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Cycling: Fishless cycling


roo

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Hi all,

I am currently undertaking fishless cycling, I have been puting amonia into the tank for about 4 days, I now have nitrates. All the info I read states that you need to continue until you get a nitrate spike, then reduce the amount of amonia till the nitrate reads 0. Whats constiutes a spike? At the moment NO3 reads 12.5 is this a spike? yesterday it read nothing.

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you need to contunue until there is NO ammonia, NO nitrite and a hefty nitrate reading, do a big waterchange to lower the nitrate and away you go.

What are your NH3/4 and NO2 readings?

I'd say an NO3 of 12.5 is only a tad above desirable anyway, 20+ I'd think of as a spike.

If the NH3/4 & NO2 readings are 0, then she's cycled.

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I am guessing I am kind of in the middle of the cycle process,

Although I am a little confused,

I have nitrites off the scale and nitrates at about 15, and no ammonia.

The strange thing is that no matter how much ammonia I put in it seems to disappear really quickly ( a matter of hours) I get an initial reading but then nothing.

Where I am confused is that this has been going on for about a week. Nitrites dont seem to be coming down. Is this normal?

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I am guessing I am kind of in the middle of the cycle process,

Although I am a little confused,

I have nitrites off the scale and nitrates at about 15, and no ammonia.

The strange thing is that no matter how much ammonia I put in it seems to disappear really quickly ( a matter of hours) I get an initial reading but then nothing.

Where I am confused is that this has been going on for about a week. Nitrites dont seem to be coming down. Is this normal?

That's really good then. it means you have a big and strong colony of ammonia fixing bacteria (the guys that convert ammonia to nitrItes). if your nitrItes are starting to come down too, it means that their bacteria colony is growing up too.

i know it seems obvious, and sorry if i offend, but DO NOT add any more ammonia once there is a single fish in the tank. BIG TROUBLE if you do (ie dead fish).

I loved this method - i use it to cycle all my tanks. it's relatively fast (i used bacteria booster packs as well) and allows for a much greater initial load. i reckon once it's done you can almost fill it with fish!

Good luck, and keep us posted.

Grace

edit - blush.gif i should have just stuck to the chemical symbols, not names! just corrected my I's and A's thumb.gif

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ammonia gets transformed to nitrIte by 'one' kind of bacteria, which in turn gets transformed into nitrAte by a 'second' bacerial colony. The only way nitrAte will be reduced is through absobsion by plants or water changes.

So essentially the process is getting there - something is converting the ammonia, and eventually the 'second' bacteria colony will be large and stable enough to remove all your nitrIte.

You will then need to do some water changes to get your nitrAte level down to a habitable level (ie. 5 or below) before you begin adding fish thumb.gif

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ps. actually grace if you have a good bacterial colony and you were to add ammonia to a tank containing fish, it should be consumed by the bacteria before it has too much effect on any fish. Naturally if your talking about a litre of pure ammonia thats a different story, but in small doses the theory is sound. I have actually heard of people feeding their bacteria while a tank is not heavily stocked in order for it to be fully ready a large introduction of new fish. Alternately, apparently it is a cheaper way of providing nitrate for planted tanks via the bacterial process than using nitrate as a fertiliser thumb.gif

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ps. actually grace if you have a good bacterial colony and you were to add ammonia to a tank containing fish, it should be consumed by the bacteria before it has too much effect on any fish. Naturally if your talking about a litre of pure ammonia thats a different story, but in small doses the theory is sound. I have actually heard of people feeding their bacteria while a tank is not heavily stocked in order for it to be fully ready a large introduction of new fish. Alternately, apparently it is a cheaper way of providing nitrate for planted tanks via the bacterial process than using nitrate as a fertiliser thumb.gif

oh my god, really?

i had a fully cycled (well i thought it was) tank that i put a SAE in just to make sure.

he was good for 4 hours, and then i thought yeah i should feed the bacteria. added a capful (so like 10mLs max) to the tank, and had a floating SAE within 10 mins.

probably just unlucky tho

Grace

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  • 2 weeks later...

Ok I think I now have a cycled tanked, I have zero nitrites, zero ammonia and zero nitrates.

Is it strange to have zero nitrates?, as I haven't done a water change and all the reading I have done, says that nitrates should be high and that a water change will be necessary to reduce them

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I used the home brand cloudy ammonia from Coles ($1.47 for about 750 mls.... I still have about 700mls left), I wasn't sure if this type would be ok, but my girlfriend is a bit of a scientist and said it would be fine. It has worked a treat. everything went as according to the readings I have done. ( except for the fact that Nitrates are zero, without a water change or anything) The one thing I noticed was that Nitrites and Nitrates all hovered high for a while then just plumeted quite quickly.

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i had a fully cycled (well i thought it was) tank that i put a SAE in just to make sure.

he was good for 4 hours, and then i thought yeah i should feed the bacteria. added a capful (so like 10mLs max) to the tank, and had a floating SAE within 10 mins.

probably just unlucky tho

Grace

huh.gifohmy.gifhuh.gifohmy.gif ..... blink.gif

Feed the bacteria ???

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Hi,

Is fishless cycling recommended for a newby or should I do what my fish shop recommends and add fish slowly over a few weeks or do what others have suggested and put a few cheap gold fish in (for how long?)

Cheers,

Scienceman

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The only way nitrAte will be reduced is through absobsion by plants or water changes

Not true ohmy.gif .

Ammonia to nitrite to nitrate is done by aerobic bacteria

Nitrate is also broken down but by anaerobic bacteria. If you set you tank up with an anaerobic section (plumbed canister with slow flow rate for example), you can also reduce or eliminate (?) nitrates.

Craig

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I've been sprung - your absolutely right Craig blush.gif

Even just a plenum box in the corner is efficient and yes it can totally remove all traces of nitrate. However this is really only confusing the matter further for newbs cycling their first tank, which I assume would have been my reasoning for ignoring it.

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Seeing how I have one medium size anubius and two smallish jave ferns in the tank ( forgot to mention that) would this explain the zero nitrates?

So then the tank is cycled then, yehaaa, now for the fish. ( although will have to wait till after christmas seeing as I am going away.)

I will be spending the next few weeks learning about the different types of africans.

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