Only three days into the cycle: Ammonia down, NitrIte and NitrAtes present...

lateinningmagic

lateinningmagic

Call Me E-Man
Apr 14, 2009
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New York
Ok, so on Sunday afternoon I set up my new 20gallon tank with new substrate, new HOB filter, and new water (Conditioned). I placed four decorations (one plastic plant, hollow tree like stump, a ship wheel, and small castle) and the thermometer from an established 10 gallon tank in there. Only about 5 pieces of gravel from the 10g made it over to the 20g to anchor the plant.

I put in "cycle" (claims to add beneficial bacteria), about 2 capfuls per the directions and I put in about 2 1/2 teaspoons of ammonia that Sunday night and tested it with my API liquid ammonia test kit an hour later. Here are the readings:

Sunday night: 6.0 (Maybe closer to 8.0 than 6.0, it was quite a dark green)
Monday: 4.0
Tuesday: 2.0
Wednesday .75 (between .5 and 1)

Today (Wednesday) I decided to test the NitrIte and NitrAtes, just to see what was going on and was surprised at the readings.

NitrIte: 3
NitrAte: 40

Now I am using test strips for the NitrItes and NitrAtes and not a liquid test, but they are from API which gets a lot of praise for their master liquid test kit. Also, I used the strips for my 10g and they are showing it's propery cycled, so the strips seem accurate enough to me.

Did the old decorations from the established 10g help speed up the process (seems too quick too me)? Maybe the "cycle" product really does help? At around what levels do NitrIte spike? Anything I should do? Watch out for?

:help:
 
I found the test strip I used to test Nitrite and NitrAtes about an hour later (forgot to throw it out) and the color were more solid.

NitrIte looks like 5
NitRate looks like 20

Do the test strip get more accurate with more time? Or is the 60 second wait time enough for an accurate test?
 
test strips are in known to be in accurate, in general.
best to find a liquid test kit.(reagent)
that said you do not need to really cycle a tank the ammonia method if you have an established tank handy..
you have enough bacteria in the established tank to cut short a normal cycle as you can inoculate the new tank with bacteria from the established tank/
 
I definitely plan on getting a liquid test. I was lazy and bought everything at one store and didn't see any of the api master test kit, so I went with strips from that brand figuring it would be the next best thing.

The reason I did a fishless cycle was because I heard that the #1 best source for bacteria was from a filter in established tanks, #2 would be substrate, and #3 would be decorations. I'm using my 10gallon that's established for quarantining neon tetras I just bought yesterday, and for houseing a pleco I'm retuning to my LFS in a week. I had 4 feeder fish in there that I've had for about a month and half and relocated those to a spare 10 gallon with some gravel, a few small plastice plants, and an air pump.

So should I just keep monitoring the tank conditions? Should I add any ammonia when it hits zero if the NirIte and NitrAte haven't reached optimum levels? I was thinking of adding a couple of my feeder fish into the tank when the ammonia hits zero instead of manually adding ammonia everyday...
 
Yes the ornaments helped. I have never used Cycle type products so do not know for sure about it.

If the ammonia levels are allowed to go lower the cycle will take longer. With fishless cycle you should keep ammonia at about 4 ppm untill it and the nitrites both read 0 24 hrs after doseing for a few days. This should insure you do not encounter a mini cycle after adding fish. Then before adding fish do a water change to get nitrates to a safe level.

Anything above .25 in ammonia or nitrite will harm your fish so unless you really want to slow down what is looking to be a fast cycle time with constant water changes to keep fish alive I would just dose. It would be much easier and faster than all those water changes and low ammonia/nitrite. I would also keep doseing with the Cycle as directed it sure can't hurt.
 
Cluunox said:
Yes the ornaments helped. I have never used Cycle type products so do not know for sure about it.

If the ammonia levels are allowed to go lower the cycle will take longer. With fishless cycle you should keep ammonia at about 4 ppm untill it and the nitrites both read 0 24 hrs after doseing for a few days. This should insure you do not encounter a mini cycle after adding fish. Then before adding fish do a water change to get nitrates to a safe level.

Anything above .25 in ammonia or nitrite will harm your fish so unless you really want to slow down what is looking to be a fast cycle time with constant water changes to keep fish alive I would just dose. It would be much easier and faster than all those water changes and low ammonia/nitrite.
Click to expand...

Very nicely explained, thanks. I'll be picking up a new bucket (old one started tearing with the 15lbs of gravel) and some pure ammonia later today.
 
lateinningmagic said:
... Or is the 60 second wait time enough for an accurate test?
Click to expand...

Read it at 60 seconds for the Nitrate and 30 seconds for all the others.

Always follow the directions.

Ya gotta do the 30-60 second, sits and/or vigorus shaking stuff with them liquids. Or they aint gonna be right either.
 
if you have an established tank you do not need to do anything but add media from the established tank to the new tank.
I keep extra foam in my filter so i have seeded material I can add to my qt tank when I set it up.. the cycle, when done this way is 3-5 days.
 
Star_Rider said:
if you have an established tank you do not need to do anything but add media from the established tank to the new tank.
I keep extra foam in my filter so i have seeded material I can add to my qt tank when I set it up.. the cycle, when done this way is 3-5 days.
Click to expand...

My 10 gallon filter uses a sponge, if I took it out and placed it in my HOB filter for 3-5 days won't this negatively affect my established 10g? Since it would have no filter running. Or will that be solved with frequent water changes?
 
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