kevan07
Aquarium Advice Regular
So I origionally was trying to cycle my tank with platys (who were sick when I bought them). That did not work out very well and they all ended up dying within a couple of weeks. So after reading all the good things about fishless cycling I went out and bought a bottle of ACE brand ammonia. I started dosing the tank with it on Saturday (3/1) at 4ppm a day. The past few days I have been testing the ammonia and it has been going down (generally the first day it goes from 4ppm to 2ppm then the second day drops to 0.5 ppm and then I dose it back up). I have been testing for Nitrites but the readings have always been zero. Today just for the heck of it I did a Nitrate test and my ammonia is at 0.5ppm and the Nitrates are around 30ppm.
Does this sound right? It just seems incredibly quick (although I know I had fish in there previously and I did stick a sponge from my cycled 5gallon in the filter so I guess maybe some of the bacteria I needed is already in the tank?) Do I now go ahead and dose the ammonia up to 4.0ppm and just wait till the tank can completly clear it in 24 hours or should I only dose 2ppm so I don't accidentally stall the cycle? Also do I need to do a water change or since the Nitrates are still on the scale it should be fine for awhile still?
Thanks!
Note: Here is a chart of the cycle and what I have been doing in case that helps.
Day 1 (3/1): Dosed ammonia to 4ppm, added some fish food and raised temperature to 83 degrees.
Day 2 (3/2): Ammonia 3-4ppm (stormy day and no good lighting so difficult to read), did not dose.
Day 3 (3/3): Ammonia 1ppm. Added 3.3ml of ammonia to bring reading back up to 4ppm, no nitrites or nitrates.
Day 4 (3/4): Ammonia around 3ppm, no Nitrites. No ammonia added
Day 5 (3/5): Ammonia between 1ppm and 2ppm. No ammonia added. 0ppm Nitrites
Day 6 (3/6-today): Ammonia: 0.5ppm, Nitrites: 0ppm, Nitrates: 30ppm
Does this sound right? It just seems incredibly quick (although I know I had fish in there previously and I did stick a sponge from my cycled 5gallon in the filter so I guess maybe some of the bacteria I needed is already in the tank?) Do I now go ahead and dose the ammonia up to 4.0ppm and just wait till the tank can completly clear it in 24 hours or should I only dose 2ppm so I don't accidentally stall the cycle? Also do I need to do a water change or since the Nitrates are still on the scale it should be fine for awhile still?
Thanks!
Note: Here is a chart of the cycle and what I have been doing in case that helps.
Day 1 (3/1): Dosed ammonia to 4ppm, added some fish food and raised temperature to 83 degrees.
Day 2 (3/2): Ammonia 3-4ppm (stormy day and no good lighting so difficult to read), did not dose.
Day 3 (3/3): Ammonia 1ppm. Added 3.3ml of ammonia to bring reading back up to 4ppm, no nitrites or nitrates.
Day 4 (3/4): Ammonia around 3ppm, no Nitrites. No ammonia added
Day 5 (3/5): Ammonia between 1ppm and 2ppm. No ammonia added. 0ppm Nitrites
Day 6 (3/6-today): Ammonia: 0.5ppm, Nitrites: 0ppm, Nitrates: 30ppm