Started my fishless cycle!

[jlk]

Yes, its fine! Just watch for drops in your ph- drops indicate a time for a water change to re-establish buffers that are being used up by your nitrifying bacteria.

 

[Justme68]

OK, got it! Thanks for your help

 

[Justme68]

Just thinking about it and wondering, what will the crushed fish food do?

 

[jlk]

Adding a bit crushed food adds some minerals & things that your water may not have. Not necessary but it doesnt hurt add a little bit.

 

[librarygirl]

You're doing very well for two weeks in! You're actually ahead of schedule.

 

[Justme68]

I have some so i may do that! @ librarygirl, thank you! Lets hope I stay ahead of schedule

 

[Justme68]

Not sure what to think today.... here it is: ammo closer to 0 than. 25ppm
Nitrites went from hot pink to gray blue not matching chart at all
Nitrates 10ppm but tap has 5ppm
What's going on? Am I still on track or going backwards with the nitrites? Any input is appreciated....

 

[jlk]

Thats great!!! The gray-blue color indicates just a trace level of nitrites (below .25). I would test your tap for amm as well & compare it to your readings from your tank- if its the same color, you are most likely reading zero. Dose your amm & lets see how things look tommorrow!

 

[Justme68]

Hi jlk! When I set up my tank I tested a glass of water that sat for 24 hrs (didn't stir it) I had: ammo. 50ppm, nitrite 0 and nitrates 5.0, Ph 7.6

 

[jlk]

Ah-ha! That is good to know! Your bacteria will eat through the amm from your tap once your fully cycled but its a good idea to use a water conditioner that detoxes the amm (until it can be converted) when you do water changes in the future. Keep us posted on how things look tommorrow!

 

[Justme68]

I used Prime when I filled up and when i top my tank off. I'll update tomorrow thank you!

 

[jlk]

Good job!!

 

[Justme68]

Everything is about the same as yesterday. Dosed ammo back up and thinking of testing nitrites every other day so i don't get impatient, lol.

 

[librarygirl]

Not sure what to think today.... here it is: ammo closer to 0 than. 25ppm
Nitrites went from hot pink to gray blue not matching chart at all
Nitrates 10ppm but tap has 5ppm
What's going on? Am I still on track or going backwards with the nitrites? Any input is appreciated....

]
Hm, have you done any water changes since the cycle started?

I'm wondering if nitrites are way off-chart to measure; if they turned pink and then blue-grey that could be an indication that they are too high for the chart to read. Did the drops turn pink as soon as you put them in the tube?

 

[Justme68]

Hi library girl! When tries were hot pink im pretty sure it turned instantly but not today and no, I haven't done any water changes yet

 

[jlk]

How do your numbers look today (incl ph)?

 

[Justme68]

The ammo was .25ppm, trites were blue gray again, trates are either 10 or 20 (hard to tell differance) and Ph is slightly darker than 7.6 but not by much

 

[jlk]

Ok! Can you try a little experiment with the nitrite test? Fill 1/2 tube with tap water (1/2 way to white line) & the other half with tank water & test & let us know what your nitrites read (particularly, if test turns pink or purple at any point in time). Librarygirl made a excellent point with the possibility of your nitrites being so high that the test is not reading them correctly. We need to figure out if this is the case or if you just have a low amount of nitrites (less .25) to give tube a blue-gray color.

 

[Justme68]

I sure can.....I'll post results in a few

 

[Justme68]

OK here's what happened....filled tube half and half, put drops in and when they settled in the bottom it was purple, shook tube and waited the 5 minutes and now the reading is a LT purple color about .50ppm but not quite that dark