Tank Cycling Reality Check

You can cut back as soon as you have detectable nitrite. 2-3 ppm ammonia is non-trivial, it should still provide for large colony size.

Agree with caution on KH and bicarb - it can save the process in low KH water, but should be used with care, even with no fish present.
 
Well, over the last 48 hours I've probably changed 75% of my water out. I also seeded the tank again last night with filter squeezings from my neighbors tank. Ammonia is now reading at about 3ppm (color chart skips from 2-4 and it looks to be between the 2 colors). Nitrites were still zero this morning. Hopefully I'll start to see some activity soon. This is a 37 gallon tank, so I assume it can take a little while for activity to show up, at least, longer than in a 10 gall. I still need to get a GH/KH test kit and figure out where I am there. I'll do that today.
 
I instantly cycled my 55 using filter 'squeezings'...about 2 cups worth of dark, dirty, filthy water I got from a wet/dry prefilter....poured it in the tank a few hours after set-up, let it filter out over night and added fish the next day with no detectable levels of ammonia or nitrites to this very day. Just be sure your source for this "bacterial seed' is disease free.
 
Still no nitrite showing up now four days after large water changes and adding filter squeezings. My PH is about 8.0 which worries me a little. I've read that it can be best to just let PH do it's own thing unless it gets really excessive, but I am wondering what is raising the PH in my tank. My PH at the tap seems to be around 7.2. For completeness here are the latest readings from the tank: ammonia is at ~3ppm, nitrite and nitrate both 0. GH and KH are both fairly high in my tap water and in the tank, I don't have exact readings at the moment. I did find a place about 20 mins away that carries bio-spira, so I can get that for when the fish go in, but I am worried about why no bacteria are showing up in my tank. Anyone have any other ideas of what I can test for or try out?

Thanks!
 
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Have you checked aged or aerated tap water pH? Fresh from the tap pH readings do not mean much, as the water has been pressurized and is likely from a cool to cold source, so may have high dissolved CO2.
 
I'll fill a bucket tonight and chek it tomorrow. The only way I have of aerating at this point is to stir it once in a while... hopefully that will be enough.
 
OK so the tap water pH after aging for about 24 hours with occassional stirrings was 7.8, so the 8.0 in my tank doesn't bother me as much as it did, but do I need to worry about adjusting that before I add fish late next week?

Also, I'm still reading 0 nitrite, 3ppm ammonia as of yesterday afternoon. I've added filter squeezings from my neighbors tank every couple of days. I'm beginning to wonder if there is something in the ammonia I'm adding that is toxic to the bacteria? As far as I can tell it's just plain ammonia.
 
If you have the same water supply as the the LFS, the odds are good that your water is quite similar to theirs and no special adjustment should be needed or even desirable. My water source is different than the LFS, mine being a couple of tenths more alkaline. I do no mods for the trivial difference.

You would think that after almost a couple of weeks you would have some response.
 
RTR said:
You would think that after almost a couple of weeks you would have some response.
Click to expand...

That's exactly what I would think! :) I guess if I keep seeing no bacterial activity for the next few days I will change out 95% of my water, treat with bio-spira the night before the fish go in and be done with it. I really wanted the fishless cycle to work, though, so I'll keep trying to figure out what might be holding it up.

I'm only two blocks from the LFS where I will probably be acquiring fish so I should be ok on the water I guess.
 
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