ZomZom

I've been doing a fishless cycle since May 1. I've finally seen nitrates today, about 6 PPM. I've never seen nitrites, despite checking daily. Current ammonia is about 3 ppm, down from 6 ppm 3 days ago.

Lucy

Did you seed it with something from your 46g?

ZomZom

No, the 46 gallon hasn't arrived yet. I seeded with One and Only and have been using Proline Ammonium Chloride for ammonia. I had put in way too much ammonia originally (was well over 8) so that slowed me down for a few weeks before I realized that.

Lucy

I don't have personal experience with One and Only, do you add that once or will you have to add it with water changes once you have fish?
What seems to have happened is you have more bacteria that process nitrite than bacteria that processes ammonia.
How that leaves you in the cycle, I'm not sure.
My best guess is to continue what you're doing until the ammonia you add can drop to 0 in 24 hours, your nitrites are 0 with some nitrates showing.

ZomZom

Well I'd say today I detected the slightest amount of nitrite, perhaps 0.1. Nitrates have climbed to 15, ammonia had dropped to < 1, so I added some more.

Keeping my fingers crossed.

ZomZom

I'm on a roll, now. Ammonia dropped to 1.5 after dosing yesterday to 4. Nitrites have risen to .25 and Nitrates have risen to 30.

Lucy

Getting there!

ZomZom

Today, ammonia dropped to 1.5 from 6, nitrite climbed to 1 and nitrates climbed to 80, so things are definitely moving along. The even better news is that my 46 gallon bowfront arrived today. I'm having a blast setting it up!

ZomZom

Wow, today I'm at 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite and 100 nitrate. All the action has taken place this week. I've dosed ammonia again to see if I can keep it up.

I did have a pH crash, though, down to 6.2. Tomorrow, I'll do a water change to bring ph back up if I haven't seen progress on today's dosing.

Lucy

It would be a good idea to do a heck of a water change and get those nitrates down even though there aren't fish in there yet.
Not sure if that high of a reading can effect the cycle.

ZomZom

Thanks, Lucy. Will do.

ZomZom

Well, after doing two 90% water changes my tank is still at ph 6.2 (previously it had been 7.4). I'll do more water changes this weekend in hopes to get it back to normal.

There was a blizzard of what I can only guess is biofilm that was released from every surface in the tank. White/clear flakes that had been covering the ornaments. I guess this stuff would normally be eaten by fish (if I had any)?

Lucy

What's the pH coming out of the tap?
Is there anything in the tank that's making it drop? Are you adding anything to lower it?

ZomZom

pH out of the tap is right at 7. I haven't added anything to make it drop. I think it's dropped because of all the nitrates (nitric acid?) after two months of fishless cycling. It had held steady at 7.4 until two days ago when I my nitrites (and ammonia) dropped to zero.

ZomZom

Brief update: After setting for 24 hours the pH has stabilized at 7.0. Ammonia dropped from 3.0 to 1.5 and Nitrites are staying at 0. Nitrates are at 15.

ZomZom

Just to update, I'm having a problem with the pH dropping toward the end of the cycle. My tap water (from a well) has a pH of 7, but because we have a water softener the water is very soft and isn't able to buffer the nitric acid produced by the cycle. The pH crashes to 6 (or lower) and the cycle stalls.

I've ordered some mesh bags and will be picking up some crushed coral to put in my filters in hopes that this will give me the necessary buffering to keep the cycle going to completion.

Sure glad I'm doing this fishless. I'd hate to have to learn all of this while there are fish in the tank.