soccermatt

Hi,

I have been cycling my tank purely with fish food, and here's how its gone.

Temperature 29
pH 7.8
12.5 Gallon
Several Live Plants
Air Pump
AquaClear 20 Filter

Day 1 (Dec 8) - Started
Day 4 - ammonia = .6
Day 5 - Ammonia = .8
Day 7 Ammonia = 1
Day 8 Ammonia = 1.75
Day 9 Ammonia = 2.25
Day 10 Ammonia = 1.50 nitrite = 0.50
Day 11 AM Ammonia = 1.50 Nitrite = 1
Day 11 PM Ammonia = 1.50 Nitrite = 1.25
Day 12 Ammonia = 1 Nitrite = 3.5
Day 13 AM Ammonia = .75 Nitrite = 5.0
Day 13 PM Ammonia = .60 Nitrite = 5.0 (did 10% water change)
Day 14 AM Ammonia = .25 Nitrite = 5.0
Day 14 PM Ammonia = .10 Nitrite = 5.0
Day 15 AM Ammonia = 0 Nitrite = 5.0
Day 15 PM Ammonia = 0 Nitrite = 5.0
Day 16 AM Ammonia = 0 Nitrite = 5.0
Day 17 Missed Testing For Christmas
Day 18 Ammonia = 0 Nitrite = 5.0
Day 19 Nitrite = 5.0
Day 20 Nitrite = 5.0
Day 21 Nitrite = 5.0 (3 week mark)
Day 22 Nitrite = 5.0

I am wondering how much longer it will take for nitrite to drop and if there is any thing that i can do to make it drop quicker (and i don't have anywhere to get mature media or gravel).

Thanks

Shawnie

sometimes in the nitrite phase, when using fishless methods to cycle, you have to do a small water change to bump it a bit..but ONLY if you have a good nitrate reading...do you have any nitrates yet? if not, you have a couple of weeks to go IMO ..but to be exact, its very hard to say ...GREAT job cycling fishless!!!!!!!

Lucy

It's hard to tell without a nitrate reading.

soccermatt

thanks,
i don't have a nitrate test kit unfortunately so i guess i will just continue to wait.

flyin-lowe

when I was cyclinhg my 75 g tank a member on here told me that the nitrite to nitrate portion of th cycle takes about twice as long as the ammonia to nitrite portion of the cycle. Has anyone else heard this. I ended up going with TSS so I never did find out.

soccermatt

i have heard that one of the only products to help establish bacteria is TSS. Could i add that to at least help, even with nitrites so high.

i acually just bought a nitrate test kit. I got the reading 8.0 about.
Hope this helps.

Shawnie

give it a couple more days...if you dont see your nitrites dropping, and you still have nitrates, do a small water change .....I wouldnt add TSS now as you are almost done!

Lucy

Looks good.
Some members have gotten stuck in the nitrite stage.
See how your nitrates test in the next few days, if things don't change, you might want to consider a water change.

Lucy

Shawnie, look at our post times.

Shawnie

flyin-lowe

TSS will only help if you have fish in the tank. You have come this far fishless so I would save my money and not use it.

soccermatt

Day 23 Nitrite = 1.0 Nitrate = 10.0

I think it's coming down, but it was hard to tell what the nitrite reading was. Looked similar to both 1 and 5 so I went with one. Hope it's true. But at least Nitrate are still defiantly on the rise.

Lucy

I'm sorry if you said this somewhere else, Are you using strips or a liquid test kit?
With the liquid kit, the color chart between 1 and 5 is pretty clear.

soccermatt

No it was API lol. I'll test again later.

Lucy

API makes strips and liquid tests.

soccermatt

Oh sorry it's a liquid test kit.

soccermatt

Day 22 PM Nitrite = 1.0 - 0.50 Nitrate = 10-15

This time Nitrite is definatly between 1 and .5. I'm so happy and excited.

Shawnie

almost party time!!!!!