fishless cycle diary- I think I'm almost there!!:)

[dannehhx]

Looks good! Ok, I would not jump on fish just yet. One day of zeroes does not guarentee a cycled a tank. I would increase your amm dose today from 2 to 3 and see how things look tomorrow. If you have all zeroes again, increase the dose to 4pppm. Once your tank can process 4ppm for a few days in a row, then I would say its safe to consider yourself cycled. Do you have plants in this tank? Make sure you are really shaking & banging those nitrate bottles for a full 1-2mins before testing (your arms should hurt a bit)- if you dont have plants, I would expect to see some amount of nitrates at this point but every tank is a bit different.

awww i am so looking forward to finally adding these fish !!

okay, so i dosed to 2-3 today see if they zero out tomorrow, add 4ppm for a few days check if they zero out and then get the fishys?

i will make sure i do give the nitrate bottle and good long shake tomorrow just to be sure, i have a few plants, amazon sword, hairgrass, cryptocoryne and pond weed (i can't think of the actual name now )

do you think i am very almost there now?

 

[jlk]

Yes, you can after you prep your tank! You are almost there- it should only take a couple more days! Expect to possibly see some ammonia/nitrite tomorrow- as you increase the ammonia dose, your bacteria have to adjust upwards to the increased ammonia and this doesnt always happen in 24hrs, so dont panic!

Ok, quick question here. You mention giving the 'nitrate bottle' a good shake- you are using both nitrate bottles, right?

 

[dannehhx]

Yes, you can after you prep your tank! You are almost there- it should only take a couple more days! Expect to possibly see some ammonia/nitrite tomorrow- as you increase the ammonia dose, your bacteria have to adjust upwards to the increased ammonia and this doesnt always happen in 24hrs, so dont panic!

Ok, quick question here. You mention giving the 'nitrate bottle' a good shake- you are using both nitrate bottles, right?

sorry for my over excitement, i wanted to do this right and i will carry on doing it right by the fish

yes sorry was typing on my phone and it tries to correct my spelling constantly, i usually shake the bottles side to side and then bang them onto a hard surface, is there any particular reason to why the nitrate bottles should have more attention?

 

[jlk]

Thanks! The reagents in the nitrate bottles can settle & clump leading to an inaccurate result. I know its more of an issue with the one bottle than the other but I always forget which one! So, suggesting to shake & bang both bottles is just easier for everyone to remember in my opinion!

 

[dannehhx]

okay so here is today's results:

ph- 6.8-7
ammonia- 0
nitrite- 2ppm
nitrate- 5ppm ( I retested nitrate with new shaking method yesterday and it also came up 5ppm)

okay I'm a little lost to what to do next
how much ammonia do I dose to now? I feel like I'm going to go around in a circle with the nitrite it dropped to almost 0 and 0 for 2 days in a row and now has gone back up again !

any suggestions to what to do next?

 

[dannehhx]

to add.. I adjusted the temperature down to 25 degrees yesterday too will that affect the results from now on?

 

[Wayne78]

I'd say your about 2 days away from being cycled your ammo is being converted to trites just need to make sure trites are being converted to trates
I'd personally leave out the ammo and see if ur trites go, by adding more ammo ur going to increase ur trites

 

[dannehhx]

I'd say your about 2 days away from being cycled your ammo is being converted to trites just need to make sure trites are being converted to trates
I'd personally leave out the ammo and see if ur trites go, by adding more ammo ur going to increase ur trites

yeah I feel like the cycle is really close to cycling too that's why I'm unsure of what to do next

I didn't dose ammonia for 48 hours last week due to high nitrites and up till yesterday ammonia and nitrite were zero, re- dosed to a higher 1-2ppm yesterday and now I've got high nitrite, if I don't re-dose and everything falls to zero again am I really going to be fully cycled for fish?

 

[Wayne78]

I'd give it a couple of days just to make sure ur trites are converted to trates then after that I'd say ur good to go!
But just remember little by little when adding fish

 

[jlk]

Hi! Dont worry! I mentioned earlier that when you increase the amm dose, expect to see some amm and/or nitrites because your bacteria need to adjust upwards- this doesnt always happen in 24hrs & may take a day or two. Make sure you are testing only after your tank has had a full 24hrs to process the amm dose, no sooner. If you still have high nitrites, just hold off on the amm for another 24hrs. It should zero then you can redose the same amount of amm again.

 

[librarygirl]

yeah I feel like the cycle is really close to cycling too that's why I'm unsure of what to do next

I didn't dose ammonia for 48 hours last week due to high nitrites and up till yesterday ammonia and nitrite were zero, re- dosed to a higher 1-2ppm yesterday and now I've got high nitrite, if I don't re-dose and everything falls to zero again am I really going to be fully cycled for fish?

Nope, you need to keep adding ammonia. If you don't add it, nitrites will likely fall but they'll rise again when ammonia is added to the tank either by fish or manually. You want nitrites to stay at 0 on their own even when you redose ammonia each day. I'd redose to 2 again.

 

[dannehhx]

Hi! Dont worry! I mentioned earlier that when you increase the amm dose, expect to see some amm and/or nitrites because your bacteria need to adjust upwards- this doesnt always happen in 24hrs & may take a day or two. Make sure you are testing only after your tank has had a full 24hrs to process the amm dose, no sooner. If you still have high nitrites, just hold off on the amm for another 24hrs. It should zero then you can redose the same amount of amm again.

awww so in other words I am close to fully cycling?
okay well I dosed back up today so tomorrow I will check my readings again and let u know
I can't wait to see zero across the test!!

 

[dannehhx]

Nope, you need to keep adding ammonia. If you don't add it, nitrites will likely fall but they'll rise again when ammonia is added to the tank either by fish or manually. You want nitrites to stay at 0 on their own even when you redose ammonia each day. I'd redose to 2 again.

okay thanks for the reply so the process that I'm going through now is completely normal?

 

[Botanica]

Sounds just like my fishless cycle...Lol. JLK really helped me not to panic...I had a pH drop that stalled my cycle but I had expected it because of her wealth of knowledge in water chemistry. look at it this way...your tank will be ready to be fully stocked when your done...you won't have to wait and do it one or two fish at a time because at 4ppm your tank is conditioned for a full load of fish. There is light at the end of the tunnel. You haven't mentioned heat...Are you running a heater? Warmer water helps the bb grow faster...Good luck!

 

[dannehhx]

Sounds just like my fishless cycle...Lol. JLK really helped me not to panic...I had a pH drop that stalled my cycle but I had expected it because of her wealth of knowledge in water chemistry. look at it this way...your tank will be ready to be fully stocked when your done...you won't have to wait and do it one or two fish at a time because at 4ppm your tank is conditioned for a full load of fish. There is light at the end of the tunnel. You haven't mentioned heat...Are you running a heater? Warmer water helps the bb grow faster...Good luck!

I never thought a fish tank would give me so much stress and anxiety lol!! JLK is fab she has totally given me faith when I have no idea what is happening (which is a lot of the time!)
I just see it as a triumph when I can finally add my fish to a take which I know is safe
I do have a heater, it is the right size for my tank but struggles with temps over 28 degrees Celsius so I dropped it back to 25-26. I have loads of water agitation and oxygen
botanica how is your cycle now?

 

[Botanica]

I never thought a fish tank would give me so much stress and anxiety lol!! JLK is fab she has totally given me faith when I have no idea what is happening (which is a lot of the time!)
I just see it as a triumph when I can finally add my fish to a take which I know is safe
I do have a heater, it is the right size for my tank but struggles with temps over 28 degrees Celsius so I dropped it back to 25-26. I have loads of water agitation and oxygen
botanica how is your cycle now?

It's great! It's a 135 gallon community and it was really fun picking it fish! I decided we had no choice but to fishless cycle it because the water changes in that size tank would send me to the poor house if we cycled fish in. You might want to look into getting a better heater as soon as you can afford to. There are several issues that most people eventually have to deal with and a heater with good temp control will be invaluable. I got ours off of amazon...way cheaper. I'm in the process of setting up a 55 and a 20 extra tall...so I'll be cycling again hopefully within a week or two. What kind of fish are you going to stock?

 

[dannehhx]

What kind of fish are you going to stock?

I am thinking of starting off with small shoaling fish, possibly galaxy rasbora and a few platys and then a group of corys and 2 blue rams last all set up for them within the tank just waiting on the perfect conditions

do you think my cycle is going okay from your own experience? I have tried to find your own thread posts for encouragement but can't seem to find anything lol

 

[Botanica]

I am thinking of starting off with small shoaling fish, possibly galaxy rasbora and a few platys and then a group of corys and 2 blue rams last all set up for them within the tank just waiting on the perfect conditions

do you think my cycle is going okay from your own experience? I have tried to find your own thread posts for encouragement but can't seem to find anything lol

I didn't have a post that walked me thru the cycle so to speak. . I've been reading cycling posts on here since February as we planned our tank. I had to ask a few questions when we stalled and about how much ammonia to add...but for the most part I was reading reading reading. I was kinda scared at first to sound too stupid...lol...but my husband tells me I worry entirely too much about that.

Our cycling took about 5 weeks from adding water to adding fish! I had our two heaters going at 84 degrees and I added an old filter cartridge from my 20 gallon. My husband came home with a bottle of bacteria from API and we added it...I'm not sure if it helped or not...most people say it doesn't. Getting my ammonia to drop took the longest...but then it just stalled. Ammonia would drop every day but nitrites just kept building. JLK had warned me that the pH could drop and stall the cycle out...and yep...my pH had dropped to 6.2. We did a 90% water change...temp matched and treated...and redosed ammonia. I had always heard that sometimes nitrites would be the same for days and then just one morning they would be gone...but the morning I woke up and tested and ammonia and nitrite were 0!!! . It was three days after the big water change. It will happen...just keep doing what you're doing.

 

[dannehhx]

okay here are today's results:

ammonia- 0
nitrite- 0-0.25ppm
nitrate- 5ppm
ph... right this is weird, when I first tested the ph on the liquid kit it went bright yellow as soon as the drops went in and did not develop into anything but a bright yellow, I emptied it and retested and it is now leaning more towards 6.6 which means it has dropped 0.2 in 24 hours :/ I don't know why the colour went so bright can dodgy tests happen? :s

I'm wondering now if I should do a WC, the good news is that my nitrite further dropped last night too

what do you all think?

 

[jlk]

Yes, a water change when you have some free time (temp match & condition) to help rebuffer your water and redose your ammonia. The ph will continue to steadily drop and your on the threshold (6.5) of where ph may become an issue in a cycling tank. Your numbers look good otherwise!