Started my fishless cycle!

[jlk]

Good to know! It means your nitrites are higher than what you are seeing right now when you test just your tank water. When you have time, I would do a big water change & redose your amm.

 

[Justme68]

50% or bigger?

 

[Justme68]

And should I retest anything after I fill up and add dechlorinator and ammonia?

 

[jlk]

Atleast 50%, more would be better. You dont have to retest anything after refilling. Just temp match the water & dont forget the conditioner!

 

[Justme68]

OK, will do! Thank you

 

[Justme68]

Good afternoon! So i did a 75-80% water change yesterday, added prime and dosed the ammonia. My readings today are: ammo 1.0ppm, nitrite as bright as 5ppm but more pink (sorry), nitates 10-20ppm (very close), Ph 7.6, temp 82. Why did my ammo not drop as much as it has been? How are things looking after the water change? Thanks for the replies

 

[jlk]

Looks good! Dont worry about anything! The more pink-purple color (instead of just a purple/purple grey-blue color) means your nitrites are really high. If you havent dosed amm yet, just skip it for tonight & see if it zeroes out by tommorrow. If you have dosed already, no big deal. Lets see how things look tommorrow!

 

[Justme68]

I did dose!! Should have had more patience,lol. What would make it not drop though, any ideas?

 

[jlk]

Honestly, I do not know for sure. All of the aspects of each persons indiviual water chemistry are basically an 'unknown' factor- we only test for the basics in fw. I think you will see your amm return to steadily dropping in a day or two. If it doesnt, skip the dosing for 24hrs to allow things to catch up.

 

[Justme68]

Sounds good. I'll test and post again tomorrow!

 

[Justme68]

My results today are: ammo 2ppm and nitrites the same as yesterday (still purple/pink). I'm thinking I should leave everything as is and test again in the morning? Thanks for the input

 

[RedFlame]

(I had to read to catch up) The fish food mentioned earlier is another source of ammonia as it breaks down it releases into the tank. Some people use pure ammonia as you are, others use fish food and some use a shrimp and let it decompose. In regards to time wise you should be fairly close to ending your cycle. With mine though, the trites dropped off entirely and then nitrates shot up, did a 90% water change to bring them to reasonable levels (less than 20ppms) and dosed ammo again which was gone in 24hrs.

I would agree with you and let it sit for a day or so and check then. Your ammo seems like it isn't dropping nearly as fast as it was, it may be do to the previous water change but its hard to say. I would say no more water changes until trates sky rocket. By this point your ammo should be gone within 24 hours or at the very least dropping to about .25 ppms. As long as your trites are readable then there's no need for a water change if it is off the chart then do a 50% change so you can at least read it and gauge the numbers.

Either way you should be close and good job sticking with it, occasionally the numbers will throw you off but again you sound close to the end. Good luck, I'll keep following your progress. It's almost fish time!

 

[Justme68]

Thanks for catching up Red! Yipee!!!! I hope I'm almost there. I will hold off then and not dose any ammonia....thank you

 

[jlk]

Looks good! Leave it be & lets see how things look tommorrow!

 

[Justme68]

Well I just tested the ammonia and it is at .25ppm. Should I dose it back up to 4?

 

[jlk]

How do your nitrites & ph look?

 

[Justme68]

Hi jlk....my ph is 7.6 and the nitrites are the same, more pink than purple. Not sure what to think.....

 

[jlk]

Dose a low amount of amm (@2) & lets see how things look tommorrow. Are you getting detectable levels of nitrates as well?

 

[Justme68]

That reading is 10-20(hard to tell the difference) but I started with 5ppm of nitrates

 

[jlk]

Thanks! So, some conversion is happening of nitrite>nitrate. The nitrite bacteria just havent quite gotten up to speed yet.