Fishless cycle in a 20G tank

[stephanieb]

Hi there! I'm looking for a little advice if I'm doing it wrong or affirmation that I'm doing it right and am just impatient!

I set up a 20 gallon long tank Jan 30th. Conditioned water, decor, 4" circular air stone, undergravel filter. Dosed ammonia from Ace up to 4 ppm. pH between 7.8 and 8.

I added a full 8.45 ounce bottle of Tetra Safe Start the evening of Feb 1st along with installing a Penguin 100 filter. I understand now that the Safe Start is for adding fish right away; I had read an article stating it might help with setting up the tank, now I'm not sure. The morning of Feb 2nd, ammonia dropped to 3 ppm, and the next morning on the 3rd it was between 1.5-2 ppm.

At this point, I dosed ammonia back to 4 ppm. pH is steady at 8.0.

Since then I have slowly added very small doses of ground fish flakes every couple days. The ammonia levels, after redosing to 4 ppm on Feb 3rd, have slowly dropped from 4 on the 3rd to 1.5-2 today. I hit 3 ppm about the 4th, and 2 ppm about the 8th. pH is 8.1 now.

Zero nitrites have shown up. I'm using the API test kit, testing for ammonia daily and nitrites since ammonia dropped, pH every 3-4 days.

Adding the Safe Start clouded it slightly,I did disturb the gravel a bit one day putting in a couple different decorations, that clouded the water slightly. But other than that, the tank is crystal clear with tons of bubbles. I do not have a heater installed because I was getting the cold water fish, I know this will take longer..

I want to stock my tank with 3 cory catfish, and about 7-9 danio (I would like a mix of zebra and glofish, not sure what ratio would be best, I will get them in an odd number).

I guess I'm just getting impatient. Should I wait for nitrites to turn to nitrates or add one more bottle of Safe Start and my danios or corys right away? At the pet store today I noticed that the Safe Start said eliminates nitrifying bacteria, so I wanted to kick myself for eliminating bacteria I'm now testing for. I hope I don't have to start over..

Thanks in advance to anyone that can help!

 

[Delapool]

Have you checked for nitrates? Sometimes the nitrites can convert very fast for some cases.

Ph sounds good.

And welcome to the forum

PS sorry, lost on where it says it eliminates the bacteria?

 

[stephanieb]

Oh my gosh, I feel like such a nitwit for not just testing nitrates! Thank you so much, Delapool!

I was just looking at plants today at the store, looked at their bottles of Safe Start in case I wanted another bottle and there was a spot on it that said something like "eliminates nitrifying bacteria" and maybe I just confused myself, I'll look again tomorrow.

I'm at 40-80 ppm of nitrates!!! Does this mean I disregard nitrites and just test for ammonia turnover to 0 ppm in a 24 hour period, and then we're good to get fish after?

 

[stephanieb]

And thank you for the welcome, I'm glad to be here and thanks for having me!

I grew up with fish tanks, my dad built custom tanks. He's already told me I'm way more into it than he was.

I think I was the one at fault for a betta death a couple weeks back, so I did a lot of research and here I am with a ton of hope for a new tank. I want to do it right this time, so we can eventually have small, healthy tanks around the house.

Edited to ask if I should stop adding ammonia now, and just add fish as soon as my ammonia levels are at 0?

 

[Fresh2o]

I would still test for nitrites. There's a chance that they are present in the tank. If they are, then the cycling is not complete.


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[Delapool]

Not sure why different tanks cycle differently - there must be some reason.

I'd let it get to 0 or just above and then still do the 24hr test as a check. It sounds like you are very close though and the extra time allows the tank to establish better on bio-film.

Someone that has recently cycled may chime in. I just steal filter media from my other tanks now.

Imo I would still check for nitrites just in case. Sometimes I've seen nitrites come back - possibly as the bacterial populations aren't quite in sync.

You could also test tap water just in case you haven't so you get a base line.

The link below on stocking I find fun to play around with as well if that helps. Just in case staring at an empty tank is a bit much.

http://www.aqadvisor.com

 

[ScotJudd]

Hi Stephanie,
Just a few words of welcome and encouragement. You are doing the right thing by building a robustly cycled tank prior to adding your fish. Buying fish and seeing them fail is no pleasure at all but it can be very frustrating looking into an empty tank.
I personally wouldn't bother messing about with flake if you have pure ammonia. I find it a much cleaner way to fishless cycle a tank.
As said above, check for nitrites, but I have cycled a few tanks and the nitrite stage has not been detected. The first sign of cycling has been a high nitrate reading.
The final proof of cycling has to be that 4ppm of ammonia is processed within 24 hours to give readings of ammonia 0, nitrite 0 and a very high nitrate reading. At this point I feel that your filter is in a really good state and, following a water change to drop the nitrates well below 20ppm, you are ready for some fish. I usually stock at about a quarter to a third total stocking as a starter and then after a couple of weeks and when the tank is proving to be stable I gradually add more stock repeating this until I have the stock I want.
Patience is the word!


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