's back to 4 ppm. I bought the Emperor 400 about a year ago, I wonder if it still on warranty to either get another one, or exchange it for something else.

 

[Gus]

New readings for this morning:

Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrites: 8 ppm (hard to tell, I think it's more than that because is a really dark purple now)
Nitrates: 40 ppm

I dosed another 60 drops of Ammonia.

 

[Gus]

New readings this morning:

Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrites: 8 ppm (again, hard to tell, could be more, it's a really dark purple)
Nitrates: No test

I bumped the ammonia to 75 drops today. When should I expect the nitrites to go down? Also, what kind of bioload can I add in my tank if I can keep adding 75 drops of ammonia? I want to setup this tank to be a cichlid tank. I'm running an AquaClear 110, would that be enough for lets say, 15 of them?

Thanks!

 

[summit]

nitrites can get stalled, it happened to me on both tanks I cycled using the fishless cycling method. If your nitrites have been stalled for a week, then I would do a 40% water change, a lot of times a water change will break that cycle and bring the nitrites down. If your showing nitrates you should be quite close, so hang in there!

As for stocking it depends, african cichlids are very agressive so you would have to stock lighter, SA cichlids are little less aggressive but it depends on the species as well, alot of cichlids will outgrow a 55 gallon tank so you will have to take the adult size into account. If it were me, I would look into Ram cichlids, very beautiful and peaceful, also angelfish are pretty good in a tank that size, and some geophagus cichlids which also tend to be on the peaceful side, they will also all get along together.

Have you ever looked at doing a biotope type setup? I am currently setting one up and am really liking the look, I have a black ghost knife fish, german gold rams, gold superveil angels, and cory cats and its giving me alot of action on all levels of the tank top to bottom. Trying to figure out stocking and which goes with what fish is the hardest part I find.

 

[Gus]

nitrites can get stalled, it happened to me on both tanks I cycled using the fishless cycling method. If your nitrites have been stalled for a week, then I would do a 40% water change, a lot of times a water change will break that cycle and bring the nitrites down. If your showing nitrates you should be quite close, so hang in there!

As for stocking it depends, african cichlids are very agressive so you would have to stock lighter, SA cichlids are little less aggressive but it depends on the species as well, alot of cichlids will outgrow a 55 gallon tank so you will have to take the adult size into account. If it were me, I would look into Ram cichlids, very beautiful and peaceful, also angelfish are pretty good in a tank that size, and some geophagus cichlids which also tend to be on the peaceful side, they will also all get along together.

Have you ever looked at doing a biotope type setup? I am currently setting one up and am really liking the look, I have a black ghost knife fish, german gold rams, gold superveil angels, and cory cats and its giving me alot of action on all levels of the tank top to bottom. Trying to figure out stocking and which goes with what fish is the hardest part I find.

Cool, I'm gonna keep an eye on the Nitrites. I just took another measurement, and since I dosed the 75 drops of Ammonia this morning, I've got 1 ppm, Nitrites still high though.

I actually yes, I though about setting up an Amazon biotope with angelfish and a school of cardinal tetras. I bough a every expensive T5HO light with the Versa tops just for the plants. I don't know why I though about a cichlids tank, I guess I want to avoid the whole CO2 setup scenario.

 

[summit]

Cool, I'm gonna keep an eye on the Nitrites. I just took another measurement, and since I dosed the 75 drops of Ammonia this morning, I've got 1 ppm, Nitrites still high though.

I actually yes, I though about setting up an Amazon biotope with angelfish and a school of cardinal tetras. I bough a every expensive T5HO light with the Versa tops just for the plants. I don't know why I though about a cichlids tank, I guess I want to avoid the whole CO2 setup scenario.

Cardinals and angels are really nice together, some have a problem with the angels eating the cardinals when they get larger but I have never seen it personally. You could also throw in some rams if you wanted, electric blues or german gold rams are my favorites, and/or some cory's for bottom cleanup which are pretty fun to watch. You can suppliment C02 with seachem fluorish excel which seems to do a good job, metricide is another cheaper option, sounds like its going to be a nice setup though once your done.

Seachem. Flourish Excel

good site for stocking information:
AqAdvisor - Intelligent Freshwater Tropical Fish Aquarium Stocking Calculator and Aquarium Tank/Filter Advisor

 

[Gus]

Ok, so far my tank is cycling 75 drops of Ammonia in 24 hours (give or take) I did a 50% PWC last night, but the Nitrites still won't go down.