Fishless Cycle Now What?

[Boohoo]

Here is what I have done so far
Day 1 Wednesday Put 2 sponges in filter box and one fake plant in tank from
an established tank. Added 10 ml ammonia. Tested water 2 hours later Ammonia around 5ppm. Nitrite 0ppm.
Day 2 Thursday Tested water Ammonia around 5ppm. Nitrite 0ppm.
Day 3 Friday Tested water Ammonia a little less than 5ppm. Nitrite 0.3ppm.
Water temperature is at 80
Now I am a little unsure of what level I should be targeting for ammonia. As it drops do I keep trying to bring it up to 5ppm?

[Harlock]

Here is what I have done so far
Day 1 Wednesday Put 2 sponges in filter box and one fake plant in tank from
an established tank. Added 10 ml ammonia. Tested water 2 hours later Ammonia around 5ppm. Nitrite 0ppm.
Day 2 Thursday Tested water Ammonia around 5ppm. Nitrite 0ppm.
Day 3 Friday Tested water Ammonia a little less than 5ppm. Nitrite 0.3ppm.
Water temperature is at 80
Now I am a little unsure of what level I should be targeting for ammonia. As it drops do I keep trying to bring it up to 5ppm?
Yes, that's correct. You test it daily, bring it back up to 5 ppm and then test the next day. More media means a quicker cycle, so if your established tanks have anythnig to spare (gravel tied up in a nylon, even), go for it.

[Kasakato]

You have a long way to go. Good luck!

[Boohoo]

Thank you. But after just finishing fishy cycling two 10g, I look forward to doing it this way. Sure seems like alot less work than doing those big water changes everyday. BTW I didn't lose any fish doing my fishy cycle so I guess all the water changes were well worht it.

[Harlock]

Thank you. But after just finishing fishy cycling two 10g, I look forward to doing it this way. Sure seems like alot less work than doing those big water changes everyday. BTW I didn't lose any fish doing my fishy cycle so I guess all the water changes were well worht it.
Heh, I can so relate. After my BIO-Spira didn't work as well as one would've hoped... well, fishy cycles with full bioloads suck out loud.

[Boohoo]

I have been asking around the LFS's and as far as I understand BIO-SPIRA isn't available here yet. But they tell me it is on the way. I can only imagine the difficulties when you add a full load of fish and the product fails. I guess all of a sudden you are forced to do a fishy cycle... and we all know that ain't no fun!

[Boohoo]

Update: Today is day 5. Yesterday I had to add 2ml of ammonia and today I had to add 3ml of ammonia to bring it up to 5ppm. I checked nitrites and my test kit only reads to 3.3, they were way beyond that. Then just for the heck of it I checked nitrates and they were way off the chart. My test kit goes to 110ppm. Are my nitrates supposed to be this high at this point? :confused:

[Kasakato]

Its ok. Just keep on going.

[Boohoo]

Okay Thanks. :o

[Boohoo]

New Update:Today is day 13. Yesterday I had 0 ammonia so I added 20ml and brought it back to 5ppm. Today I have 0 Ammonia again. Do I still add the same amount and keep it at 5ppm or do I try to keep it between 2-3ppm. Nitrites are way off the chart and so are nitrates. PH 7.0 Temp.80%

[Kasakato]

Keep it at 2 or 3ppm from now on.

[Boohoo]

Okay, Thanks. Should I be doing any water changes or aren't the necessary at this point?

[Kasakato]

They arnt needed, yet.

[Stefanie]

Water changes might not be needed, but if your levels go off the chart, I would do one anyway to get them to a level your kit can detect... I did it this way with no ill effects on my cycle. Just don't forget to dose dechlorinator and ammonia back to your target level.

[Boohoo]

Today is day 17 and I just bought a test kit for GH/KH.
Ammonia~Adding 13ml daily to keep between 2-3ppm
Nitrite~Off the chart
Nitrate~Off the chart
GH~60ppm
KH~less than 10ppm
PH~6.2
Temp~80
My PH seems to be getting lower. I assume this is due to the low KH. What do I do about this?

[Phycha]

Do a water change. You dont want to crash your PH as this can stall your cycle. After the water change redose your ammonia.

[Boohoo]

Do I have to do a water change or can I add baking soda?

[Phycha]

I would do a water change. You could probibly use bakeing soda to raise the KH and get by. You have more Nitrite in your water then you need which will cause an unbalanced number of Nitrite consuming bacteria. Not a problems just will take longer. You Nitrite bacteria only need to be enought to to consume nitrite at the same rate your ammona bacteria can consume it. Not large enough to consume 17 days worth.

[Boohoo]

Was this the right thing to do. I did not do a water change. I added 4 tsp. baking soda. GH was and still remains at 60 KH was less than 10 now it is 70 PH was 6.2 and is now 7.2

[Kasakato]

Whats the tap water like?

[Boohoo]

Tap Water
Ammonia~0
Nitrite~0
Nitrate~0
GH~less than 20
KH~less than 20
PH~6.2-6.4

BTW water is from a well not a town supply.

[tuvok]

Was this the right thing to do. I did not do a water change. I added 4 tsp. baking soda. GH was and still remains at 60 KH was less than 10 now it is 70 PH was 6.2 and is now 7.2

For what it is worth when I was doing a fishless cycle I added baking soda in a very uncontrolled manner after a pH drop. The pH shot up quite drastically but the tank still cycled a few days later (I was a few weeks into the process). I would not worry about it too much.

[Kasakato]

It was a good idea to add the baking soda. A water change wont help bacause the water is soft too.

[Boohoo]

What have I done? As I stated yesterday, I added the baking soda. I checked ammonia which was 0 and added my daily dose. I was a little lazy and didn't check nitrites or nitrates since I just checked them the day before and they were off the charts. So today I checked everything, what has happened???
Ammonia~0
Nitrite~0
Nitrate~10-20
PH~7.2
GH~60
KH~50

My test kits are fine as I checked my 2 other tanks. One of those tanks is showing a slight rise in Nitrites( I have been feeding very generously this week ) so I know the nitrite test is fine. My kit for nitrates says when there is a very high nitrite reading that the nitrate reading may not be accurateS so my guess is that my nitrates were not as high as I thought all along. Anyways did I mess something up or is this tank pretty much cycled? Today is day 19 The tank was originally seeded with 2 sponges from an established tank and then a week later I put my old filter cartridge in when I changed my 10g.

[Boohoo]

Bump :confused:

[anonapersona]

Sounds like you're done... so, you've learned that you need to be very careful about keeping the GH and KH up on your tanks, always adding baking soda or some other source (coral sand or crushed coral or marble or something). And, you've demeonstrated that using seeded filters, old sponge filters, really speeds up the process!

Now, you can start adding fish. Feed lightly, monitor pH, ammonia and nitrites, monitor KH and GH. Do not let pH crash -- very bad for bacteria as well as fish. Consider how to keep pH more stable, investigate commercial additives as well as coral sands.

[Boohoo]

With the reading I have for nitrates should I do a large water change first or isn't it necessary?

[Kasakato]

Isent needed. You want to keep them below 20ppm though.

[tuvok]

I would do a water change as it it would be best to start off with as low a load of nitrogenous content as possible. 20ppm is the highest I prefer my NO3 levels to be, so by my standards (which are by no means authoritative) you would be due for a water change if the aquarium contained fish anyway. I would do the change in the morning of the day that you planned on stocking the tank and then head off to the LFS to pick out some fish.

[Boohoo]

Well they are closer to 10 than 20. I also have 6 live plants in there.

[tuvok]

My previous post was just an outline of what I would do. As Kasakato points out, you should be OK if your NO3 levels are less than 20ppm. Also, as you will be still adding ammonia up until the night before you add the fish, I would also do a confirmatory check for ammonia and nitrite before you leave to get the fish just to make sure that nothing has affected your bacteria before adding fish.

[Boohoo]

Thanks to everyone for all your help. Couldn't of done it without you. I don't think I'm going for my fish until Friday so I'll keep dosing daily with ammonia and keep checking everything daily to make sure nothing changes in the meantime. :dance2: