fishless cycle diary- I think I'm almost there!!:)

[dannehhx]

hi I'm new but I've been reading posts on this forum for weeks and they have really helped me to have faith in my own cycle !

this is my most current cycling parameters:

25/09
ammonia -0-0.25ppm
nitrite- 1ppm
nitrate- 10ppm

28/09
ammonia- 0.25ppm
nitrite- 0.5ppm
nitrate- 5.0ppm

29/09
ammonia- 0ppm (at this stage I dosed to 3/4ppm with pure ammonia from homebase )
nitrite- 0.25ppm
nitrate- 0.50ppm
ph- 7.2-7.4

30/09
ammonia- 1ppm (dosed to 2ppm)
nitrite- 5ppm
nitrate- 10-20ppm

1/10
ammonia- 0.25-0.50ppm (dosed to 2-3 ppm)
nitrite- 5+ppm
nitrate- 20-40ppm

today 02/10
ammonia- 0ppm !!
nitrite- 5+ppm
nitrate- 40-80ppm

finally I have got no ammonia after 8 weeks cycling!! ( to put a long story short, I began cycling fish-in with orandas unfortunately they got unwell with the rising ammonia levels so I've put them in a quarantine tank at my friends house so started to cycle fishless last week tropical

I have a few questions I'm hoping you lovely people can help me with concerning my cycle:

- now that my ammonia has dropped to 0 ppm in 24 hours do I carry on dosing and if so what do I dose to?

- should I be worried about my high nitrites and growing nitrates ? sometimes I can't tell if its 5ppm but the colour on the liquid test looks bright purple almost pinky ?:S

any advice would be appreciated! thank you

 

[Calypso77]

You want your trites to be 0 as well and those trates are very high but should come down with water change.

When I did my fishless cycle once my ammonia and trites were reading 0 and my trates read 20 I did a 80% water change lowered my temp to 78 and tested the next day and the ammonia and trites were still 0 and my trates were down to 5 or 10 I believe. I waited another day tested again and it was all the same so I added fish. Don't add more then 1 or 2 a week so u don't get any spikes.

 

[dannehhx]

will a water change effect my cycle? I'm worried I'm going to be taking out some of the bacteria that I've built up? sorry for dumb questions this is my first tank and I really want to do it properly haha!

 

[Mrs.h2012]

will a water change effect my cycle? I'm worried I'm going to be taking out some of the bacteria that I've built up? sorry for dumb questions this is my first tank and I really want to do it properly haha!

Changing water wont mess your cycle up. Majority of the BB lives on the substrate, plants and filter media. A water change will help bring your nitrite and nitrate levels down, which is a good thing

 

[Calypso77]

will a water change effect my cycle? I'm worried I'm going to be taking out some of the bacteria that I've built up? sorry for dumb questions this is my first tank and I really want to do it properly haha!

I wouldn't do the water change until your ammonia and nitraites are reading 0.

 

[jlk]

If your nitrites have been 5+ for only a few days, I wouldn't be too concerned yet. You do though need to start checking your ph daily for changes (mainly drops). Skip dosing ammonia for a few days & keep a close eye on your nitrites & nitrates as well as ph. Add a few pinches of crushed fish food right now. Keep us posted!

 

[dannehhx]

I wouldn't do the water change until your ammonia and nitraites are reading 0.

I been reading stories of people's cycles stalling from high nitrite levels I panicked last night and did a 70% water change and dosed Ammonia to 1ppm :/ will this be ok?

 

[dannehhx]

If your nitrites have been 5+ for only a few days, I wouldn't be too concerned yet. You do though need to start checking your ph daily for changes (mainly drops). Skip dosing ammonia for a few days & keep a close eye on your nitrites & nitrates as well as ph. Add a few pinches of crushed fish food right now. Keep us posted!

I did readings last night after doing the WC (sorry i panicked after reading that high nitrites can stall cycle ) and 30 mins after dosing Ammonia to 1ppm, nitrite came down to about 3ppm (maybe pushing 5) and nitrate to 20ppm.

I will do my readings again in 24 hours so will keep u all posted! should I expect the readings to begin dropping now becos I have done a WC?

 

[jlk]

No harm in doing a wc! Expect your nitrites to be 5 (or higher when you test today). The nitrite phase typically takes twice as long as the amm phase so dont expect any changes anytime soon. Skip dosing ammonia today & add a few pinches of crushed fish food. Your nitrite>nitrate bacteria need phosphates to convert nitrite- adding some fish food is the biggest source of them. Keep us posted!

 

[dannehhx]

No harm in doing a wc! Expect your nitrites to be 5 (or higher when you test today). The nitrite phase typically takes twice as long as the amm phase so dont expect any changes anytime soon. Skip dosing ammonia today & add a few pinches of crushed fish food. Your nitrite>nitrate bacteria need phosphates to convert nitrite- adding some fish food is the biggest source of them. Keep us posted!

okay so I just did a test for tonight, 24 hours after the last ammonia dose and I got this: (picture included tonight)
ph: 6.8-7.0 ( this has dropped slightly but my tap water ph is dead on 7.0 so maybe the WC yesterday buffered it down for me?)
ammonia: 0
nitrite: 5+ppm
nitrate: 30ppm

so should I feed bacteria food tonight instead of ammonia ? would it harm to dose just to 1ppm ? thanks

 

[jlk]

A few pinches of crushed fish food wont supply any signifigant ammonia source but it will provide phosphates. Skip the amm for tonight & let us know how things look tomorrow. Your bb wont starve, so dont worry!

 

[dannehhx]

thank you Jlk you are keeping me calm I put all my beliefs in you ! lol shall see what tomorrow brings

 

[dannehhx]

okay so here is today's test:

ph: 6.8
ammonia: looked like 0 but maybe slightly 0.25ppm
nitrite: 2ppm
nitrate: 20ppm

I think it's starting to shift! only added a generous pinch of fish food in the last 24 hours, is it normal for my ammonia to have not maxed out to 0 after 24 hours? nitrite and nitrate has dropped! shall I dose to 1ppm today?

 

[jlk]

Your amm does look like .25 in the pic but reading a zero amm level can be a bit tricky depending on the light source. Its likely closer to zero. Give you tank another day of no amm & lets see if the nitrites will drop further in the next 24hrs.

 

[dannehhx]

Your amm does look like .25 in the pic but reading a zero amm level can be a bit tricky depending on the light source. Its likely closer to zero. Give you tank another day of no amm & lets see if the nitrites will drop further in the next 24hrs.

yeah i haven't got the best light cos i'm practically testing in the dark, i think i'm going to have to change my testing times to the mornings for accuracy

so carry on with fish food tonight?

 

[jlk]

No harm in another pinch or two of fish food. Just skip the bottled amm for another night. I want to see if your nitrites will drop further on their own before you add amm again- they will jump right back up when you do.

 

[dannehhx]

okay so it's 12 hours (give or take) since the last test, I was curious to what the results would be so here they are!

ph: 6.8-7
ammonia- 0
nitrite- 0-0.25ppm
nitrate- 0-5.0ppm



I'm thinking that now I need to dose ammonia back up but to what and when? is it best to wait the 24 hours through?

 

[librarygirl]

Yes I'd wait until the 24 hour mark; if you typically dose ammonia at night then just wait until tonight and add more. Dose to 2 and we'll see what happens tomorrow.

 

[dannehhx]

okay so here are today's readings !!

ph: 6.8-7
ammonia- 0!
nitrite- 0!
nitrate- 0-5ppm!!

I'm soo happy!! what to do now?
I'm only going to start off with celestial danios and some platys, should I redoes today and see if everything is 0 by tomorrow morning and then get my fish?

do I need to do a water change since my nitrate is ok? I have a few live pants in my tank so they have have helped me out with those nitrates! yay !

 

[jlk]

Looks good! Ok, I would not jump on fish just yet. One day of zeroes does not guarentee a cycled a tank. I would increase your amm dose today from 2 to 3 and see how things look tomorrow. If you have all zeroes again, increase the dose to 4pppm. Once your tank can process 4ppm for a few days in a row, then I would say its safe to consider yourself cycled. Do you have plants in this tank? Make sure you are really shaking & banging those nitrate bottles for a full 1-2mins before testing (your arms should hurt a bit)- if you dont have plants, I would expect to see some amount of nitrates at this point but every tank is a bit different.