Fishless cycle...does this sound right?

[shawmutt]

When I rebuilt my tank, I emptied all the water and scrubbed everything. I wanted to try a fishless cycle, because I never officially cycled a tank before. I am on day four. Does this sound right so far? All measurements are ppm

Day.....Amm.......Ites.........Ates
1............5............0............0
2............5............0............0
3............5............0............0
4............4............0*..........5?

*Today the color was almost at the next level but not enough to call .25

 

[Allivymar]

How are you cycling the tank? Just ammonia? Did you use any starter (mature filter, gravel, Bio-Spira, Cycle)?

I ask because when I first did a fishless cycle I tried Cycle. Also had nitrates show up before nitrites. Turned out Cycle measured about 100 ppm nitrate straight from the bottle. I threw it out LOL

 

[afFISHionado]

Sounds like my 1st week of cycling with clear household ammonia to the T! Then I went and got BioSpira and continued my daily ammonia & nitrite titrations. In 2 days I had a nitrite spike of 15ppm's. In 4 days both ammonia and nitrite levels went to zero. A genuine product indeed! If you're like me (minimal patience) then I'd highly recommend its usage. I will say that I performed a double dose of the BioSpira. Nonetheless, within 4 days of adding it I had enough Nirosomonas to consume 5ppm's of ammonia in a 29 gallon overnight!

 

[TankGirl]

Sounds good to me. Keep your ammonia at about 5ppm and you should start to see things happening. Don't be discouraged if it takes as long as six weeks.

 

[talenzmeier]

Bio Spira

According to the data, Bio Spira required fish in order to work properly. If you're cycling without fish, the live bacteria will die off. Of course, if you had an alternate supply of nutrients for the bacteria, I would imagine that would be satisfactory too.

 

[shawmutt]

Don't be discouraged if it takes as long as six weeks.

6 weeks!!! 8O I think it's time to look for some bio spira! I had no idea it would take that long.

How are you cycling the tank? Just ammonia? Did you use any starter (mature filter, gravel, Bio-Spira, Cycle)?

I'm using straight ammonia. The only ingredients listed are purified water, ammonia, and cheleting agent (I researched this...apparently it's in there to keep the water and ammonia together), in that order.

 

[talenzmeier]

Not Necessarily

Bio Spira AND fish can be added to the tank together. BioSpira is nitrifying bacteria so fish can be added straight away.

 

[TankGirl]

Many people cycle faster than 6 weeks (3-4 weeks), but 6 is about my average. I would see the nitrites and then hang there for weeks before I would get the second type of baceria to grow and get my nitrates. The Bio-Spira can be kept alive with ammonia, but there is not much point to that! IMO you should either do the fishless cycle, fishy cycle or do Bio-Spira with a completely clean, new tank setup and fish. That is the way the product was developed to work the best. It can take a little longer to work if you already have ammonia or nitrites present.

 

[mound]

My 125g cycled fishlessly completely in 14 days.. I started with about 1 gallon of "filter mud" from an established tank, and overdosed with much more than 5ppm of NH3 on day one.. the tank fully supported the addition of 30 medium sized cichlids after that.. I think the amount of established material you add upfront plays a big role in the speed of the cycle.

I also agree that if you have BioSpira, don't worry about any cycle, fishless or not, the BioSpira takes care of it.

 

[talenzmeier]

Post Script

I'd like to add that BioSpira is useful even with an established tank. I add some whenever I add fish and I'm anal retentive about water quality so I measure two or three times per week and I can see that it helps.

 

[Allivymar]

When I did the fishless cycle, I started with Cycle (which was canned on the 2nd day), a hefty squeeze from a mature filter and a few drops of ammonia. Because of the filter squeezings, I was getting nitrite readings in a week, and 3 drops of ammonia were converted overnite. After 4 days of high nitrites I got impatient (stop laughing!) and got some bio-spira. Added it to the tank, left it overnite to start working, did a BIG water change the next day to reduce nitrites and added my fish. Haven't seen ammonia or nitrites since. Mind you, this it NOT the recommended route for using Bio-Spira, but it did work for me.

 

[shawmutt]

sooooo...now that I have 4-5 pmm ammonia in my tank, trace nitrites, and 5 ppm nitrates, should I wait it out with the plain ammonia cycling, or should I find some bio spira?

thanks everyone for the help, btw

 

[silvi-p]

I'd like to say that... instead of risking fish in a "fishy cycle" , you could also add some flakes to make bacteria population grow. naturally not 1 cup, but sort of... 1/4 of a teaspoon, maybe once a week.
the best though is to use filter material or mud or gravel/sand from a cycled tank. mud and filter materials will do better than gravel/sand though.

I have always made sure that nitrate levels are 0.0000000 when adding fish. it's also important not to add too many fish at once, bacteria might not be able to keep up with "waste treatment" right away so that no2 levels might rise.

-s.

 

[Allivymar]

Depends shaw. Bio-Spira isn't made to play catch up. Its more to handle slowly rising levels of ammonia and nitrites, as opposed to dealing with established levels. That being said, it worked well for me. Keep in mind, I'm the queen of impatience LOL Theres no guarantees it will do that for you, or even me again. If you have a few bucks to blow, I'd try it. It might save you some time. My guys went in a week and a half after I started the fishless cycle.