First fishless cycle

If you are not adding an ammonia source, you are not cycling. You are just building up nitrates from the old substrate. If you have no other source, you can feed the tank as if there were fish in it and that will give you some ammonia from the food breaking down.
You may have picked up some of the right bacteria from that old substrate if it has stayed wet since you last had some fish in it but they will not be reproducing without "food". If you are still looking for endlers, I have some but don't know how to ship properly. You can see in my profile where I am so will know if I am close enough to help.
 
Yeah, I add fish food to the tanks. And you're a little to far to pick up some fish! haha

Thanks for all the help!
 
Any update on those readings?

I'm doing my first fishless cycle too. After three days Ammonia was down, and I had Nitrate and Nitrates, but now its seem to have stalled. I added pure ammonia and the ammonia has gone down slightly the last few days, but it appears the nitrate is at zero while nitrates stay constant on 40.

Has your tank been progressing?
 
Ammonia hovers around .25-.5
Nitrite is through the roof, whatever the highest reading is (i don't remember, 5 i think)
And I lost a bit of nitrates because I did a huge water change (driftwood stained my water) so that's reading about 5

Just waiting out the nitrite spike. Sure is quite the waiting game.
 
erinw621 said:
Ammonia hovers around .25-.5
Nitrite is through the roof, whatever the highest reading is (i don't remember, 5 i think)
And I lost a bit of nitrates because I did a huge water change (driftwood stained my water) so that's reading about 5

Just waiting out the nitrite spike. Sure is quite the waiting game.
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I tested this morning and my ammonia was .5, nitrite 0, and nitrate 40. I don't like this :mad2:
 
lol cycling takes quite a long time, all that waiting, waiting and waiting, nearly drove me crazy staring at an empty tank for almost a month :perv:
 
erinw621 said:
Sounds like you're just about done??? Lucky
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I was told that a cycled tank should be able to handle a dosing of ammonia that brings it to 3 and 24 hours later it should be 0. I dosed my tank to bring it up to 3 three days ago. It still hasn't hit 0. I don't think I'm done.

I hate staring at empty tank too. Luckily I have an established 10 gallon with neon tetras to watch in the mean time. But the gravel is blue and so are the tetras so its a little hard to see em! :evil_lol:
 
Just checked my ammonia levels. It's at that point where the green and yellow are clashing and the water almost looks clear. When its up against the card it looks slightly green, but oh so close to yellow. Yay?

BTW, I see from your marketplace history that you've bought a starter pack for plants. Know of any good articles for a complete newbie?
 
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