Fishless Cycle Complete!

[AlanofSmith]

A 29 gallon aquarium was donated to my classroom. I have experience with a fish-in cycle at home. I followed the steps listed in 'The (almost) Complete Guide To Fishless Cycling' by Eric Ogilvie. I was able to fishless cycle my tank in less than four weeks! It is amazing how high the nitrates and nitrites get when you spike the tank full of ammonia and use a little seeder material.

I just added 10 fancy guppies in the past two days. When I tested my tank this morning, I was surprised to see my ammonia was at 1 ppm. The nitrites were also (very slightly) elevated. I will do a water change to bring those levels down. I thought that with the mega bacteria I grew with the fishless cycle, there would be no change in the levels. Is it normal to have variations in the ammonia, nitrites and nitrates when introducing fish after a fishless cycle?

I couldn't have done it without this wonderful guide. Thank you Eric for your time and effort!

Alan Smith
Wallingford, Connecticut

[AlanofSmith]

My tank is in my classroom. What do I do about feeding guppies over the weekend? I just read on one site to float an algae wafer. Any thoughts?

[Reygan2]

I have a tank in my classroom as does the teacher in the room next to mine. She has guppies in her tank and they do fine without food during the weekends. She even has guppy fry that are growing and doing fine. They clean up some of the algae from what I understand.
Most fish can go a couple of days or a little longer without being fed IME. I usually have our principal feed them on 3 day weekends or longer holidays.

[Hholly]

Originally Posted by AlanofSmith

A 29 gallon aquarium was donated to my classroom. I have experience with a fish-in cycle at home. I followed the steps listed in 'The (almost) Complete Guide To Fishless Cycling' by Eric Ogilvie. I was able to fishless cycle my tank in less than four weeks! It is amazing how high the nitrates and nitrites get when you spike the tank full of ammonia and use a little seeder material.

I just added 10 fancy guppies in the past two days. When I tested my tank this morning, I was surprised to see my ammonia was at 1 ppm. The nitrites were also (very slightly) elevated. I will do a water change to bring those levels down. I thought that with the mega bacteria I grew with the fishless cycle, there would be no change in the levels. Is it normal to have variations in the ammonia, nitrites and nitrates when introducing fish after a fishless cycle?

I couldn't have done it without this wonderful guide. Thank you Eric for your time and effort!

Alan Smith
Wallingford, Connecticut

So when the cycle was finished, you continued to dose ammonia until the day before you got fish right? Then did a big water change right before getting the fish? There shouldn't be that big of a spike unless the BB died off a bit. You didn't clean your filter did you?

[AlanofSmith]

Thanks for the feeding advise Reygan2.

When the cycle was finished on Monday morning, I did the 24 hour trial to see if it can go from 4 ppm ammonia to zero ammonia or nitrites. That was completely successful! On Tuesday morning I did a 90% water change and added fish late that afternoon. Wednesday was a little hectic and I did not test the water. On Thursday morning the ammonia was at 1 PPM and the nitrites were slightly discolored but not enough to record an amount. I did not do a water change yesterday because I wanted to see what would happen over night. I came in this morning to one dead Chilean male guppy. However, the nitrites are completely gone and the ammonia is .25 PPM. I will do a 25% water change before leaving school today to help my friends through their first weekend in their new home.

I did not clean the filter.

[Hholly]

I think you may have tested before things got moving. Sounds like its all catching up now though. You're on the right track.