Another Cycle question

[pairustwo]

I am being paitent here but am still curious about something.
I am doing a fishless cycle. I seeded a 20 gal tank with a plant, handfull of gravel, a sponge that all lived in an established tank, plus I wrung out a second sponge into the tank as well.

I have crushed a tiny bit of flake food, pH is 7.3, lights are off, temp is 87 F, HOB filter is creating a splash. I have ceramic rings in the filter (bio max) to provide a ton of surface area for bacteria to grow on.

I dropped in enough amonia to raise the amonia level to 4 or 5 ppm.
Three days later the amonia is still pretty high, between 3 and 4 ppm.

My question is: how long before I should see amonia levels drop to the point where I should re dose with amonia? I thought it would be less than three days. So I wonder if I did something wrong.

Thanks.

 

[neilanh]

During this phase of your cycle you need to monitor both Ammonia and NitrIte. Generally in about 4-5 days (give or take, depending on how good your seed material is) you should start to see nitrItes. Once your nitrItes peak/spike, they should start going back down.

The general rule is anytime your ammonia gets below 1ppm, to dose it back up to 2-3ppm.

 

[pairustwo]

I don't have a NitrIte test kit (I know, I know) but again out of curiosity, why bother testing NitrItes when I know that there is still a bunch of Ammonia In there. I thought NitrIte would spike after Ammonia fell off.

And I am waiting to redose Ammonia until after it falls to 1ppm.
My question is, about how long should it take to fall to 1ppm?
3 days? 3 weeks?

I know it depends on my seed material (listed above). I just want to know when I can expect to tell if it is working or not.

When can I say "oh the bacteria are consuming Ammonia"
Or
"Oh my bacteria must have died off somehow."

 

[neilanh]

Because, the bacteria that converts ammonia to nitrite multiply much more rapidly than the bacteria that converts nitrIte to nitrAte. At some point, you'll be successfully converting 2ppm or so ammonia to nitrIte rather quickly, but the bacteria that can convert the nitrIite into nitrAte will need to catch up, since they were at a disadvantage at the start of the cycle. Since you started feeding ammonia, those bacteria have had food, meanwhile the 2d type of bacteria were waiting for their food to arrive.

If you can't monitor nitrItes, you won't know when the entire cycle is completed. Just watching for ammonia to drop off doesn't tell the whole story.

You should start to see ammonia converting to nitrIte within a week, again depending on your seed material, it could be faster or slower.

 

[pairustwo]

You should start to see ammonia converting to nitrIte within a week

Thanks.
I'll buy a NitrIte test kit today.

 

[neilanh]

Get a nitrAte test kit as well, if you don't have one. The API Freshwater Master Test kit I recommend, as it has all the basic tests in one kit.

 

[pairustwo]

I actualy have NitrAte and pH and Ammonia already.

What I'm really curious about is my water hardness or KH. I think there is another indicator also. My pH at home keeps falling way below what my tap water is and I'd like to figure out why.

Does the Master Test Kit have a KH test?

 

[neilanh]

No, if you want to test those you'll need to get kH and gH test kits seperately, unfortunately the master test kit does not come with those tests. Although I wish it did.

 

[locorosa]

My ph gasses out quite a bit after it has filtered for a few days. I would recommend crushed coral to naturally raise the ph levels and while you are cycling use some baking soda. I don't know how big your tank is but in my 92 gallon I was adding 2-3 tsp to keep my levels up.
Don't let them get too far below 7 as it will stall your cycle. Ask Neilanh...he can attest to that in his cycle log.
I too had the Nitrate and PH test kits but went out and bought the AP Master set. It's cheaper than replacing fish. Lol! You can go to Petsmart.com and print out their on-line price. Take it your local store and save about half!