Fishless cycling

[KOOGS]

Ok so I'm a week into cycling my 55g tank. At the moment I got 160ppm NITRATE, 1ppm AMMONIA, 5ppm NITRITE. Where should I go from here? I noticed that the ammonia levels come down pretty fast. Should I add more now?

 

[Homedog98]

Do a 50% PWC and keep dosing back up. Nitrite/ate that high can stall your cycle.

 

[KOOGS]

Fishless Cycline

Are you absolutely sure? Cause I see others say its fine, and some say dont do PWC while cycling. I just want to he sure.

 

[Homedog98]

Are you absolutely sure? Cause I see others say its fine, and some say dont do PWC while cycling. I just want to he sure.

It can't hurt I'd go ahead and do it.

 

[eco23]

As Homedog said, pwc's during your cycle won't hurt since there is virtually nil amounts of nitrifying bacteria in the actual water column. Doing a nice big pwc (or a couple back to back) to knock your nitrItes down to .5-1 is a good way to prevent stalls, prevent pH crashes and hopefully shave a couple days off your cycle. Just make sure you dechlorinate and temp match the water.

And yes, dose the ammo back up to 4ppm every 24 hours.

Check out the guide and FAQ in my signature if you haven't seen it.

 

[KOOGS]

Fishless Cycline

ok thx a lot. If I add filter media from a cycled tank would that help? would I still need to do water change?

 

[Homedog98]

ok thx a lot. If I add filter media from a cycled tank would that help? would I still need to do water change?

Yes and yes. Theyll both speed things up tremendously.

 

[eco23]

ok thx a lot. If I add filter media from a cycled tank would that help? would I still need to do water change?

I'd still do the water change to knock down the nitrites. It will also restore buffers and nutrients to the water to keep things moving and prevent problems.

Seeded media will help a ton. Check out the guide, I cover some info about both pwc's while cycling...as well as adding seeded media.

 

[KOOGS]

I got a quick question. I have a 55gallon tank. How long should I wait after I dose ammonia, to do an ammonia test?

 

[librarygirl]

I got a quick question. I have a 55gallon tank. How long should I wait after I dose ammonia, to do an ammonia test?

Do you mean to see how much ammonia you've put in or to check how fast it's being converted?

Once you add ammonia (so many drops, etc) you can wait about a half hour to let it circulate and then test it just to make sure you don't have too much ammonia, if it reads 8 on the API chart that's too high and you'd want to do a water change to get it down to 4-5.

After the level of ammonia is set, you should test every 24 hours. That will give you an idea of how fast the ammonia is being processed. Once it gets below 0.5 you can dose it back up, but only dose once in 24 hours. I hope that helps.