Fishless Cycle

eyeman

eyeman

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Nov 27, 2006
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Please...tell me if I'm doing something wrong. I've been keeping fish and reef tanks for many years so I thought I knew what I was doing. Recently re-setup my 75 Gallon tank. I decided to do a fishless cycle. Five days ago I put in 1.5 teaspoons of ammonia. I have done so each day since and the ammonia test at about 4-5ppm. I have tested for nitrate each day and every day it has been 0. Nitrates are very low and I think they are from the tap and the rinsing of established filters in the tank. I took some media from my other established tank and rinsed it in this one. Am I missing somehting?? Shouldn't I see Nitites by now?? I was hopeing for a short cycle (7-10 days) but after 5 days, the ammonia still at 5ppm I doubt if things are correct. I only have carbon and mechanical filtration going. I only added Start Right at the initial fill 5 days ago. I normally use Prime but was unsure if it would effect the ammonia levels. The ammonia is from Walmart...the "Clear Ammonia" they sell list the ingrediants as Purified or demineralized water, ammonia, and a chelating agent. I was unsure about the chelating agent but Googled for information on it and most agree that it was OK to use.
Please help.
 
On the first day, I added 1 tsp and then for 3 days I was adding 1.5 tsp then 2 tsp. I should be a little clearer...the ammonia slowly climbed to 5ppm. Second day I think it was at 3 or so.
 
When you know how much ammonia it takes to get your tank's ammonia level to 5ppm, dose this amount every day until you see Nitrites. Once you see those, you can reduce your daily ammonia dosage to achieve a level of 2-3 ppm ammonia. Keep dosing this new amount every day until ammonia and nitrites appear and then go down to 0. However, without some kind of established bacteria to "seed" the new tank with, it could take 3 or 4 weeks to see Nitrites.

It sounds like you have an established tank thats been running for more than 2 months. If so, take some of the filter media from this filter and put it in with your new filter. You should see the cycle progress much faster.
Keep an eye on the old tank to ensure the 'missing' filter bacteria doesn't cause a mini-cycle in the old tank. Don't worry, the bacteria will multiply quickly and be back to normal in no time.
 
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Right now I am doing the same type of cycle on a 10gal. First week added till reading ammoina at 5ppm, next week got Nitrite readings and ammoina is being processed over night. Right now, third week I have a Nitire spike at 5ppm and still no change. Ammoina is being processed over night but the Nitrites are still at 5ppm. I try to keep the ammoina at 2 ppm but over night they go to 0.
 
That's exactly what you want to happen. Ammonia will go down to 0, and eventually Nitrites will hit zero, as long as you make sure your daily ammonia dose isn't more than around 3ppm.
 
You only have to dose enough to hold it at 5 ppm.
 
Thanks for the advice. Looks like I need to wait a bit longer and maintain that 5PPM. I had heard so much about the 7-10 day cycle that I was expecting things to happen quicker. THanks
 
I'm not sure how you all are doing the math, but 5ppm of *pure* ammonia for a 75g tank isn't going to be 1tsp of something whose main ingredient is water.

Here's my thinking:
75gal=~284liters which = 284kg or 284000grams of water

284000*5ppm/1000000=1.42g pure NH3. Divide that by whatever the % ammonia in that cleaner is to get an adjusted weight or amount.

note that 1tsp=5mL or 5g of solution (it's at least very close)
 
are you suppose to drop the ppm of ammoina after the reading of nitrites? To a dose of like 2 or 3 ppm down from 5 ppm? Or are you suppose to keep ammoina at 5 ppm till all drops?
 
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