question about the progression of my fishless cycle

H

hmt321

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Nov 21, 2005
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I am on day 11 on a fishless cycle of a 40 gal fw tank, on day 7 i my lfs finial got some bio-spria in and i added a 30 gal dose.

todays test

ph = 7
ammonia = 1.5
nitrite = .5
nitrate= less than .5

should i bring my ammonia back up to 5ppm or let it ride?

I think i am seeing the beginning of my nitrite spike how high will it get?

thanks
 
Keep adding ammonia. I thought Bio-Spira was supposed to cycle a tank immediately, I guess not!

The nitrites will get pretty high and will stay there the longest (up to a few weeks)

Kim
 
hmt321 said:
I am on day 11 on a fishless cycle of a 40 gal fw tank, on day 7 i my lfs finial got some bio-spria in and i added a 30 gal dose.

todays test

ph = 7
ammonia = 1.5
nitrite = .5
nitrate= less than .5

should i bring my ammonia back up to 5ppm or let it ride?

I think i am seeing the beginning of my nitrite spike how high will it get?

thanks
Click to expand...

Since you are seeing nitrites, I wouldn't add more than half the original dose of ammonia.
 
biospira does not work very well with fishless cycles and bottled ammonia. its meant to go from having 0 ammonia to slowly building over a day or so with the fish you add. its not very good at breaking down an instant dose of 4ppm ammonia already in the tank. but yes, you should keep feeding ammonia to keep the bacteria alive. the biospira should shorten your fishless cycle, but it will not make it instant. however DO NOT BRING THE AMMONIA BACK UP TO 5PPM!! keep it around 2ppm until you can add it up to that point and its gone in 24 hours, and your nitrites are 0. then do a water change to remove nitrates and add fish.

because too much ammonia and too much nitrites and too much nitrates will all kill your bacteria. they need enough to eat, but too much will be toxic to them as well.
 
LittlePuff said:
Why only half? :confused:

Kim
Click to expand...


If you take a look at the instructions for fishless cycling, you'll see that you should halve the original dose of ammonia once you see nitrites. I believe it helps to keep your readings from going to high and affecting the growth of bacteria.
 
I did read the instructions for the fishless cycle, but i was unclear about how much ammonia to keep in the tank after the nitrite spike.

day 13 readings

ph 6.8
ammonia 1.0
nitrite off the chart, (greater than 5.0 ppm)
nitrate between .5 and 1.0 ppm

im gona bring the ammonia back up to 2.5 ppm (or there abouts)

thanks

also should i be concerned about the ph drop from 7 to 6.8 ?

tkz
 
RockabillyChick said:
because too much ammonia and too much nitrites and too much nitrates will all kill your bacteria. they need enough to eat, but too much will be toxic to them as well.
Click to expand...
I know the levels of ammonia and the various nitrates that fish get irritated/sick/killed at.

Are the numbers different for bacteria? Are they more or less sensitive to ammonia levels? I have not found a detaled breakdown on exactly what the bacteria need to grow, and what kills them other than ph < 6 is fatal and they need a KH > 3 or they don't grow.
 
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