Where is my cycle?

[jpappy789]

But I agree that I usually judge a cycle by how quickly the NH3 can be "consumed." Nitrate output is directly related (by a certain factor, I forget how much) to the amount of ammonia is added, but that does not always equate to the cycle being efficient enough to handle the bio load without causing problems.

 

[GoldLenny]

Since you did add live plants from the beginning, they could have brought in enough nitrifying bacteria to speed up the cycling process much faster than cycling from scratch... technically, you did seed the tank with the live plants that presumably came from a cycled tank... but as others have suggested, keep dosing the tank with 3-5 ppm of ammonia each day until you see the ammonia and nitrite going to 0.0ppm in less than 24 hours and then check it one more day and you should be good. If you can rub one of your mossimo balls on your filter's media, that will also help transfer some N-bacteria to the filter. Right now, all the N-bateria could be growing on the moss balls and you want to get your filter media growing N-bacteria also.

 

[Whisker Wrangle]

Ok came home and tested the water... ammonia and nitrites were both at 0. Nitrate was still at 40. I did a large water change and then redosed ammonia to 4-5 ppm. I also rubbed marimo balls on my filter media. Waiting 24 hours to recheck...

Thanks alot for the help guys, check back tomorrow for an update.

 

[Whisker Wrangle]

UPDATE:

Ok, I just checked the levels again after 24 hours of dosing ammonia to 4-5 ppm. Here are the levels:

ammonia -- 0.5 ppm
nitrite -- off the scale
nitrate -- 5 ppm

Ok so, ammonia is not gone, but at least I know where my cycle is now, nitrite will be off the scale for a while and then will suddenly fall to 0 (theoretically).

So for now I am going to keep maintaining the ammonia levels at about 3 ppm.

Does this sound about right to everyone?

 

[Rbishop]

yep

 

[GoldLenny]

You never did say if you did the large water change someone suggested. I'm guessing you did since your nitrate level went down from 40ppm to only 5ppm but let us know. In the future, there's no need to do a large water change when fishless cycling... until the end when you know that the fishless cycling process is complete and working. The except to this is if your cycling stalls due to excessive ammonia or nitrites or low KH level and then a PWC is needed to kick start things.

EDIT - scratch the question about the large water change. I missed in post 13 where you said you did do one.

Keep testing ammonia/nitrite daily.. and nitrate if you like but it's not necessary. Dose the ammonia up to 3-5ppm (3-5 drops per gallon) and when you see them both dropping to 0.0ppm for two consecutive days, you can test the nitrates and they should be up pretty high and then you know you're cycling!!!

 

[Whisker Wrangle]

You never did say if you did the large water change someone suggested. I'm guessing you did since your nitrate level went down from 40ppm to only 5ppm but let us know. In the future, there's no need to do a large water change when fishless cycling... until the end when you know that the fishless cycling process is complete and working. The except to this is if your cycling stalls due to excessive ammonia or nitrites or low KH level and then a PWC is needed to kick start things.

EDIT - scratch the question about the large water change. I missed in post 13 where you said you did do one.

Keep testing ammonia/nitrite daily.. and nitrate if you like but it's not necessary. Dose the ammonia up to 3-5ppm (3-5 drops per gallon) and when you see them both dropping to 0.0ppm for two consecutive days, you can test the nitrates and they should be up pretty high and then you know you're cycling!!!

Oops... oh well, I guess the water change didnt hurt anything too bad... so I stop dosing/maintaining ammonia only when the nitrites hit 0 correct?

 

[GoldLenny]

It doesn't hurt anything, it just messes with your numbers.

When the ammonia and nitrite are both reading 0.0ppm, then you are *probably* fully cycling but add one more dose of ammonia to the 3-5ppm level and make sure that the ammonia and nitrite goes down to 0.0ppm within 24 hours again and then you know you are.

Then you are ready for your fish but don't do the big water change until the day before you add your fish. If it's going to take you a week to add fish, you can keep dosing ammonia daily to keep growing your nitrifying bacteria colony.

 

[Whisker Wrangle]

Ok... once it is fully cycled, can I add all fish at once, or should I do it slowly... I will not be getting all the fish at once, but I am wanting to do a large school of neons, but wasnt sure if I should get them all at once or make it a few trips?

 

[GoldLenny]

Yes, once a tank is fishless cycled for 3, 4 or 5ppm of ammonia per day, that represents ALL the ammonia that a full bioload of fish would create each day so you can fill up the tank with all the fish that the tank will properly hold (remember to take into account their expected adult size and that 1" rule doesn't work for most fish... only for torpedo shaped fish 3" or under. I have a long blog with a better set of guidelines)

Thanks to Dr. Tim (DocTim) Hovanec, the chief scientist involved in the invention of BioSpira who now has his own company, http://www.DrTimsAquatics.com, becoming active out here, I now also know that once you build up this big colony of nitrifying bacteria, even if you cut back the bioload for a while... months and months... the N-bacteria still live in your filter and tank and just become less active while waiting for their next ammonia/nitrite meal.

You can start off with as many neon tetras as is properly recommended for your tank and any other fish to fill out the bioload... just don't overstock it or you could have a mini-cycle if the fish are putting out more than 3-5ppm of ammonia each day... but that's a lot of peeing! ;-)