Booyah - Nitrates Baby

[chrisinmontreal]

OK another fishless cycle log for this forum but being my first (and first aquarium) thought I would post my experience so far and open up to some advice as it seems things can get a little trickier from this point.

I should say this is for a 30G freshwater tank with Eheim classic 2213 filter. Substrate is about 2 inches of Fluorite topped with about an inch of very fine gravel. I have a few rocks, a large piece of driftwood and an airstone running 24/7. I have my heater set to about 82 but no thermometer in the tank to verify.

Readings below are before any actions mentioned in the notes for each day

So here's the action so far:

Day 0
Ammonia: 4
Nitrites: No Test
Nitrates: No Test
PH: 8.1
GH: 7
KH: 4

Day 1
Ammonia: 2
Nitrites: 0
Nitrates: No Test
PH: No Test
GH: No Test
KH: No Test
Notes: Dosed ammonia back to 4ppm

Day 2
Ammonia: 2
Nitrites: 0
Nitrates: No Test
PH: 7.9
GH: No Test
KH: No Test
Notes: No action

Day 3
Ammonia: 1.5
Nitrites: 0
Nitrates: No Test
PH: 7.9
GH: 6
KH: 3
Notes: Dosed ammonia back to 4ppm

Day 4
Ammonia: 2
Nitrites: 0
Nitrates: No Test
PH: No Test
GH: No Test
KH: No Test
Notes: No action

Day 5
Ammonia: 2
Nitrites: 0
Nitrates: No Test
PH: 7.9
GH: No Test
KH: No Test
Notes: No action - signs of bacterial bloom

Day 6
Ammonia: 1
Nitrites: 0
Nitrates: No Test
PH: No Test
GH: No Test
KH: No Test
Notes: Dosed ammonia back to 4ppm - water cloudy - added live plants

Day 7
Ammonia: 3
Nitrites: 0.25
Nitrates: >0
PH: No Test
GH: No Test
KH: No Test
Notes: No action - water slightly less cloudy

Day 8
Ammonia: 2
Nitrites: 3
Nitrates: >0
PH: 7.9
GH: 6
KH: 2
Notes: Dosed ammonia back to 4ppm

Day 9
Ammonia: 1
Nitrites: > 5
Nitrates: ~10 (hard to say between 10 and 20)
PH: No Test
GH: No Test
KH: No Test
Notes: Dosed ammonia back to 4ppm - cloudiness clearing


Before adding live plants on day 6 I had no lighting. Since adding plants I have two T5HO bulbs running at 4 on / 4 off / 4 on each day.

I suspect but not sure that adding the plants could have transferred some into the tank to kick start the process??

So at the moment it looks like I am well on the way to having a nice and healthy environment for my first fish. At the moment I am hoping to stock with a couple of bolivian rams, a clown pleco and 8-10 congo tetra.

[chrisinmontreal]

Oh yes... thanks to Eco for a great guide for people completely new at this like me.

I am also using the API FW MTK

[librarygirl]

Nice looking tank! Yes, the live plants certainly could have transferred some bacteria over especially if they were in a tank with fish. Everything looks good for 9 days!

[eco23]

Tank looks great . Seems like you've got a textbook, perfect fishless cycle going on so far. Keep us posted.

[jetajockey]

I'd be more inclined to say that the plants themselves are utilizing the ammonia.

Just wanted to add that Congo tetras get pretty big, don't know how they'd work out in a tank that size, I'd definitely consider a smaller schooler.

[chrisinmontreal]

Thanks for the compliments on the tank, i have considered starting an aquarium for a long time and am really pleased with how it has turned out so far.

Will take a look at the Congo Tetra again. I believe males can grow up to 3 inches, females slightly smaller. General advice I found so far suggests definitely no smaller than 20 gallons and keep at least in groups of six preferably more.

[jetajockey]

Yeah the adults I've seen are only about 3" but they are fairly large bodied fish, if you do go with them you might want to consider a smaller school. They are one of my favorite tetras btw, good choice.

One other thing to consider doing is more plants. More plants the better, it'll speed the cycling process along and looks great. Are you dosing ferts?

[chrisinmontreal]

I had wanted to add some more plants to the foreground but was struggling to find a good source locally. Was looking at some dwarf crypts maybe but would like something more grass-like. I'm not dosing any ferts right now. I purposely chose what are regarded as "easy" plants like amazon sword, java fern and spiral vals which seem to do well without much specific maintenance or high watts/gallon lighting just a good substrate to maintain them. Sure as I get more comfortable with things I will start to fill in a bit more.

[chrisinmontreal]

Day 10

Ammonia: 0
Nitrites: > 5
Nitrates: ~10 (hard to say between 10 and 20)
PH: 7.6
GH: 6
KH: 2
Notes: Dosed ammonia back to 4ppm - water clear

Great! so I had ammonia conversion from ~4ppm to 0 in 24 hours. Nitrates don't look to have changed (if anything it looks slightly less orange than yesterday!)

The cloudy water which looked like a bacterial bloom has also cleared now.

[chrisinmontreal]

Day 11

Ammonia: 0
Nitrites: > 5
Nitrates: ~10
PH: 7.2

Seems like my PH was starting to drop consistently so I did about a 60% PWC.
Tested after about 20 minutes following and got the following results

Ammonia: 0
Nitrites: > 5
Nitrates: 5
PH: 7.9

Added a couple of ground up fish flakes too.


I found a strange looking grub in the tank today, best way to describe it is like a hairy white maggot about 1cm long. Really strange. It looked like it must have been introduced with the plants I put in a few days back. I removed it and had a close look around all the plants and don't see any signs of anything else. Half its body was actually sandwiched inside part of one of the vallisineria leaves which it was trying to work its way out of.

[chrisinmontreal]

Alright! Day 12

Ammonia: 0
Nitrites: >5
Nitrates: 5

Ammonia is being converted consistently from 3 or 4ppm to zero every day but Nitrate readings haven't really changed since they first showed up on day 9.

Installed a thermometer in the tank today and saw my temp was actually a bit low at around 78F although heater was set ~82F. Adjusted now and the thermometer is reading just slightly under 82F.

Are the Nitrate levels I have recorded normal or would you have expected to see a steady increase over the past 4 days?

Testing tap water shows 0 Nitrate

[eco23]

Seems normal. The no2 to no3 bacteria takes some time to start converting and building up the nitrAtes because it's basically sitting there waiting for food while the ammo to no2 bacteria is getting established. I'd expect to see the no3 start climbing soon

[chrisinmontreal]

Thanks for the reply. I do have live plants in the tank and i read that these consume nitrate? Could it be that i actually do have nitrite to nitrate conversion but it is just being offset by the plants consumption at this time?

[chrisinmontreal]

Day 13:

Ammonia: 0
Nitrites: > 5
Nitrates: I dunno, its orange

Passed by my two LFS today and took a shortlist of fish to research. Saw some great looking different types of tetra and rasbora. I also saw some fully mature congo tetra and they were BIG. They were my original choice but i think i'll reconsider, these were maybe 4 inches and i'd rather a bigger shoal of smaller fish than a small number of bigger. I'll post a shortlist of what I saw today to get opinions later....

[chrisinmontreal]

I GOT RED!! I GOT RED!!

Day 14:

Ammonia: 0
Nitrites: > 5
Nitrates: 80

I'm thinking I could have fish this weekend YAY

[chrisinmontreal]

Out of curiosity I just check my PH and found it has RISEN to about 8.2 / 8.3 from about a 7.8 / 7.9 measured 3 days ago! just repeated the test to double-check and same result (using the API MTK)

After seeing this I checked my GH and KH levels and they are unchanged at a 7 dGH and 2 dKH.

The only recent changes have been that i added a small internal filter to the tank yesterday to have ready to go on a quarantine tank when needed. This was a second hand filter I had received when i bought the tank and had cleaned it up with tap water mixed with a bit of vinegar before rinsing thoroughly with tap water and drying off.

Today I bought a small pad of Lileopsis (Brazilian micro sword) from a LFS which has been just sitting in the tank a couple of hours until i plant it. While it was damp with water from the tank the LFS had it in no other water was added to my tank with it.

I can't believe that either could have created the swing???

I do have a few rocks in the tank and a large piece of driftwood but these were there since the beginning of my cycle two weeks ago and I haven't seen a rise in hardness levels at all in that time....

Any ideas?

[eco23]

Try leaving a glass of tap water sitting out overnight and see how much it changes. I don't think it's anything to worry about.

[chrisinmontreal]

So onto day 15:

Re-checked the PH before anything else and it had dropped to about 7.2. Something odd was going on yesterday, my Nitrate reading yesterday also was around an 80 but re-testing today was down to about a 5.

Anyway stats:

Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: >5
Nitrate: ~5
PH: 7.2

I decided to do a massive PWC almost to the gravel to bring the Nitrites down into something readable and as a precaution following the PH swings I saw in the last 24 hours. I let things circulate for a couple of hours and then re-checked:

Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 20
PH: 7.6

The Nitrate reading was surprising given it was only a pale orange prior to the PWC. Tap water shows zero Nitrates.

Anyway re-dosed ammonia to 3 or 4ppm and will see what tomorrow brings....

On the fish front I think i will go with a large group of x-ray tetra (10 or 12) which seem well suited for my water parameters and seem hardy for a beginner. Along with these may add a few shrimp and maybe some nerite snails to help keep things clean.


Oh and the live plants seem to be doing great, most show new signs of growth and a few have runners popping up nearby already.

Have signs of diatoms at the moment too so upped the light to 9 hours straight rather than the 4 on - 4 off - 4 on i was running after reading low light can make these worse.

[chrisinmontreal]

Well seems like a have a little further to go.....

Day 16:

Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: > 5
Nitrate: 80

Will just dose ammonia to 1 ppm

[chrisinmontreal]

Awesome, getting antsy now and wanting some fish I tested my water first thing this morning.

Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 40

So I had full conversion of the 2ppm ammonia I added last night plus the residual Nitrite (>5) i had before dosing yesterday in about 12 hours

Dosed ammonia to 4ppm and will test again tomorrow morning.

My mind has been flip-flopping on what to stock, trying to balance fish suited to my aquarium size, water conditions and what I like the look of. Think I am finally decided now on 10 bloodfin tetra and a pair of bolivian rams along with maybe a few shrimp and nerite snails. Can anyone suggest how i should go about introducing them, like do i put in all the tetra then wait a week or two and then the rams??

Also I would have gone with rummy nose tetra but read in a few places that they are sensitive and hard to acclimatize? would people agree to steer clear of these as a first aquarium fish? I think my tank setup will suit them but I don't want to lose half of them either....