Successful fishless cycle? I hope.

[Dwane]

Hello,

I have been doing a fishless cycle for about 3 weeks and it appears to have completed successfully. I added 5 live plants and 4 survived. I think I got some BB with the plants which helped the cycle along. I also got some pest snails which unfortunately survived the cycle.

The question I have is about my test results. I can dose my tank up to 4 or 5 ppm of ammonia and it will be completely gone is well under 24 hours. I had nitrites reading off the charts for a week or more and then they disappeared but I never had a spike in nitrates which worries me because I read that I should see one.

Do you think my cycle has actually completed properly?
I have 4 ludwigia I think they are and was wondering if they were eating the nitrates. I only have about 10 ppm of nitrates and my tap water actually reads at 40+ppm but went down after a couple days in the tank.

I want to add some fish if I can but I really want to make sure my tank is ready so I have the best home possible for them right away. What do you guys think?

Here is a pic of my tank so far, sorry for the poor quality I used my iPod.

 

[Terrance]

Your plants could be soaking up the nitrates, so that could explain why you never saw any. If you add ammo, and then both ammo/nitrite goes to zero within 24hrs then you are done with your cycle.

I used pest snails to cycled a tank in the past. They do fine through the cycle and they also add waste to the water.

 

[Mumma.of.two]

Make sure you are performing the. Nitrate test correctly. It can give false readings if not done exactly as the instructions state.

 

[jlk]

I would continue to dose your ammonia for 2-3 more days just to be positive your amm/nitrite are zeroing out in 24hrs. If they do, your cycled! This is the most important aspect to consider. Your plants are likely having an effect on your nitrates (they use them as food)- you may not see a spike. As Mumma suggested, double check your nitrate test & really make sure you shake & bang the bottles on a hard surface before testing. When your ready for fish, i would suggest a water change with conditioned, temperature-matched water & make sure you skip the ammonia. Check out u-tube for how-to videos on 'drip-acclimation' if you are not familiar with the process. Congrats!!

 

[Dwane]

I will keep adding the ammonia and testing the water for at least the next 4 days and see where I'm at.
I am following the nitrate test instructions closely including shaking the heck out of the # 2 bottle and the test tube at the end.
I will watch some videos on drip acclimation as well. Thanks for the advice everyone.

 

[Dwane]

I hAve been adding ammo for another 4 days and the ammo and nitrite are going down to 0 in less than 24 hours so I guess I am ready for fish. Ammo 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 10
My question is how big of a water change should I do before I get fish? My nitrates in my tap water are about 40 ppm and my tank is down to 10 ppm now so I don't want to make it too high for the fish.
Also will my fish survive after a water change since this will actually cause a rise in nitrates? I plan on getting more plants and maybe an RO system.
I noticed that there are both home and aquarium RO systems, does anyone know if a home RO system can be used for an aquarium too?

 

[Dwane]

Oh ya I forgot to add the fish I want are neon tetras, mollys and/or Platy, Corydoras, bad eventually German blue rams

 

[Koikid88]

40 ppm out of the tap? **** east coasters lol Ours is 0 here, which I actually prefer for pwc. Techincally, you don't have to do a pwc before the addition of fish, but feel free to. I've only done fishless cycles on ponds, so I'm not exactly sure how to process works indoors. I'd go with the tetras first, as they are a bit more sensitive to water a conditions than the livebearers. See how it goes with them

 

[jlk]

I would do a 25% pwc, skip the amm, & let everything run for 24hrs before getting fish. Your best bet for future wcs with fish would be to do smaller, more frequent changes rather than single big pwc every week. I believe the home & aquarium RO systems are the same thing (just different price tags)but someone please correct me if i am wrong! They make under-sink systems for your kitchen faucet that run in the $500 range but you may find something less expensive with some searching. Congrats on the cycled tank!!!!

 

[Mumma.of.two]

If you choose to got with RO water you will need to buy products to replace the minerals taken out to make it safe for your fish.

 

[Dwane]

I checked my water again today and I had tons of nitrites for some reason but the ammo was 0 and the nitrates were 10.
The PH was down to around 6.6 when it is usually 7.6. Is that what caused the problem? I did about a 40% water change and I guess I will just continue to add ammonia each day and hope for the best.
Darn and just when I thought I was ready for fish.

 

[jlk]

Yes, your ph drop had an effect. If its still down tommorrow, do a bigger water change to help re-establish your buffers. I realize your nitrate levels are high coming out of your tap but as you dont have fish yet, a big water change wont cause any harm. Let us know how things look tommorrow!

 

[Terrance]

Add water buffer to your tank, such as crushed coral.

 

[Dwane]

Ok today I did my tests and the ph is back to 7.6 which is normal for here. My nitrites are back to zero but my test seemed different today, usually it starts off purple and slowly fades to blue but today it is just blue instantly. Is this normal or do I have a problem?
My nitrates have also shot up to over 100ppm. I didn't have a nitrate spike until now. Please let me know what you think. Is this normal or is my tank messed up?

 

[jlk]

This is great news!!!!! Did your amm zero out as well? For your nitrites to truly read 'zero', the test should start off blue and stay blue! There should never be any purple at any point in time (if there is, then you have nitrites present). You are now cycled- lets dose the amm back up for a few more days & if your amm/nitrite continue to zero out, you are good to go!

 

[Dwane]

My ammo did zero out and I will dose it back up to 4 ppm and check tomorrow again.
I have to drive an hour each way to get to a fish store, do you think I really need crushed coral like someone mentioned?

 

[jlk]

No, i dont think you need it unless you start seeing ph crashes every day. Water changes are usually enough to re-establish buffers in your water which are used up in the nitrification process. Just keep an eye on it.

 

[Dwane]

Excellent, thanks a lot for the help.

 

[Dwane]

Good news my ammo is reading 0 this evening and my nitrites are also zero so it looks like I'm in the clear. It's been about one month since I started the cycle and I'm excited to get some fish. I will wait another 4 to 5 days to make sure everything keeps working properly.
The only thing I'm scared of is getting fish while my tap water has about 40ppm of nitrates. I think I will buy an RO system sometime but that won't be for a couple months at least. I have 4 ludwigia plants and would like to get some more but my lfs doesn't have a big selection.
Is 40ppm going to cause my fish to be unhappy or die? I want to get Platy, neon tetras, Cory and I'm not exactly sure what else yet but am open to suggestions.

 

[jmpgop]

Can someone here please lead me to the stickies and where to find the fishless cycle sticky I have Trites through the roof now, Ammo is down to 1.0. I need to reread the directions but I cannot find it. Thanks!