1st fishless cycling-think I'm on the right track, maybe

[CatJones66]

Hi there! I guess I'm looking for some feedback to let me know if I'm proceeding correctly. I have a 25g I'm setting up as a planted Angel tank. Right now I'm fishless cycling. I've followed all the steps in the guide to a "t". Everything's gone really great so far. Here's my setup:

25g - seeded with items from my 20g hex stable mated gourami tank: foam filter material, a nice large stone & about 5g of tank water
Marineland Emperor 400
bubble stone
heater at 82
medium rock w/ marine sand cover substrate at 2-2.5in
1 medium anubias
tank filled using Prime

11/20:I dosed 10ml ammonia to bring tank to 4.0ppm initially & just out of curiosity took the nitrite & nitrate readings too (thinking they'd be zero). The nitrites read 2.0 / nitrates 2.0

11/21: (1pm) Ammonia 2.0 / Nitrite 5.0+ / Nitrate 20
(8pm) Ammonia 1.0 / Nitrite 5.0+ / Nitrate 10-20

Did a pwc, waited 20mins, now readings are:

Ammon .50 / Nitrite 5.0+ / Nitrate 10-20

So, my question is ... should I continue to do pwc until the nitrite readings get down enough to read? Do I need to bring the ammonia back up to feed the bb growing while the nitrite -->nitrate bb's catch up? Or, do I just say "step away from the tank woman!"??

Any advice would be wonderful & thank you in advance!

 

[Masha]

Yes, do some water changes to get the Nitrite to a readable level. Be prepared, it can easily take several huge water changes to achieve that.

Consider lowering the ammonia dose to 2ppm. I know the guide specifies 4,but that is really much more than you need and can cause problems, for example the high nitrite spikes needing huge water changes to prevent the cycle from stalling.

Otherwise you seem to be doing well!

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[CatJones66]

Thanks Marsha! I'll do a 50% pwc today then. Should I add at least 1ml ammonia also at that time?

 

[Masha]

You may need to do more than 50%

But then, dose whatever amount of ammonia it takes to put the ammonia level at 2ppm (or 4ppm if you want to stick to that)

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[CatJones66]

Got it, thanks again! Think I'll stick to the 2ppm as you suggested this time around! lol

 

[ppo8820]

Ugh I find this cycling to be so frustrating! I got a tank about 2 weeks ago. 15 gallon column that is going to be a species tank. I added ammonia up to 4ppm. Waited............waited, and nothing. Then randomly it dropped to 1ppm. I redosed it to 4ppm after 24 hours and that is pretty much where its sat for 10 days.

I have an aqua clear 30 on it, heater on 78, and I use prime when I first added water. There is some water lettuce I got for free. I hate this waiting, but I know its going to be a much better transfer for my fish when I get them. I just wish I knew if I was doing it right or wasting my time.

You seem to be on the right track since your ammonia dropped so much and you have seeded material.

 

[ppo8820]

Also, with no fish being in there, you dont really need to do water changes and the nitrite cant hurt anything. I am not sure why you would change any water when growing bacteria, since ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate are all to be expected. You want to wait until there is enough bacteria to drop the ammonia and nitrite to 0 on its own, without a water change.

 

[CatJones66]

lol...thanks ppo8820 & boy, do I know what you mean about the waiting game! Grrrrrr...patience is low on my list of virtues it appears. So I'll just use this as a time to raise it while my numbers lower, huh? lol

 

[ppo8820]

I hate waiting too. I'm getting restless.


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