Tank cycling ?

[Bubbles]

I've read about fishless cycling, but never needed to do it, since I have many sponge filters to transfer as well as multiple filters using the same media that can also be moved over.

Please let us know how it proceeds, Bubbles. It will be a learning experience for a lot of us. :yes:

:hi:

This is the first time we are doing a fishless cycle to as we have also not needed to do it before, for the same reason as yourself. So it will be a learning curve for us to.

16 / 6 We put enough ammonia in the tank to read 4ppm and according to a review of the fluval fx5 it cycled a tank with this amount of ammonia ( 700 litres of water) to nitrate only in 13 days.

With us cycling a 540 litre tank we will see how it goes.

I will keep you posted

 

[st24rsap]

:hi:

This is the first time we are doing a fishless cycle to as we have also not needed to do it before, for the same reason as yourself. So it will be a learning curve for us to.

16 / 6 We put enough ammonia in the tank to read 4ppm and according to a review of the fluval fx5 it cycled a tank with this amount of ammonia ( 700 litres of water) to nitrate only in 13 days.

With us cycling a 540 litre tank we will see how it goes.

I will keep you posted

id ignore that info on the 13 days to complete a full cycle it will take much longer (thats probably about right for stage 1 bacteria to colonate), theres 3 steps to building up the nitrifying bacteria required for the complete cycle. the filter needs to colonate with the 3 different types of bacteria required to break down the harmfull amonia into the not so harmfull nitrate

how are you doing the fishless cycle process??? there are 2 different methods and i know one of the methods can quite often stall the cycle mid process because of the amount of amonia being put into the tank. some people add a set amount of ammonia per day regardless of what the readings are of the tank, this IMO is not the best way to do the cycle. The better way is to add the 4ppm of ammonia and test twice daily and wait for the amonia reading to reduce to 0, then top it up with another 4ppm of ammonia

 

[Bubbles]

The better way is to add the 4ppm of ammonia and test twice daily and wait for the amonia reading to reduce to 0, then top it up with another 4ppm of ammonia

We are doing it this way, though i am not testing twice daily. Just once.

 

[st24rsap]

once a day is ok to start with as it will take a while for the first lot of bacteria to colonise in the filter, when the colony is well enough established to process the 4ppm of amonia added it can reduce it from 4ppm to 0ppm within a few hours. about 1 week into the process i started testing 2 times a day, morning and night to ensure there was always enough amonia in the tank for the bacteria to feed on

 

[Bubbles]

once a day is ok to start with as it will take a while for the first lot of bacteria to colonise in the filter, when the colony is well enough established to process the 4ppm of amonia added it can reduce it from 4ppm to 0ppm within a few hours. about 1 week into the process i started testing 2 times a day, morning and night to ensure there was always enough amonia in the tank for the bacteria to feed on

Thank you for the info i have looked at a lot of sites and taken info from all, but hadnt seen this, will inform husband of this.

Kind thanks.

 

[st24rsap]

no probs, any questions just ask. ive done a few fishless cycles now.

 

[Bubbles]

no probs, any questions just ask. ive done a few fishless cycles now.

Phew thats a relief as i am quite nervous as i dont know anyone apart from you who has done this, thank you so much.

I know how important it is to keep ammonia in the tank but not too much as i have read how sensitive some bacteria is. I feel like i am teetering a bit on a tight rope.

In fact i am going to do a test now as couldnt do one this morning, will let you know if thats ok.

 

[st24rsap]

Phew thats a relief as i am quite nervous as i dont know anyone apart from you who has done this, thank you so much.

I know how important it is to keep ammonia in the tank but not too much as i have read how sensitive some bacteria is. I feel like i am teetering a bit on a tight rope.

In fact i am going to do a test now as couldnt do one this morning, will let you know if thats ok.

its not too hard really, just need to keep the ppm of ammonia right. are you testing the ph as well, this can sometimes go unstable during a cycle causing it to crash (i had this once and had to start again).

it can be a right pain of a process, for weeks you might not get any reading of nitrite then all of a sudden within a few hours it will spike and go off the chart, hence why i used to test a few times a day. for the sake of a 5 min test its worth it to save weeks of hard work being lost if everything crashed

 

[Bubbles]

its not too hard really, just need to keep the ppm of ammonia right. are you testing the ph as well, this can sometimes go unstable during a cycle causing it to crash (i had this once and had to start again).

it can be a right pain of a process, for weeks you might not get any reading of nitrite then all of a sudden within a few hours it will spike and go off the chart, hence why i used to test a few times a day. for the sake of a 5 min test its worth it to save weeks of hard work being lost if everything crashed

My only real concern is due to damage to my left eye i sometimes cannot see the differance between colours, hence why Chris has been doing the tests on this tank. He can see the differance in the green of 2ppm and 4 ppm i cant really. Hence i did the test and to be honest it looks like 2ppm to me, will it be ok for a few hours until Chris gets in to test?

Yes we test the PH as well.

 

[st24rsap]

as long as it doesnt get to 0 and stay there for too long it will be fine, the bacteria starts to die off after around 24hrs if it doesnt get food or oxygen, so as long as theres a reading or 2ppm it will be fine untilll later

 

[Bubbles]

Thank you.

 

[Princess x]

its not too hard really, just need to keep the ppm of ammonia right. are you testing the ph as well, this can sometimes go unstable during a cycle causing it to crash (i had this once and had to start again).

it can be a right pain of a process, for weeks you might not get any reading of nitrite then all of a sudden within a few hours it will spike and go off the chart, hence why i used to test a few times a day. for the sake of a 5 min test its worth it to save weeks of hard work being lost if everything crashed

There are ways to kick start a stalled cycle without having to re- start from scratch :yes:
it is important to keep an eye on the ph as everyone knows a cycle can stall below 6 in which case it would just need a little help to get it going again. i have advised on many a fishless cycle, and there is a clever way to test for nitrites off the chart too

 

[st24rsap]

please tell, i would be interested to know. any more info to make the process easier for other members would be great

 

[Princess x]

sure will if a cycle stalls normal and more common when the water ph falls to below 6 it can be kickstarted by one of two things you can either add a bag of coral which will raise the ph slightly and help complete the cycle or add bicarbonate of soda how much is dependant on the size of the tank, and will need stabilizing before any fish are added at the end.
By testing the tap water for ph at the start will give a rough indication as to what the tank ph will be all varies on the substrate used and the decoration used, ie Bogwood is known to lower ph especially when it's a new piece for example,
as for high nitrites off the scale a simple dilution test can be carried out to determine exactly how high it is
if followed correctly the fishless cycle is very beneficial.
i would always advise that if your nitrites have kicked in i'e reading in the region of 5 or higher to cut the ammonia down to 2ppm
not only will it quicken the cycle but will be more than enough to cope with a fully stocked tank.any thing else you would to know feel free to fire away

 

[Bubbles]

HELP please st24rsap

:hi:

At 7.20 pm today i did a test and here is the results

PH 8.2 ( its usually 8)

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 5
Nitrate between 40-80

This morning : 9 am -
PH 8
Ammonia 0-0.25
Nitrate 40-80

Chris added a little ammonia that took the reading to 0.5ppm

In your opinion will it be ok until Chris gets in at midnight(ish).

 

[st24rsap]

did you use some mature media to speed the process up, if not thats a bloody quick cycle

it will be fine untill later IMO

 

[Bubbles]

did you use some mature media to speed the process up, if not thats a bloody quick cycle

it will be fine untill later IMO

Thank you for your reply much appreciated, Chris added a little amount of ammonia at 23.45 last night, unfortunately was too tired to retest. But the ammount was only 1ml.

This morning the readings were
PH 8.2
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 5
Nitrate 80.

To answer your question, we did think about it, but as one tank had been de stabilised by adding the rescued fish, and in the other tank are two common plecs we didnt want to have two tanks, where the bacteria would be de stabilised so we didnt add anything from our other tanks.

Chris will be adding another 1ml of ammonia in a short while to keep the ammonia bacteria fed.

edit :
10.50 am added 1ml of ammonia
11.10 am Ammonia 0.5ppm

Will be retesting the tank this afternoon.

 

[st24rsap]

how long is it taking for the 4ppm of Ammonia to be reduced to 0ppm at the moment?

id say the cycle seems almost complete. once the nitrite has spiked and then reduced to 0 you should be there. Im suppreised how quick the cycle has been, it normally takes ages for the bacteria that converts nitrite to nitrate to establish but looking at your results id say the colonys are pretty much established now

 

[Bubbles]

The last time i had 4ppm of Ammonia in the tank was 21/6 since then we have been adding enough ammonia on a daily basis, to keep the bacteria ticking over as we had a nitrite reading and didnt want to overwhelm the nitrifying bacteria.

So alas i couldnt tell you that sorry.

If it helps on the 22/6 it took 4 hours and 20 minutes for 2ppm of ammonia to go to 0.

 

[st24rsap]

id say the cycle was progressing very well then, with a nitrate reading of 80 already your just waiting for the nitrite to drop to 0. once it does which probably wont be too long all you have to do is test that the complete process of converting ammonia to nitrate completes within the necessary time scale (cant remember if its 12 or 24hrs)

keep us posted but great job so far