Cycling

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rbk001

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Aug 14, 2010
Messages
5
Location
Chapel Hill, NC
So im a week into the fishless cycle and ammonia was at 4ppm as I've read it should be. Yesterday I ended up getting some used filter media and placed it in the tank. Woke up this morning and tested the parameters and not exactly sure where in the process I am and what I need to do.

Here are the results:

Ammonia is still 4.0 ppm
Nitrites: 5.0 ppm
Nitrates: 10.0 ppm

Should I just let it keep cycling? Or should I do a 50% water change?
 
well...I am not an expert, but what I learned here, has just brought me through a fishless cycle !

Others can correct me if I send you on the wrong track ;)



I reckon you are probably better not doing a water change, just keep waiting.

If you see the ammonia level dropping, add some more to keep it around 4ppm, and keep waiting.

2 or 3 (or 4) weeks in you will see the nitrIte rise a bit, and over the next few days, it should drop to 0ppm.

AFAIK you should keep adding ammonia every time you see the level drop, until you come to a point where...24 hours after adding ammonia you see ammonia back to zero, and nitrIte back to zero. NitrAtes will have risen by this stage to approx 40-80ppm, so you need to do a 50% water change to bring it to 20ppm or less....and then you can add fish !

If you see Amm, and Nitrites at zero on say Monday, and you aren't able to get to the fish shop until for example Saturday, then you need to keep adding the ammonia, to feed the bacteria that has built up...until you add the fish, and then they will supply the ammonia for the filter bacteria.

I just came through my first fishless cycle, and it took mine three and a half weeks, but apparently every tank/filter combo is different, and it might take less, or it might take more time.

Well worth it though :)
 
It depends on what you are using for your fishless cycle. If you are adding ammonia then yes you need to keep adding it to keep your cycle going.
If you are using the shrimp/food method then you only need to add more as the old stuff decomposes. Generally if you are using shrimp they take about 2-6 weeks to decompose. When I did my first cycle on my tank I put 3 shrimp in and my tank had no problems dealing with it... once I added another 7 shrimp the ammonia spiked and the nitrites went off the scale... when your nitrites are above 1.0 most kits can't do an accurate nitrate test. I know when my nitrites went off the scale I couldn't measure the nitrates.
I recommend waiting on any water change until there is no ammonia and the tank has had a week at 0 ammonia to give the tank a chance to do the nitrite conversion, after a week if you are still off the scale then I would do a 50% water change and wait a week (you can test immediately to see what your nitrites were at). After the week if you are still off the scale I would do it again. My tank is a 320g, I would use only 1 shrimp in most tanks.
 
I've been dosing pure ammonia at 4ppm, im about a week in for the fishless cycle. I was presented the opportunity to receive used filter media and I took it. So I went from one day of having readings of 4ppm of Ammonia, 0ppm Nitrites, 0ppm Nitrates, then the next to 4pppm of ammonia, Nitrites 5.0 ppm, Nitrate 10.0 ppm. I was just confused because I had readings for all three and all three are relatively all high. Wasn't sure if the readings could be too high and stall out the cycle. I will just sit and let it continue the cycle then.
 
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