#fishless cycling

[ainawgsd]

Cycling my tank using ammonium chloride in hopes of adding new fish at the end of the month. Day 3 and already the ammonium levels are dropping (I was hoping some of the biological filter survived in the gravel after the tank failure)!

[shrimpcakes]

Fishless cycling

I'm being told so many different things about nitrites during fishless cycling. So many are saying not to do water changes and so many more are saying not let nitrites max the test, not to go above 2ppm, etc.

These were my parameters yesterday after doing a 50% water change per advice on a forum. I'm pretty sure my nitrites maxed the test out. I don't know if I should dose ammonia and wait or if I should do a water change to bring nitrites down and then dose ammonia? Or if I should let it sit with no changes tonight? Gahhhh frustrated

[bettagetkraken]

Switched the heater and filter/pump around, so I still have some movement but not the endless whirlwind effect that flattened the back curtain. Also looks better from the front now!

With how much they’ve grown so far I’m curious to see if they’ll be nearing the surface by fish day.

Shuffled the roots a bit, now have two fish-sized tunnels/hides.

Nitrites dropped from 5ppm to 0 overnight.

13 days ‘til fish day!

[ainawgsd]

Gonna have to call the pet store. Did not get any fish yesterday, partly because they didn't have any otocinclus in stock. But also because when they tested my water sample the ammonia was 75 (75ppm? Idk).

One of us is wrong

[bettagetkraken]

Ammonia breaks down as fast as I’m adding it.

Nitrate seems to be rising faster than nitrite? But my test only measures to 10ppm nitrite, so it’s possible it’s just spiking.

[jazimals-blog]

okay I finally found that ’old country’ ammonia and have started cycling. I put two moss balls in and have the heater higher than I normally would in the helps of speeding things along a little. might also take a decoration or two from the tank Felix is currently in and put them in this one.

I can’t find info on this one thing though: my filter has three different modes - will the strength of the filter flow affect cycling at all?

[bettagetkraken]

So anyway! Turns out I haven’t been adding as much ammonia as I’ve assumed, so I spent a little time yesterday figuring out the amounts to add per points raised in my tank. Pushed it to 3ppm and left it overnight, this morning both nitrite and nitrate levels have risen considerably. So I suppose I’m just waiting for nitrite to drop in a reliable fashion?

[curlydragonfish]

Fishless Cycle

Okay I just started my first ever fishless cycle! I dosed ammonia up to roughly 3 ppm. Problem is, I'm going away in about a week and won't be back for 10 days. I can't ask my neighbor who's petsitting to test my water every day... I probably can ask her to add a few drops of ammonia daily though, just so my bacteria don't starve. I don't want levels to get too high though and kill the bacteria or my plants... Or maybe I'll dose it up to 4 ppm before I go and just tell her to leave it alone. Maybe I could have her do a test at the halfway point just to be sure things are still running smoothly. Any suggestions?