I think I'm on right on track!

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
I think being able to "report" on what's going on with the numbers is the only thing that makes fishless cycling bearable. It's too tedious for my taste but beats the alternative.

It is defiantly tedious, but it really boosts your pride when see, and know things are going well.
 
the reason your trates dissappeared is cause of the water change you performed to raise the ph back up is what its sounding like to me right about now you should be checking ph atleast every 12 hours IMO cause this is the point in my cycling where i saw a major ph crash that stalled my cycle (only for like a day or to but that was still longer to wait for fish) and i think it was cause my trites was thro the charts im not quiet sure but i think your not supposed to let your trites stay sky rocketed as someone told me this what caused my ph drop let jlk or library girl give a little more info on that just thought i should let you know of some could happens that happened actually 2 weeks ago right before my cycle finished up
 
Soooooo, I went on vacation...leaving my cycling tank in the hands of my father-in-law. Hahahahaaaa....

I instructed him how to perform the water tests, and how many drops to add when the ammonia went down too low. The instruction book was with everything, so I thought he'd be ok.

He called me near the end of the trip, and said my ammonia had dropped to zero, and it wouldn't go back up. I was puzzled, but didn't think to ask him if he was doing the test right. He said he had the pet store test it, but he failed to tell me they didn't test the ammonia as well.

What happened was he was only testing with bottle 1, and thought bottle 2 was just an extra.

I got home this afternoon, tested, and almost collapsed. The water turned so dark, it turned blue....I freaked out. My Ph is amazing. So I've done 3 60% water changes, and hoping the 3rd was the last. So, I'm pretty sure he stalled everything, but hopefully it will be fine after the water changes. Since the ph has been stable, I'm things will go right back to work when I get the ammonia down.
 
Ok! Dont panic- once your ammonia is under control, things should stablize but it may take a few days for your bb to recover from the ammonia soaking. Dont worry! :)
 
Ok! Dont panic- once your ammonia is under control, things should stablize but it may take a few days for your bb to recover from the ammonia soaking. Dont worry! :)

Thanks! I wasn't too worried. The ammonia is at 2.0 right now. I'm not adding any, and going to check it in the morning. I sure hope it's ready by the 25th! The cory cats are $1 each right now at petsmart. Keeping my fingers crossed!
 
Got up this morning, and the Ph had crashed badly. I'm guessing because of the drastic change from the ammonia(Which was just about 0 this morning). Did small water change, dosed the ammonia up to 4ppm. The nitrites have been staying high, I'm talking over 5ppm, for 2 weeks now.

Is it normal for the nitrites to be so high? The ammonia goes down every time I test. So that's good, but do the nitrites usually stay high for a while? I'm just wondering if it's a normal part of the process, or if something is wrong.
 
You just did a big water change to lower your ammonia levels, correct? Lets wait a few more days (assuming there are no ph crashes) for your bb to be back in swing from the amm overdose. If we dont see any detectable drop in the nitrites, then its time for a big wc to drop them down to a readable level (2ppm or less) & lower the amm dose down to 2ppm for a couple of days. Lets see how things go over the next few days.

In the meantime, do you have access to any cycled media (friend, lfs, etc)? This will speed things up! You also can consider purchasing an 'active' filter from Angelsplus. Many members have had success cycling their tanks with these filters.

Sponge Filters for aquariums
 
You just did a big water change to lower your ammonia levels, correct? Lets wait a few more days (assuming there are no ph crashes) for your bb to be back in swing from the amm overdose. If we dont see any detectable drop in the nitrites, then its time for a big wc to drop them down to a readable level (2ppm or less) & lower the amm dose down to 2ppm for a couple of days. Lets see how things go over the next few days.

In the meantime, do you have access to any cycled media (friend, lfs, etc)? This will speed things up! You also can consider purchasing an 'active' filter from Angelsplus. Many members have had success cycling their tanks with these filters.

Sponge Filters for aquariums

Well, I did a huge water change today. My pH is staying perfect! My nitrates are rising higher, but the nitrites are crazy. As soon as the test drops hit the bottom of the tube, turns a dark fuschia. Like THIS. I have a Betta that I'm keeping in a bowl until the tank is ready. I was cleaning her bowl out today, and managed to collect some of her excrements, and put them in the tank, hoping it will help.

I haven't had a chance to go by any LFS yet. I'm trying to be patient, but I don't think I ever want to do this again. At least after this is done, I'll have an established tank to help with the next one.
 
Hang in there!!! Future set-ups will be much easier once you have an established tank to use media from to help setup new tanks! How long have your nitrites been sky-high now?
 
Hang in there!!! Future set-ups will be much easier once you have an established tank to use media from to help setup new tanks! How long have your nitrites been sky-high now?

About 3-4 weeks now. Looks like the water change helped. I actually didn't a couple last week.

Today's readings.

pH: 7.6
Ammo: .25
Nitrites: 5+ (The bottom of the tube didn't immediately turn purple. It rose high, gradually.)
Nitrates: 30.5? They're almost 40. It might look darker later. That test confuses me the most.

I added just a bit of ammonia to get it up to 2ppm.

DSC_0262.jpgDSC_0265.jpg
 
Last edited:
Ok! Lets see how things look tommorrow with the lower dose of amm & we will go from there. The nitrates increasing are good thing but your nitrite>nitrate bacteria are not quite up to speed yet. :)
 
I've heard it's a the longest process. Things are normal then? If anything got screwed up, I'm sure it was the HUGE ammonia dose from the weekend before last.
 
The nitrite>nitrate phase typically takes twice as long as the amm>nitrite phase. And, yes, its very likely the OD on ammonia slowed things down. Hang in there & let us know how things look tommorrow before considering redosing! :)
 
3-21 Results

Today doesn't look much different than yesterday.
DSC_0280.jpgDSC_0275.jpg

pH:7.6
Ammo: .50
Nitrites: 5+
Nitrates: 38? It's hard to get a good photo of it.

I did add a pinch of fish food last week, and along with the betta feces the day before. I think that's why the ammo hasn't gone down to zero lately. I won't add anymore of that.
 
Skip the dose of ammonia for today. If you already dosed, no big deal- then just skip it tommorrow. Your bb wont starve so dont worry! Also, have you checked your ph with the high range test as well? A blue reading of 7.6 can be 7.6 or 8 or or 8.8. 7.6 is only as high as the regular ph test will read. :)
 
WHAT?!

Ok, everything was about the same yesterday. The ammonia was around 1, so I didn't add any ammonia.

Well, today I got a little freaked out by the results.

pH: 7.8
Ammo: .50
Nitrites: 5+
Nitrates: 10

My Nitrates went down?? I tested twice, shaking both bottles, and tube vigorously. This seems bad. :/ I've decided to go to the LFS today, to get some filter media to help me out. I don't know what's going on. Haven't added ammonia yet.
 
That is unusual but I have seen it happen before (nitrates disappearing). I dont have a scientific explanation for it. Adding some cycled filter media should help alot but I would do a big water change before adding it so the bb are not overwhelmed by the high nitrite level. Keep us posted!
 
Can you take a pic of the tank??
What kind of plants do you have ?

Remember live plants will help it cycle faster. Some plants are known for sucking up Nitrates.

Heavily planted tanks can cycle much faster. And stay stable easier, esp small tanks.
 
Back
Top Bottom