my first cycle

[Gmiked]

I have started my 55 gal tank cycle; it is a refurbished tank that was stored in the basement after a remodel. After some extensive reading online other fish site… don’t tell anyone… opps... I have joined here would like to share my first fishless cycle. I sure I will make some mistakes along the way and hope to you all nice folks will help me out.
I have started this under the premise that I would like to full stock my tangonenka tank on my B-Day... April 11th. No time to waste.
After reading all the variations to this technique I have chosen to try to establish the larges colony of little buggers I can and to keep “the Tank” as close to working variables as possible.
My goal is to cycle 4mg/l of ammonia a day when I finish.
Sound Good???????
My stuff: clean 55 gall tank, substrate: sand a shells for buffer ,new cascade 1000 canister filter two 500w heaters , lots of rock, two pieces African wood, plants ( African sward and lava fern)
On March 1 tank set up and filled all test were 0 and Ph was 8.0
March 3 add 5ml of Ammonia (local hardware store 10% ammonium hydroxide). Crank the heaters and turned off the lights.
March 5 got my first reading of Nitrite. .25mg/l
Today got .5mg/l all else is the same ph7.8, temp82 hardness 12 Ammonia still at 4mg/l
My question for the day is should I wait until the ammonia drops to 0 before I add more?

 

[jessibell]

that's a good question, I'm still learning about cycling as well. I am cycling a five gallon right now and was so excited yesterday to finally see ammonia and nitrites (I used fish food and some dead fish for ammonia since I couldn't find any pure stuff in the bottle)

 

[neilanh]

If you haven't already check out the article (in my sig) on fishless cycling.

So, now what you'll want to do is check your ammonia levels daily. When the ammonia level falls below 1mg/l, add more ammonia to get the level back up to the 3-5mg/l range. Keep repeating this until ammonia and nitrIte go to 0 within 24 hours of dosing.

Also, 2 500W heaters is way too much for that tank. It's okay to have 2 heaters (in case one fails), but if one of those 500W heaters fails closed (meaning the heater is on all the time) then it will cook your tank. Consider trading them in (if you can) or replacing them with 150-200W heaters

 

[mfdrookie516]

I agree with Neilan, go for two 200-250w heaters (marineland stealth pro are the best imo)... one of those 500w heaters gets stuck in the on position, you'll be having boiled fish for dinner... I also let my ammonia get to 1ppm then dosed back up to 4ppm (after a week and a half i did this daily) until you have 0 ammonia and nitrite after around 24hours a couple times. Do a 50% pwc and if you're ready to add fish, go for it, if not, keep adding ammonia until you're ready to add fish, then a pwc (just make sure ammonia and nitrite are 0ppm before adding fish)

 

[Gmiked]

Thanks all I think I miss spoke on the 2-500 ... i just check they are 100 w submersibles.
the wait continues.
I did find the best LFS in the twin cites on a day trip yesterday.. sounds like he will get me the Transcrips I want for the tank.

 

[7Enigma]

In my fishless cycling article recently a comment was posted that mentioned some studies were done that showed >2mg/L (ppm) of ammonia would inhibit the cycling process. I liked the higher level for ease of not having to dose so frequently, but if true it might be best to keep the level no higher than 3, with redosing when you get below 1ppm (I like to aim for 0.5 because it's easy to see on the decoder card). You don't want to let it go to zero.

4ppm is also a pretty high goal. Unless you plan on being crazy overstocked you might just be building up a huge biological filter that will die off when you stop dosing ammonia and stock with fish. 2-3ppm is probably about as high as I would aim for if it was my tank (also this will allow for a quicker cycle as less nitrIte-->nitrAte bacteria will be needed and they are in smaller numbers right now).

One possible comment (I'm assuming you have a canister filter?) would be to turn the spray bars at the surface so there is a lot of agitation in the water. High oxygen levels is vital for the water when cycling as the bacteria really go through it. If you have simple hang-on-back filters lower the water level so you get waterfalls which will agitate the water.

You're doing in the right way so congrats!

 

[Gmiked]

day 8 of my first cycle

Thanks all Day 8 of the cycle and things are moving along nicely on day 5 I did get some filter pad from a friend’s tank and things have now shifted in to high gear. No2 has spiked for two day in the +25 range so I did a 80 % water change add prime to the water and redosed to 2ppm on the ammonium.
No2 is still 5+ so may be a water change tomorrow is in the mix...

My thoughts is that if I have ammonium guys spitting out 10+ a day of No2 it will take me two weeks to in a cycled tank that has hi NO2.. Have any of you thought about it like that ... you missed your cycle because the levels are two hi?

I never thought that when I stated this tank again that all that I could think about is my nice new Boi friend living in the filter... Wow I think that make me a geek now...

 

[7Enigma]

Have any of you thought about it like that ... you missed your cycle because the levels are two hi?

Nope, never thought of it like that. You have to remember that you have a much greater population of bacteria than you probably need for ammonia to nitrIte conversion. So any excess (from you adding it) is going to continue to increase that population.

Give it another couple days (with small doses of ammonia to prevent it from going to zero) and then completely drain the tank and refill. Dose 2ppm of ammonia and track this for 24 hours. If you don't get a nitrIte spike you're done. If you do repeat again when the ammonia level gets below 0.5ppm. By starting from near zero it's much easier to find out what your population levels are for the 2 types of bacteria.

HTH