Am I still cycling?

[KymH]

Hi! I'm doing a fishless cycling on a new tank. I set up my tank and added Ammonia on 12/7/21. I got my Ammonia level to 3ppm (measured using strips where the next readable level was 6ppm)...
As of today, the Ammonia is down to zero, Nitrite is 5ppm & Nitrate is 40ppm. At one point I thought the Nitrite was closer to 10ppm -- but again, I'm using strips so measuring between 5 & 10 is kind of iffy. (I know I need to get a better testing kit, but just haven't gotten to it yet.)

My quesiton is... does this sound like I'm cycling correctly? The Ammonia dropped to zero and the Nitrites went up... Do I just leave it like this and wait for the Nitrites to drop? And if I'm understanding correctly, the Nitrites will drop and the Nitrates will go up, right?

Do I need to add more Ammonia to keep the cycle going or just wait for the Nitrites to drop? Or am I completely off base in my thinking?

Any thoughts will be greatly appreciated!

 

[Aiken Drum]

It kind of depends on what your plans are.

Adding ammonia once and waiting for it to drop wont fully cycle a tank. To be fully cycled you need to be able to add 2ppm and 24 hours later see 0ppm ammonia and nitrite. From what you are saying is it took 5 months for 3ppm ammonia to drop to 0ppm ammonia and you still have a lot of nitrite.

You likely have some cycle going, but not enough to safely fully stock your tank. If you plan on continuing the fishless cycle until its complete i can post a procedure on how to properly do a fishless cycle. If you want to get some fish and finish the cycle as a fish in cycle i can post something to help you safely do that too.

If it where, after 5 months of empty tank i would want to see something swimming around.

What are your ultimate plans for this tank?

 

[Aiken Drum]

Sorry. Just realised you might be doing your date american style. So just a month not 5 months. Above post still stands though. You might need another month to complete a fishless cycle.

 

[ColdKoi]

I’d agree. You’re starting to establish some beneficial bacteria, but until you can dose a couple ppm of ammonia and next day show nothing but nitrate on the test you don’t have enough BB to immediately sustain a fish bioload.

If it took 3 weeks to process that 3ppm, if you were to add fish right now you’d likely see the ammonia level continue to rise much like just starting with a fish-in cycle. Good thing though, is the bacteria is starting to form, it shouldn’t take too much longer before you can add fish. Just keep dosing the ammonia and try not to let it drop to 0 or all you are doing is slowing down the bacterias growth by limiting their food source

 

[KymH]

Thank you! Yes, December was my start date -- so one month of cycling. Thanks for your responses!

This tells me what I need to know -- which if I'm understanding correctly, is that I need to continue to add Ammonia to feed the cycle. I was thinking I needed to let the Nitrite get to zero first -- and then add Ammonia to see if it would process within 24 hours.

If you wouldn't mind, please confirm that I'm understanding correctly.

 

[Aiken Drum]

What are your plans? Continue with fishless cycle or get fish and finish the cycle fish in? Do you need any advice on how to do either of these properly?

 

[KymH]

I'm planning to continue the fishless cycle. Honestly, it seems easier b/c I really don't want to get into the possibility of daily water changes.

I think I was most confused about whether I need to continue to feed Ammonia. I thought the goal was for it to get to zero -- so once it hit zero, I just sat on it thinking that once the Nitrites dropped to zero, I would be good. But it sounds like I should not let the Ammonia sit at zero -- but should continue to feed Ammonia until the Ammonia and Nitrites both zero out within 24 hours. Is that right?

 

[ColdKoi]

You are correct. Keep dosing ammonia if you are going to continue the fishless cycle.

If you can dose ammonia to 2ppm and it be down to 0, same with nitrites within 24h you are pretty well ready for fish. You’ll want to do a pretty good water change before adding fish as the nitrates are likely pretty high by then.

 

[KymH]

Thank you so much!!!

I'm trying to be patient... not my strongsuit. LOL

Appreciate your advice!

 

[ColdKoi]

That’s my biggest reason for doing fish-in cycles. Who has the patience to stare at an empty tank for months? Lol

At any point you could start adding fish and continue with a fish-in cycle. Again just be sure to do a water change (very little or no ammonia or nitrites) and stop dosing ammonia