new tank doing a fishless cycle - first time

[HeatherW]

Well I finally got everything together for my new 90 gallon tank. I am going to try and do the fishless cyle. this is a first for me and I am a little nervous but excited too! so I got all my gravel and artificial plants and decorations in there. I will probably add more, but figured I had some time to get a few more rock and caves in there. this is going to take me a month or more right?

the gravel I got is a combination thing. got some of the larger gravel, some smaller gravel, and then 2 bags of smaller gravel that is supposed to already have some BB in it. Not sure it will make a difference or not, but we will see. So all in all I have 80 lbs of gravel in my 90 gallon tank.

I have 2 aquaclear 110s running with just the spnge and the biomax. I have a visa-therm 300w heater that I set to 87 I think. the water is still heating up. I am up to 79.2 so far. I am sure it will be better when my glass canopy arrives (ordered the wrong one for my tank so now I have to wait for the new one to arrive)

filled the tank up last night and started my science experiment!! added a bunch of ammonia to get it up to 4ppm. took me a while becaue I kept adding small amounts before I realized I would need much more. Ended up adding at least 32ml of ammonia (some more was added by counting drops).

so now I am in the wait and test phase. please let me know if I need to do anything else. I will keep a running log of how my cyle is going. I know I will have some questions once things start moving along!!

tested the water this morning:
temp 77.4
ammonia 4ppm
Nitirites 0
PH 7.6

 

[jlk]

Sounds like your off to a good start! What type of ammonia are you using?

 

[HeatherW]

Sounds like your off to a good start! What type of ammonia are you using?

thanks! I found some at Fischer's Hardware. Austin's Clear Ammonia. the only thing it lists is Ammonium Hydroxide. contains no phosphorus. I think it is the right stuff

 

[jlk]

Sounds like this stuff will work! I do think it may be more diluted than other brands of ammonia because you needed a large amount to reach 4ppm ammonia. No worries though! Do you have any extra cycled media from your other tanks? Using some seeded media will help speed things up. If your at risk of throwing your other tanks into a cycle, you can look into purchasing some 'active' filters from Angelfish Not necessary though- your tank will still cycle without established media, you will just need lots of patience!

 

[calfishguy]

If you raise your temp to 88 your tank will cycle a lot faster

 

[HeatherW]

Thanks everyone. I think my water is evaporating very fast without the canopy on there. Sure hope my new one arrives early. I also think this may be the reason it is taking my tank so long to warm up. Pretty chilly in my house and with no canopy to keep the warm in...

My water is looking just a little cloudy too. Is there a chance that I am experiencing an algae bloom so early?

 

[calfishguy]

You are most likely not experiencing an algae bloom but a bacterial bloom

Good Luck

 

[Rhino]

Good luck with the fishless cycle it is much easier by far and is typically faster than cycling a tank with fish in it. Mine usually take right around a month to do. Just keep an eye on all of your parameters especially PH. My last fishless cycle the PH kept crashing right as Nitrates started showing up and kept stalling the cycle. If I had been more consistent in testing PH I would have caught this earlier and would have saved myself a week and some water changes. You might want to add some Polyfil or filter floss to the Aquaclears. It really helps the water look even clearer. I add Polyfil to mine in between the sponge and biomax in all of my Aquaclears.

 

[HeatherW]

cycling progressing

I think things are moving along pretty well. checked my water today.

temp - 82.4
Ammonia - 1.0ppm
Nitirites - 0
PH - 7.4

so I added 24ml of ammonia to bring it back up to ammonia reading 4.0ppm

how am i doing? is this fast or is this normal? I don't need to worry about nitrAtes yet right? figured I would check those on a weekly basis until at least the Nitrites showed up.

I really didn't expect it to drop so fast!! this really can be exciting

 

[jlk]

Your doing well!! I am actually surprised your amm dropped that much intitially without any seeded media! No need to start testing for nitrates yet-wait until you start seeing nitrites steadily. If you havent done so already (and i am sure you have!), make sure you know all of the readings for your tap water so you have a basis for where your tank is starting from. keep up the good work!

 

[HeatherW]

progrss seems to have slowed down a little. more along the lines of what I expected to see. did water test today.
temp - 82.6
Ammonia - 3.0
Nitirites - 0
PH - 7.6

when do I add a pinch of fish food (read that somewhere)?

I keep having to add at least a gallon or 2 of fresh(treated) water everyday due to evaporation. I am sure this has to do with no canopy on the top and the warm water temp compared to the air in my house. the fresh water will help keep my PH stable right? don't really have the whole PH thing figured out. what makes it drop and rise?

 

[jlk]

You can add a pinch of fish food now (just a pinch-finely crushed). No worries about the evaporation, just keep adding treated water as needed. The most common thing seen during cycling is a ph drop- the nitrifying bacteria use up the buffers in the water during the nitrification process & without the buffers, the ph crashes. The chemistry behind it is a bit more complicated but this is a basic explanation. Hope this helps!

 

[HeatherW]

thanks jlk! I added a small pinch of finely crushed fish food. tested my water today.
temp - 84.0
Ammonia - 1.5
Nitirite - 0
PH 7.4

so do I wait one more day before dosing the tank back up to 4ppm or should I do it today?

 

[jlk]

Go ahead & dose it back up to 4 but keep a close on eye on your ph because its starting to drop. If it drops any further, a water change will be necessary to re-establish buffers. Keep us posted!

 

[HeatherW]

went ahead and added the ammonia last night (added 18ml) and got it up to 4ppm. also got my glass canopy yesterday and put it on. upon the reccommendation of someone else I did not put the vinyl part on the back. so I just have the glass part on and then put my light bar over the glass. seems to really be helping the temp stabalize and obviously the evaporation. tested the water today
Temp - 86.4
ammonia - 3.5
Nitrite - 0
PH - 7.5

 

[jlk]

Your doing good! Patience is a must with fishless cycling. Keep us posted!

 

[awilson133]

how do i go about keeping my ph from crashing? i have ph 7.0 from api, is it ok to dose it in a fishless cycle?..to keep it from crashing. sorry im not trying to jack anyones thread.

 

[jlk]

how do i go about keeping my ph from crashing? i have ph 7.0 from api, is it ok to dose it in a fishless cycle?..to keep it from crashing. sorry im not trying to jack anyones thread.

Hi! I am not sure what you are asking or where you are at right now in respect to cycling. Are you doing a fishless cycle & your ph is crashing? From what number to what number? Is this daily? Have you done any water changes yet? Big water changes are usually enough to re-establish buffers to keep your ph stable. But, sometimes, the water supply is soft/acidic and/or lacking in sufficient buffers which creates instability. Im not sure exactly what you are dealing with to be able to better advise. Some more info would help or you can post a new thread in the 'getting started' section for more advice.

 

[awilson133]

i mean how do i avoid ph crashing? i havent started yet but i will saturday. im new to fishless cycling.
lulz nvm i found it..water changes help avoid it. i guess i misread the post, but how big of water changes are we talking? 20%? 30%? 50%?

 

[jlk]

i mean how do i avoid ph crashing? i havent started yet but i will saturday. im new to fishless cycling.
lulz nvm i found it..water changes help avoid it. i guess i misread the post, but how big of water changes are we talking? 20%? 30%? 50%?

Your best bet would be to post a new thread on sat with your info (tank size, tap water parameters, amm source your using, temp) and post all of your questions in this thread so you can get daily help as you proceed through your cycle. Water changes during cycling are not a must- only when the situation warrants it such as the ph starts to drop or nitrites have been insane for a lengthy period of time. Big water changes usually mean 50% or greater. Hope this helps!