How long did your fishless cycle take? and Can someone double check my technique

[eco23]

Hi everyone!

I'm in my 3rd day of a fishless cycle, and I think I'm doing everything right but I'm hoping an expert can read over my steps and make sure I'm not missing anything.

1. Set up new 48(?) gallon aquarium with all new rocks, filters, decor, aerator, master test kit, etc...

2. Added Tetra Start Zyme (claims to remove chlorine, chloramines, heavy metals and adds healthy bacteria). I used this to remove chlorine, not necessarily to help start the cycling.

3. Raised the temp up to 84 to help the cycling along.

4. Bought Blue Ribbon brand Clear Ammonia (no surficants or perfumes form hardware store). Dosed the tank up to 4ppm.

5. Finally found a LFS that donated a nice bacteria filled filter from a healthy, established tank (big blue thing, I guess a type of sponge filter?)

6. Stuffed the seeding material into my filter and even wrapped the extra around the intake of the filter.

7. I've left it sitting for the last 3 days with the light off and have been testing it every day.

So far the ammonia has stayed steady at the 4ppm and there are no nitrites yet (fine for only day 3, right?)

Does it sound like I'm missing anything? I appreciate all the help I've gotten up to this point reading all the posts and giving me at least an idea of what I'm doing.

 

[eco23]

Just a couple of questions as a follow-up. Once my nitrites start spiking should I reduce my ammonia levels? And once the cycle completes do I need to add a fairly large number of fish to keep the bacteria colonies fed? And last question, should I have posted this in the getting started forum? Sorry if I posted in the wrong area.

 

[TraceyB4602]

Sounds like your doing everything you need to do.

No you don't have to down your ammonia once nitrites kick in.

Once the cycling is done I would recommend a 70% PWC after that you can add as many fish or as little as you want. Until you reach your limit for tank size which would be around 50" of fish.

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[ejaramillo01]

Agree with Tracy, when the ammonia starts to drop, keep adding back to 4 ppm, keeping It high will develop more and more of this type of bacteria, which at the end will give you a more "powerful" biofilter.

 

[eco23]

How long did your fishless cycle take?

I know it's different for everybody, and I'm curious how long your personal cycle took. How long did it take for your nitrites to first show up?

I'm only on day 5 (you can check the process I used here)-

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forum...hless-cycle-technique-144250.html#post1252796

I know it can takes weeks or months and I'm patiently waiting to see a change as everything is the same so far.

 

[ejaramillo01]

3 weeks before nitrites showed in my case

 

[wilmo]

Mines started showing nitrites around the time ur on just now but cause am new to this I'm wait a bit longer. Just incase.

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[mfdrookie516]

I have only cycled 1 tank, and I think it took somewhere around a week and a half before I had nitrite. You've cranked up the heat, which will definitely help you out.

 

[maxima423]

a month

 

[OhNeil1969]

I just recently cycled a 60 gallon tank. The total process took about 3.5 weeks. It can be rough waiting, but being patient will pay off.

 

[OhNeil1969]

The only thing I would add is that it isn't necessary to keep your lights off.

 

[eco23]

Update: I don't know if it's wishful thinking or the beginning of the cycle, but in the last 24 hours my ammonia dropped from 4ppm to 2ppm! Could that much have evaporated or is something definitely eating it? I don't think I have nitrites yet (at least not measurable), but on my test kit it's definitely not as light of a blue as it was yesterday... maybe just starting to show up .

I dosed back up to 4ppm and I'll be monitoring the levels very closely.

 

[neilanh]

All good, spot on advice so far.

You're doing everything right, just keep it up.

Like said earlier, when your ammonia starts to fall you want to keep it elevated to keep the bacteria going. A good rule of thumb is to let it fall to around 1ppm, then redose to 4ppm. Don't dose more than once per day though, no matter how fast it's being processed.

Also, I concur with the no lights comment. High levels of ammonia and/or nitrIte can lead to some serious algae issues, so since you have nothing in the tank right now to look at anyway it's best to just keep the lights off.

 

[neilanh]

Also, I went ahead and combined your two current threads since both involve Fishless cycling.

 

[OhNeil1969]

You've definitely got some ammonia eating bacteria present in that tank. Ammonia will not evaporate out of a tank. I'm surprised you don't have any nitrItes yet as that is what the bacteria that eats the ammonia create. I would give it another day and recheck for nitrItes. Unfortunately, once they appear that is when the real waiting game begins. It will probably take twice as long for them to drop as the ammonia. But when they drop it should be dramatic, pretty much overnight.

BTW, I'd be careful on redosing the ammonia. Once the bacteria appears as long as there is some ammonia present they will continue to grow and thrive. Too much ammonia could lead to a stalled cycle.

 

[eco23]

I've got nitrites! In about a 36 hour period I've gone from 4ppm of ammonia down to 1.5, and my nitrites have gone from 0 up to .50! I may even be seeing the beginnings of nitrates as the test color is a much deeper yellow than the 0 on the card.

I dosed it back up to 4ppm of ammonia and will keep an eye on it.

My PH does seem to be steadily climbing (from the ammonia?) and it's sitting around 8.0 or a little higher. Will a high PH effect the cycle? Do I need to do a PWC if it gets out control?

 

[ejaramillo01]

No the ph at 8 should not stall your cycle.
My suggestion is not to do a water change right now, keep adding the ammonia, you are doing just right.

The water change will be later when your nitrates start to get to high.