Fishless Cycle - Day 7 and no Nitrites!!! Help!!!

[jim692]

yes, keep feeding low doses of ammonia to keep the first part of the cycle going until the nitrites drop to 0.

 

[Mumble]

Hey Jim, just wondering, do the nitrites tend to spike quickly or am I in for a long wait now for the nitrites to increase? Nitrites are a the bottom at 0.5 ppm. ammonia has dropped to 1ppm. I added more ammonnia last night but haven't checked to see what it is today. Another question, do I bring up the ammonnia to 4 or 5 ppm again?

 

[gzeiger]

The nitrite spike is of much shorter duration than the ammonia period. I've heard reports of as long as a week, but it shouldn't really be more than that.

1 ppm ammonia should produce almost 3 ppm nitrite, so if you started with 4-5 ppm ammonia and now have only 0.5 ppm nitrite then you already have some nitrite bacteria established and you shouldn't have long to wait.

I would recommend going back up to the full dose of ammonia. The point is to establish a large colony of bacteria able to handle the expected bioload, so the more ammonia you're feeding the more bacteria you'll have, and the higher the bioload your filter will be able to support.

 

[Mumble]

My Nitrites have now spiked and my ammonnia levels are dropping every time I check. Should I keep adding ammonnia to keep up with the nitrites or do I just wait now. Thanks.

 

[asudavew]

Keep dosing ammonia... otherwise your ammonia eating critters will... croak!
Twice a day or so, but half the amount

Almost there!

 

[gzeiger]

I agree with the above. Twice daily isn't necessary if it's a hassle. Full dose once daily would be fine.

 

[Mumble]

Thanks Guys you're being a great help. Almost there

 

[MichaelsLilGray]

Nice to see this is working for you! your headache is almost over lol