fishless cycle help please

[librarygirl]

Well whatever harm to the cycle that washing/changing the media did it's already done, the bacteria just need to reform. I'd do the water changes on the new tank as Jlk suggested and move as much media and stuff over from the 50 to the new tank with the fish, then move as much stuff from the coldwater tank to the 50 with the fish. Test each tank daily and do water changes as needed until ammonia and/or nitrite go back to 0 if either of these start to rise.

 

[laur94x]

Okay I'm gonna do a big water change tonight so when should I move the fish? Tonight if its the right temperature? Tomorrow? Sorry, I'm nervous lol

 

[rotorhead22]

To test if you are cycled you could dose your tank with ammonia and see if the levels of ammonia and nitrites drop to zero within a 24 hour period. Once it is able to do this you would do a large (90%+) PWC and then add your fish. Of course you would use conditioned water (de-chlorinated).

 

[librarygirl]

Okay I'm gonna do a big water change tonight so when should I move the fish? Tonight if its the right temperature? Tomorrow? Sorry, I'm nervous lol

Do the large water change, wait a few hours, test ammonia, etc, make sure it's at 0 and nitrates are as low as you can get them. When that's set and the temp is stable yes you can move them over.

 

[laur94x]

Okay well obvviously with it being christmas I didn't manage to do my big water change or anything today due to family being round but I just quickly did a test to see what the levels were at anyway (without doing a waterchange today so basically as if I was carrying on with my fishless cycle) and the results were -
Ammonia - about 2ppm
No2 - just below 10
No3- just below 250

Could anyone explain this please? Am currently waiting for my api master test kit to turn up so will hopefully have clearer results soon! Thanks

 

[rotorhead22]

I would wait till tomorrow and see if your ammonia drops further. You'll probably need to do a PWC do drop your nitrates in the next day or two before re-dosing ammonia. The presence of high nitrates is good because it means you are converting nitrites.

 

[librarygirl]

Okay well obvviously with it being christmas I didn't manage to do my big water change or anything today due to family being round but I just quickly did a test to see what the levels were at anyway (without doing a waterchange today so basically as if I was carrying on with my fishless cycle) and the results were -
Ammonia - about 2ppm
No2 - just below 10
No3- just below 250

Could anyone explain this please? Am currently waiting for my api master test kit to turn up so will hopefully have clearer results soon! Thanks

I'm guessing you're using strips? I know the liquid kit doesn't measure nitrite or nitrate that high. Strips can be inaccurate so it's hard to tell what the readings really are. Nitrites are pretty high though; I'd do a full water change to get them down. The ammonia didn't fully convert in 24 hours so something is probably stalling things. Did you test your PH?

 

[laur94x]

Yeah I've ordered my api master kit so waiting for it to arrive any day now. Yeah my ph is always ither 7.2 or 7.6 x

 

[jlk]

I'm guessing you're using strips? I know the liquid kit doesn't measure nitrite or nitrate that high. Strips can be inaccurate so it's hard to tell what the readings really are. Nitrites are pretty high though; I'd do a full water change to get them down. The ammonia didn't fully convert in 24 hours so something is probably stalling things. Did you test your PH?

+1
Very high nitrites and/or nitrates can slow or stall a cycle. I agree its time for complete water change(s) to zero your ammonia and nitrite and drop your nitrates to 20ppm or less before you move your fish. Just make sure you temperature match and properly condition the new water.

 

[laur94x]

Right I tested my ammonia and it was 0.50 today (before water change). I've just done a large water change. About 75 percent. Then I cut off some filter media from my current tropical tank (the one the fish are moving from when ready) and put itt into the 138 litre tanks filter, moved the big driftwood over from the tropical tank, put some gravel from the tropical tank in the filter of the 138 litre and some gravel in some pots and put them in there. Waiting for the water to heat up and will check my levels again in a few hours. Is this okay?

 

[jlk]

Do you plan on moving your fish today? You only have to wait @1/2hr before retesting your tank. You want your ammonia & nitrite zero and your nitrates 20ppm or less. If they are not there yet, do another big water change (90+%), wait 1/2hr & retest.

 

[laur94x]

Erm that depends on the temperature to be honest. My heater is a bit rubbish and takesa while to heat up the tank (getting a new one soon) so it depends if its heated and stable tonight because I had to fill with the garden hose so water is very cold obviously! Ill go and test in a minute then and post the results

 

[laur94x]

Right just tested again -
Ammonia - 0.25
No2 - 5
No3 - 100 :/
So do you think do a 90 percent water change?

 

[laur94x]

My fish don't need to go in tonight/tomorrow. Obviously the sooner the better but I'm just not very sure where to go from here. I'm just trusting you lot to tell me when to put them in and what is best to do lol.
I learnt how to do a fishless cycle but then found out I don't need to do that so now I'm just doing what you lot advise

 

[laur94x]

Right excuse the sudden load of posts but.. I'm going to need to leave it to run over night to get the water up to temperature anyway so what are the chances that the levels will drop enough over night if I don't do another water change?

 

[librarygirl]

Ammonia might drop some but probably not nitrite. I'd try another full water change before you go if you can.

 

[laur94x]

Okay I've just done a huge water change, like 95 percent. Its filling up now. I also tested my tap water for nitrates and nitrites frst and it was no2 - 0 and no3 - aroung 25ppm. But that's with strips so it could be lower. My strips say no3 are fine up to 25ppm though? So fingers crossed it works ths time. So if my levels are low enough this time then what shall I do? I'm still going to need to leave it overnight to get the tempurature right. So will my fish be safe to go in tomorrow if all is okay? If yes then how is best to introduce them to the new tank? I have 1 of the bags the you bring new fish home in.

I'm going to test my levels in an hour and will post then. Thanks

 

[laur94x]

Well I got my levels and temperature all sorted and moved my fish to their new tank 5 days ago. Everything has been fine, I've been testing my water and doing water changes accordingly. This morning when I tested my levels are really bad again in both tanks. Ammonia was fine but my no2 was about 2ppm and my no3 was about 100! However the no2 and no3 readings are from a teststrip so may be inaccurate (still waiting for my api master kit turn up), the ammonia is a proper kit. I've just done a 50 percent water change on the big tank and am gonna do one on the smaller tank in a minute. Any ideas how else I can get my nitrates+nitrites down please?

 

[librarygirl]

You moved the filter media over from the tanks, right? Changing out the media might have set the cycle back some. The only way to get rid of nitrites and nitrates are water changes. For now just believe the strips (if nitrite is really at 2 that's potentially toxic to fish) until you get the liquid kit.

 

[rotorhead22]

Since you are still getting NO2, this means your tank wasn't fully cycled or there aren't or weren't enough colonies of BB in your seeded media. Looks like all of your NH3/NH4 is getting converted but there is not enough of the NO2 oxidizing bacteria to convert all of your nitrites into NO3. As mentioned before, the nitrite conversion part of the Nitrogen Cycle is the longest part of the process.

I have added a link below if you'd like to read more about the nitrogen cycle:

http://www.cs.duke.edu/~narten/faq/cycling.html

Just have patience, lots of it. This is the part of the Fish-in portion of the cycle that baffles me. Nitrites are poisonous for fish but you need them to feed the BB that will convert them into Nitrates??? A Fish-in cycle forces one to continually decrease the ammonia and nitrites to non-toxic levels (by doing PWC) which slows down the whole process. I chose to do a Fishless cycle because it is easier to control everything without all the PWCs.

You are on the right track though and making progress.