Tank Cycling Reality Check

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Pellegrino

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Nov 5, 2004
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Ok, so I've been trying to get a fishless cycle started in my tank for a week now. I think I have followed Chris Cow's directions to the letter, except that I haven't been adding quite as much ammonia as he suggested. I initially added enough to get the reading to about 5ppm, then added that much the second day as well, like the instructions say. Of course the reading was off my 8ppm chart. I decided to add about a third of what it initially took each day thereafter. The reading is still off the chart and no nitrite is showing up:

Date, Ammonia PPM, Nitrite PPM
12/2, 4-5, 0
12/3, >8, 0
12/4, >8, 0
12/5, >8, 0
12/6, >8, 0
12/7, >8, 0
12/8, >8, 0

I added some gravel from an established tank yesterday (that's as early as I could come by it). Should I expect to get nitrite readings yet? Should I keep soldiering on? Maybe I am a paranoid newbie, but I really hate to add fish to a tank where I can't see any bacterial activity at all.

Thanks!
 
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I just completed a fishless cycle. What I did was keep the ammonia at 5ppm. I tested every 24 hours, and didn't re-dose the ammonia unless it dropped below 5ppm. Once I saw nitrite I cut the ammonia to 2.5ppm.

But with not letting the ammonia go over 5ppm, I saw nitrite in 2 days. I also used seeded media from an established tank. Next time you clean the filters on your established tank dump that 'gunk' in the tank that your cycling. It seemed to help speed my cycle along.

Also just a tip.. Most test kits are hard to read at higher levels. If your unsure of a result dilute the test using half tank water and half tap water. Then just double the result.

My cycle ended up stalled with an exceptionally high nitrite level. I couldn't read the exact color so I guessed. After diluting the test I realized the nitrite was way over 10ppm. Once I did some water changes to lower the nitrite to 5ppm the cycle finished in 2 days. Just a heads up even though your not at that point yet.
 
I really don't know, sorry. I hear that it takes 4 to 6 weeks to cycle a tank fishless. I am not sure how long it takes to have the nitrites increase and the ammonia lower. I have a 2 1/2 gallon tank w/one betta, not cycled 1st, and my ammonia level was 6.0 then after frequent water changes reduced to 4.0 and then w/AmQuel+ and NovAqua it went down to 2.0.

All I know is that it is a patience game first of all and that you cycling your tank is a great idea. Also the experienced people on this site need to know your tank specs (perhaps they already do), filters, etc to give an IMO answer.

I just know that it is best to do this fishless as you don't loose any life in your new experiences like I did when I bought a supposedly, $60 later, free goldfish that ended up dead because I had no idea of what I was doing.

Good luck and listen to the advise here (other than mine, of course) and they will send you in the right direction!!
 
Do a water change to get the ammonia down to 5ppm.

Higher ammonia will tend to burn through your KH and cause a pH crash, and the bacteria you are trying to cultivate will not survive that. Test your pH now to see if it has already crashed, if you began with low KH of 2 or 3 degrees, that may have already occured.

Water change until you test 5ppm ammonia. Then add back ammonia daily, carefully, to not exceed that level.

Follow what LindaD did, that should work.
 
Sounds like good advice all around. I am trying to be patient... some of it is by necessity since I had to wait for a while to get the tank and my wife wants to wait till christmas eve to put the fish in... so I've had plenty of time to read up. Now we are getting down to the wire so to speak.

I'll change out some water tonight and see if I can get the ammonia down to 5ppm. My pH has been holding steady around 7.2 so far, but I haven't been testing it very often. I need to get a hardness test kit since I haven't tested that yet.

I'll update this thread with my progress tomorrow for anyone who happens along later!
 
It depends on which version of Chris' technique you follow. The latest was at:

http://www.tropicalfishcentre.co.uk/Fishlesscycle.htm

Ammonia titer over 5ppm is counter-productive.

4-6 weeks is a long fishless cycle, only likely if no bacteria are introduced, or if the KH is too low and the pH crashes. The first I tried did take a month, but I did it wrong. Corrected the process and the next two took about 2 weeks +/- a couple of days either way.

Without a detectable nitrite titer, you are unlikely to have burned up much bicarb, but you may have supressed the nitrite-oxidizers.
 
One thing I don't see recommended often on guides for fishless cycling is doing regular partial water changes during the cycle. I've found that if I do at least a 50% water change once a week, it seems to keep things moving along and keeps my pH from crashing which seems to happen quite often and will delay the completion of your cycle.

I agree with everyone else on lowering your ammonia levels, they're probably too high and hindering your bacteria growth. Adding the gravel should help speed things up. You really don't *have* to keep 5ppm of ammonia in there, as long as there is excess ammonia in the tank the bacteria will continue to multiply. I'd consider 5ppm to be a max ammonia reading and not go over that.

Hang in there, you'll make it. Do some water changes to get your ammonia back under 5ppm and keep adding filter squeezings or water from a gravel cleaning in an established tank as you go and you should be able to have it all ready to setup on Christmas Eve :)
 
temp?

do you have a heater running there? The bacteria are not very active when cold, try something like 80 degrees or so.
 
I was following the latest version of Chris's technique. I guess I got off on the wrong foot due to the section that says:

Add ammonia to the tank initially to obtain a reading on your ammonia kit of ~5 ppm. Record the amount of ammonia that this took, then add that amount daily until the nitrite spikes.
Click to expand...

That seemed like I was adding a heck of a lot of ammonia, but I figured I ought to follow the directions.

I did a ~25% water change last night and my ammonia is still reading at least 8ppm, so I guess I was way over what I should have been. I'll change out more water after work today and get it down to 5ppm or so.

Once it is down to the right level, should I see nitrite within a day or two? I would imagine that if I can get some good bacteria from my neighbors tank (more gravel or some filter squeezings) I should see the bacteria doing their job pretty quickly, right?
 
IF you have a bacteria seed from another tank, you should see nitrite pretty quickly (depending on how much seed etc.) Without the bacteria seed it usually takes a week or two to see any activity. The more you can seed the tank the better, and with enough borrowed media and gunk you could easily get done by christmas. If I were going to try to fast track a cycle, I would seed as heavily as possible add ammonia to 5ppm wait until I saw nitrite production. As soon as the nitrite got up to about 3-4 ppm I would back the ammonia titer down to 2-3 ppm and re seed with more bacteria (I would use estabilished tank stuff not the bottled, I'm not sure how well it really works with the nitrite guys)
when you first seed the tank, nitrites are very low, and ammonia very high. both of these are somewhat counterproductive to your nitrite eaters. so when things shift to more nitrite, less ammonia, and constant nitrite production, the second seed should speed things up immensely. Please understand that the fishless cycle method will work as described, but if faster cycling is wanted, a little manipulation can help. Water ghanges are IMO an excellent idea, adding a small amount of baking soda isn't a bad idea either, but I would definately test KH before messing with baking soda. Baking soda is very fast and a little goes a long way to buffer water.
Dave
 
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