40 Gallon Tank Day 28 fishless cycle.

So what I’m learning is I shouldn’t dose anymore ammonia until my nitrite levels drop? Ammonia .25, Nitrite 2, Nitrate 40, ph 6.6. I did 2 50% water changes last two days to try and get my ph up. Dosed to 2 ppm fritz ammonia 24 hours ago. On day 28 fishless cycle. 80f, planted tank, tropica soil, gravel, Mopani, c4 fluval filter. Or should I add ammonia? Do another water change?

 

So what I’m learning is I shouldn’t dose anymore ammonia until my nitrite levels drop?

That is correct. If you continue to dose ammonia, it won't do anything except continue to spike nitrite and then likely stall the cycle. So nothing good comes out of it.

Ammonia .25, Nitrite 2, Nitrate 40, ph 6.6. I did 2 50% water changes last two days to try and get my ph up. Dosed to 2 ppm fritz ammonia 24 hours ago. On day 28 fishless cycle. 80f, planted tank, tropica soil, gravel, Mopani, c4 fluval filter. Or should I add ammonia? Do another water change? View attachment 811663

After two 50% water changes, you would have removed 75% of the nitrite. Presuming you don't have a material amount of nitrite in your tap water, your starting amount of nitrite would be 8ppm, if it is 2ppm now. Though honestly, 2ppm and 5ppm nitrite looks similar, and if you have been dosing ammonia everyday, you'd probably spike nitrite wayyyy higher than that.

I'd recommend just doing a 100% water change. And then shifting to dosing ammonia only when both ammonia and nitrite reads zero. That way, you can avoid a massive nitrite spike and stalling your cycle.

 

Before your reply, i took my best guess and did a 75% WC this morning. All the ammonia was gone but like you said nitrites were sky high... Wished i had waited later, until i read this...I dosed to about .5ppm ammonia after i WC!I knew in my gut, this was probably stupid. Should i do another large water change when i get home? Then, no more ammonia until Nitrites drop to zero? Thank you for the feedback.I really apreciate it.

 

Before your reply, i took my best guess and did a 75% WC this morning. All the ammonia was gone but like you said nitrites were sky high... Wished i had waited later, until i read this...I dosed to about .5ppm ammonia after i WC!I knew in my gut, this was probably stupid. Should i do another large water change when i get home? Then, no more ammonia until Nitrites drop to zero? Thank you for the feedback.I really apreciate it.

Yeah, that's probably best. Not so much because of the 0.5ppm ammonia dosing, but that your nitrite is still sky high. But if the water change would be just a pain, then you can also try to wait it out.

It's not surprising that it is that high by the way. Even two weeks of dosing 2ppm ammonia diligently everyday is enough to get nitrite above 75ppm... and that after your water changes would still be around 4.7ppm. Presuming you've dosed 2ppm ammonia for four weeks now, that's more like 150ppm, it'd be more like around 9.4ppm. Of course, there should hopefully be at least *some* nitrite oxidation, but would still be high. But at this point, probably not high enough to stall the cycle. Presuming your 0.5ppm ammonia was converted to nitrite, that adds another 1.4ppm nitrite or so, which yeah is still not too bad. Around 10ppm nitrite, your nitrifiers can still handle.

 

Got home and did an 80% WC. I have a nice little Vivosun water pump, so it is super easy! So definitely NOT adding ammonia. Initial tests look promising so I’ll test tomorrow and see what’s happening. On the bright side, I didn’t dose ammonia that often, prob every three days…never dosed it to 4ppm. mostly to just 1ppm. I added a pinch of flake food 48 hrs ago bc there has been a lot of discussion about it creating better NB in the end…prob won’t continue but what are your thoughts on this?

 

Got home and did an 80% WC. I have a nice little Vivosun water pump, so it is super easy! So definitely NOT adding ammonia. Initial tests look promising so I’ll test tomorrow and see what’s happening. On the bright side, I didn’t dose ammonia that often, prob every three days…never dosed it to 4ppm. mostly to just 1ppm. I added a pinch of flake food 48 hrs ago bc there has been a lot of discussion about it creating better NB in the end…prob won’t continue but what are your thoughts on this?View attachment 811855

Whew, still a bit of nitrite there.

Yeah, best to keep on waiting out the nitrite.

The nitrifying bacteria we try to grow are autotrophs, meaning they produce their own 'food' from carbon dioxide and stuff like water. So to me, that just makes feeding them food pointless, since they are not really going to use that. Worse, that'll just feed heterotrophs (living creatures that cannot produce their own food) that grow far faster than the autotrophs, so even if the heterotrophs don't outcompete the autotrophs for space (what we definitely don't want), would by the least just use up all that food anyways, so it'll make minimal change to the nitrifying bacteria population at best, at medium can stunt the growth of the autotrophs, or cause them to be outcompeted at worse.

To be clear, the latter case is very unlikely, but even the 'medium' case is not preferable.

Food does help in providing the nitrifying bacteria with other substrates that they may lack, like sulfur or phosphorous. However these are pretty readily available, and nitrifying bacteria don't really need much to be able to reproduce to high enough numbers. In contrast, well, again, heterotrophs would likely use up the majority of the sulfur and phosphorous introduced by the food anyways.

So yeah, I don't see a point at all in feeding fish food.

 

Great explanation! This morning all the tests are the same except my ph dropped to 6.6 again. This will slow the cycling down. Should I add some baking soda or try to find some crushed coral? also the only water column feeding plant I have is one Anubis. Can I dose fertilizer in the water or leave it until the cycle finishes?

 

Great explanation! This morning all the tests are the same except my ph dropped to 6.6 again. This will slow the cycling down. Should I add some baking soda or try to find some crushed coral? also the only water column feeding plant I have is one Anubis. Can I dose fertilizer in the water or leave it until the cycle finishes?

I would recommend crushed coral.

As for the plant, sorry I am not familiar with how to keep them alive during the cycle, so I can't help you here. Someone else should be able to though.

 

Hello, I’m pretty uneasy today! I left the tank alone for the last 36 hours and didn’t add any more ammonia, liquid fertilizers or flake food, and the tests stayed pretty much the same. Ammonia 0, nitrites 2-5, nitrates 20-40. should I do another water change? Ph is still 6.8. Can’t find coral anywhere, so going to add a little baking soda each day until I can order some.

 

Hello, I’m pretty uneasy today! I left the tank alone for the last 36 hours and didn’t add any more ammonia, liquid fertilizers or flake food, and the tests stayed pretty much the same. Ammonia 0, nitrites 2-5, nitrates 20-40. should I do another water change?

Can you try diluting the nitrite to half tank water and redo the test? I will say most of the time it is on the higher side and off the chart. I'm a strong advocate of water change after my own limited personal experiences. I find it hard to monitor anything when either ammonia or nitrite are all of the chart (most of the time nitrite). I like to "reset" so I can dose ammonia and see where the cycle is actually at after learning that the bacteria are quite resilient. Again not an expert, just some personal thoughts.

 

Hello, I’m pretty uneasy today! I left the tank alone for the last 36 hours and didn’t add any more ammonia, liquid fertilizers or flake food, and the tests stayed pretty much the same. Ammonia 0, nitrites 2-5, nitrates 20-40. should I do another water change? Ph is still 6.8. Can’t find coral anywhere, so going to add a little baking soda each day until I can order some.

Yeah still the same options, I guess. I mean, even if you have to wait a week or two before nitrite drops, that's not an issue. pH at 6.8, I'd not worry too much that that significantly affects the cycle.

With that said, personally, I'd just do the 100% water change. Like as much as possible.

 

Yeah still the same options, I guess. I mean, even if you have to wait a week or two before nitrite drops, that's not an issue. pH at 6.8, I'd not worry too much that that significantly affects the cycle.

With that said, personally, I'd just do the 100% water change. Like as much as possible.

Ok I will do as close to 100% WC. it seems like the best way to get things under control.. the thing that is worrying me is, everyone says, once your ammonia gets eaten every 24 hours, your nitrates should just disappear one day after spiking. HKsai says to dose ammonia after to see where the cycle is at. Should I? Yes Nitrites. Yikes.

 

Ok I will do as close to 100% WC. it seems like the best way to get things under control.. the thing that is worrying me is, everyone says, once your ammonia gets eaten every 24 hours, your nitrates should just disappear one day after spiking. HKsai says to dose ammonia after to see where the cycle is at. Should I?

I presume you mean nitrite. Which yes, should on day just disappear... the question is, when. And if you have too massive a spike, it might be weeks or longer, judging from all the others who had the same issue. XD

But yes, HKsai is right. Once you manage to get nitrite to zero, or close enough, then dose the ammonia to see where your cycle is at. The reason why I do not dose ammonia when there is still nitrite, is to actually be able to gauge how nitrite is being processed. If we get say 5ppm nitrite, and then two days later it drops to 1ppm, we know that the nitrite is being consumed at 2ppm/day for example. If nitrite is far above 5ppm, we can't actually see that change. Unless we do serial dilutions and all that, which is just more painful than it needs to be. :3

 

Can you try diluting the nitrite to half tank water and redo the test? I will say most of the time it is on the higher side and off the chart. I'm a strong advocate of water change after my own limited personal experiences. I find it hard to monitor anything when either ammonia or nitrite are all of the chart (most of the time nitrite). I like to "reset" so I can dose ammonia and see where the cycle is actually at after learning that the bacteria are quite resilient. Again not an expert, just some personal thoughts.

Hi! Ok dosed to half and looks like 1ppm. So it may be dropping. Should I do a large 80%-100% WC?

I presume you mean nitrite. Which yes, should on day just disappear... the question is, when. And if you have too massive a spike, it might be weeks or longer, judging from all the others who had the same issue. XD

But yes, HKsai is right. Once you manage to get nitrite to zero, or close enough, then dose the ammonia to see where your cycle is at. The reason why I do not dose ammonia when there is still nitrite, is to actually be able to gauge how nitrite is being processed. If we get say 5ppm nitrite, and then two days later it drops to 1ppm, we know that the nitrite is being consumed at 2ppm/day for example. If nitrite is far above 5ppm, we can't actually see that change. Unless we do serial dilutions and all that, which is just more painful than it needs to be. :3

That makes sense! I think it is dropping a bit. I will wait until nitrites reach zero before dosing ammonia to 2ppm. Thankyou

 

I presume you mean nitrite. Which yes, should on day just disappear... the question is, when. And if you have too massive a spike, it might be weeks or longer, judging from all the others who had the same issue. XD

But yes, HKsai is right. Once you manage to get nitrite to zero, or close enough, then dose the ammonia to see where your cycle is at. The reason why I do not dose ammonia when there is still nitrite, is to actually be able to gauge how nitrite is being processed. If we get say 5ppm nitrite, and then two days later it drops to 1ppm, we know that the nitrite is being consumed at 2ppm/day for example. If nitrite is far above 5ppm, we can't actually see that change. Unless we do serial dilutions and all that, which is just more painful than it needs to be. :3

Hello! So it’s been four days with 2 50% WC’s. I’ve added no more ammonia.
ph 7
ammonia 0ppm
nitrite .5ppm
nitrate 10-20ppm

i have added quite a few more plants and half the amount of all in one thrive ferts for the plants only once. this may be contributing to the nitrates…it was down to 10 before adding fert. The nitrites just seem frozen. I’m on day 35 fishless cycle. Is this normally how long it takes for nitrites to drop?

 

Hello! So it’s been four days with 2 50% WC’s. I’ve added no more ammonia.
ph 7
ammonia 0ppm
nitrite .5ppm
nitrate 10-20ppm

i have added quite a few more plants and half the amount of all in one thrive ferts for the plants only once. this may be contributing to the nitrates…it was down to 10 before adding fert. The nitrites just seem frozen. I’m on day 35 fishless cycle. Is this normally how long it takes for nitrites to drop?

It honestly depends. Once the bacteria kicks in then they multiply pretty quickly. If you have nitrate, that means you have bacteria to convert nitrite to nitrate. 0.5 is not that big of an amount of nitrite though. I would assume 1-2 days??? Again, it depends but the bacteria are there.

I also forgot to add that high phosphate (in my experience) can also inhibit bacteria convert nitrite. I want to say the culprit of my mini cycle was my urge to dose a lot of fertilizer after water change which kicked the phosphate level to super duper high.

 

Hello! So it’s been four days with 2 50% WC’s. I’ve added no more ammonia.
ph 7
ammonia 0ppm
nitrite .5ppm
nitrate 10-20ppm

i have added quite a few more plants and half the amount of all in one thrive ferts for the plants only once. this may be contributing to the nitrates…it was down to 10 before adding fert. The nitrites just seem frozen. I’m on day 35 fishless cycle. Is this normally how long it takes for nitrites to drop?

It can be, depending on a multitude of factors. Do you happen to know the ingredients of the ferts? Some ferts release ammonia, so that could be where the nitrite is being elevated from. But I don't know enough about ferts to be sure.

 

I dosed 2 pumps in the last 4 days. Half the amount. This would probably explain it.

I won’t use anymore for a while… you both agree this is slowing the cycle down?

 

I dosed 2 pumps in the last 4 days. Half the amount. This would probably explain it. View attachment 812863
I won’t use anymore for a while… you both agree this is slowing the cycle down?

I honestly can’t tell you 100% what to do. I just know that when I tested my water the phosphate level was off the chart which kicked my tank into a mini cycle. I was very heavy handed though. I went ham with the root tabs, flourish advance (which is just a plant hormone or whatever) and easy green. I can see that your fertilizer has copper as well. You are planning to have any invertebrate I assume.

 

I think once it’s cycled I will add a couple snail’s or shrimp to help with algae. But I was planning on 6-10 cardinal tetras to start as my ph is naturally around 6.5 to 6.8… what do you think so far? You have plants I assume from your knowledge?
this is a bad pic

 

I think once it’s cycled I will add a couple snail’s or shrimp to help with algae. But I was planning on 6-10 cardinal tetras to start as my ph is naturally around 6.5 to 6.8… what do you think so far? You have plants I assume from your knowledge?View attachment 812870this is a bad pic

Idk if small amount of copper would be okay because I was always under the impresssion that invertebrates are extremely sensitive to any amount of copper. Maybe other people can weigh in. I mostly have some low and medium tech plants (pogo stemmon, Java fern, anubias, crypts, micro sword, red melon sword…). I find root tabs more useful than liquid fertilizer for rooted plants and liquid fertilizer being good with stem plants like water wisteria. Is that scarlet temple in the back? I’ve tried to have those without a proper light before and they just die on me.

Beautiful tank btw. Love the set up. What else are you gonna put in it? I will do a bigger school of cardinal tetras since you have the space.

 

Since you are doing a fishless cycle, you have more leeway on how the ammonia and nitrites spike, however, if you want the smoothest buildup of the cycle possible, I'd dose 2 ppm ammonia to the tank, wait for BOTH ammonia and nitrite to head down to 0, and then re-dose ammonia. I've found that as people start to dose ammonia every time ammonia goes down, nitrites build up, and then they get confused on how to clear up the nitrites. You'll know the tank is cycled when the tank ammonia levels drop to 0 in 24 hours, and the nitrites drop to 0 in the next. (at least that's how I figured my tank was cycled)

Also, just as a precaution, don't add shrimp until the end, as shrimp can be really sensitive to water parameter changes. I'm planning on adding my shrimp sometime next year. I'd add a few snails instead.

In terms of your aquascape, your bottom layer is amazing! You got a good mix of plants and wood. I might recommend getting some wood to slant to the top, and getting some tall stem plants in order to fill up your upper layers.

Keep us posted on this tank, it looks great!

 

Idk if small amount of copper would be okay because I was always under the impresssion that invertebrates are extremely sensitive to any amount of copper. Maybe other people can weigh in. I mostly have some low and medium tech plants (pogo stemmon, Java fern, anubias, crypts, micro sword, red melon sword…). I find root tabs more useful than liquid fertilizer for rooted plants and liquid fertilizer being good with stem plants like water wisteria. Is that scarlet temple in the back? I’ve tried to have those without a proper light before and they just die on me.

Beautiful tank btw. Love the set up. What else are you gonna put in it? I will do a bigger school of cardinal tetras since you have the space.

Good morning! Thankyou for the compliment! I didn’t know about copper and invertebrates so I will keep that in mind. The pink plants In the back are Alternanthera Reineckii. They are a medium, so I’m hoping they make it. The problem is, my lighting is a fluval 3.0, and I’m keeping light intensity at 50% until cycled. I’m also dosing half the required co2 until finished. I have 2 other plants that need it. I may end up with just the low light plants in the end! ive been impatient waiting for the cycle and fish, so I’ve gone off on plants! I’m reading on here that Cardinals need a really mature tank or they will die due to over breeding…I will check the lfs’s breeder info first. If they are solid, I would like a fairly large school. I love Tetras! In the end, maybe 3 or four types. I think my tanks capacity is 25 for them (45 gal).

Since you are doing a fishless cycle, you have more leeway on how the ammonia and nitrites spike, however, if you want the smoothest buildup of the cycle possible, I'd dose 2 ppm ammonia to the tank, wait for BOTH ammonia and nitrite to head down to 0, and then re-dose ammonia. I've found that as people start to dose ammonia every time ammonia goes down, nitrites build up, and then they get confused on how to clear up the nitrites. You'll know the tank is cycled when the tank ammonia levels drop to 0 in 24 hours, and the nitrites drop to 0 in the next. (at least that's how I figured my tank was cycled)

Also, just as a precaution, don't add shrimp until the end, as shrimp can be really sensitive to water parameter changes. I'm planning on adding my shrimp sometime next year. I'd add a few snails instead.

In terms of your aquascape, your bottom layer is amazing! You got a good mix of plants and wood. I might recommend getting some wood to slant to the top, and getting some tall stem plants in order to fill up your upper layers.

Keep us posted on this tank, it looks great!

Thankyou! That means a lot! No one has really seen my tank, and I want to do it right! Your right. It needs something to reach the upper water column. I will look for another piece of drift wood. Or a fast growing stem plant! I have Pogostemon Erectus in the back behind the Mopani DW. It is suppose to grow to the top of the tank…it’s doubled in size in the last two weeks, so that will help.

My nitrites are almost gone .25ppm, so I think I’ll do another 50% WC today and dose to 2ppm ammonia tomorrow and wait a day to see what happens. It‘s close I think!

 

Good morning! Thankyou for the compliment! I didn’t know about copper and invertebrates so I will keep that in mind. The pink plants In the back are Alternanthera Reineckii. They are a medium, so I’m hoping they make it. The problem is, my lighting is a fluval 3.0, and I’m keeping light intensity at 50% until cycled. I’m also dosing half the required co2 until finished. I have 2 other plants that need it. I may end up with just the low light plants in the end! ive been impatient waiting for the cycle and fish, so I’ve gone off on plants! I’m reading on here that Cardinals need a really mature tank or they will die due to over breeding…I will check the lfs’s breeder info first. If they are solid, I would like a fairly large school. I love Tetras! In the end, maybe 3 or four types. I think my tanks capacity is 25 for them (45 gal).

Thankyou! That means a lot! No one has really seen my tank, and I want to do it right! Your right. It needs something to reach the upper water column. I will look for another piece of drift wood. Or a fast growing stem plant! I have Pogostemon Erectus in the back behind the Mopani DW. It is suppose to grow to the top of the tank…it’s doubled in size in the last two weeks, so that will help.

My nitrites are almost gone .25ppm, so I think I’ll do another 50% WC today and dose to 2ppm ammonia tomorrow and wait a day to see what happens. It‘s close I think!

Yes! That’s scarlet temple and they need tons of root tabs and high light to have the coloring. They also need iron due to the red coloring. Just observe them for now. You might have better luck than me.
I think you might be thinking of neon tetra disease and it is common due to inbreeding. Neon tetra are not necessary more sensitive but it depends on where you get them. Cardinal tetra is supposed to be hardier of the two. My neon tetras have been living just fine.
I second pogo. They are great plants. Water wisteria or water sprite are also great. I also like hornwort because they are low need and grow like crazy. Trimming is easy.

 

Yes! That’s scarlet temple and they need tons of root tabs and high light to have the coloring. They also need iron due to the red coloring. Just observe them for now. You might have better luck than me.
I think you might be thinking of neon tetra disease and it is common due to inbreeding. Neon tetra are not necessary more sensitive but it depends on where you get them. Cardinal tetra is supposed to be hardier of the two. My neon tetras have been living just fine.
I second pogo. They are great plants. Water wisteria or water sprite are also great. I also like hornwort because they are low need and grow like crazy. Trimming is easy.

The seller said because I have new Aqua soil substrate under my gravel, not to add root tabs for a couple months…is this true? I have some Seachem root tabs on hand if necessary.

The seller said because I have new Aqua soil substrate under my gravel, not to add root tabs for a couple months…is this true? I have some Seachem root tabs on hand if necessary.

I should add…just planted them a few days ago. Do they need to establish for a couple weeks first?

 

The seller said because I have new Aqua soil substrate under my gravel, not to add root tabs for a couple months…is this true? I have some Seachem root tabs on hand if necessary.

I should add…just planted them a few days ago. Do they need to establish for a couple weeks first?

I probably won’t add anything until the cycle is established.

 

It can be, depending on a multitude of factors. Do you happen to know the ingredients of the ferts? Some ferts release ammonia, so that could be where the nitrite is being elevated from. But I don't know enough about ferts to be sure.

Hi there! I did another 50% WC over an hour ago. I’m officially at 0 nitrites, 0 ammonia and 5ppm nitrates! Yay

i think you can give me some great advice now….do I dose to 2ppm ammonia now and see what happens? Or wait?
Azedenkae, reading back to our thread from four days earlier, I will dose ammonia up to 2ppm and see how long it takes to convert to nitrites. Then I will know how much and how long it is processing. I will test tomorrow and check back…I’m off to work soon.

 

Now that your ammonia and nitrites are down, dose 2 ppm ammonia to the tank. Wait for both ammonia and nitrites to drop to 0 before redosing

 

Hi there! I did another 50% WC over an hour ago. I’m officially at 0 nitrites, 0 ammonia and 5ppm nitrates! Yay

i think you can give me some great advice now….do I dose to 2ppm ammonia now and see what happens? Or wait?
Azedenkae, reading back to our thread from four days earlier, I will dose ammonia up to 2ppm and see how long it takes to convert to nitrites. Then I will know how much and how long it is processing. I will test tomorrow and check back…I’m off to work soon.

Mm, dose 2ppm ammonia and see how long it takes to convert to nitrate.

 

On Tuesday I redosed 2ppm ammonia. It took 24 hrs to go to zero. The Nitrite was reading 2ppm and Nitrate 40ppm. Another 24 hours later (now), zero ammonia, 2ppm Nitrite, and 40ppm nitrate. Nothing has changed.

it seems like my bb are sufficiently processing ammonia, but the nitrite conversion has stalled. I’m on day 38. I haven’t added any liquid fert. should I do a large water change this morning? Or wait until tomorrow to see if anything changes? Is this normal?

 

Hm. Are you sure it is 2ppm nitrite and not 5ppm?

And to clarify, when you dosed the ammonia, your nitrite was zero at that time?

 

Hi! I’m sure it was closer to 2ppm than 5…it took five min to get there but was more light violet than dark. Yes both ammonia and nitrite were zero before dosing 2ppm.

 

By the way, your nitrite bacteria may still be growing, so it might not go down within a day. I’d expect it to somewhat reduce though…

 

By the way, your nitrite bacteria may still be growing, so it might not go down within a day. I’d expect it to somewhat reduce though…

That’s what I was wondering. What could be causing the delay?

 

I might just let it sit for a few days. Since the cycle stalled for a while, it might just be starting up again? I don't know

 

As Revan mentioned, they are quite slow growing, so could also just still be establishing. It could very well be the case, I have read cases like yours where the ammonia-oxidizers establish super rapidly, but not the nitrite-oxidizers.

Hm... but your nitrite processing seems to not speed up though. The first time it can take a week, but then it should take less time, like 5-6 days for example, then less and less... I feel like your nitrite oxidation rate seems to have hit a limit.

The only thing I can imagine causing significant delays is if there is not enough biomedia for the nitrite-oxidizers to colonize, and so they kind hit the limit in terms of how much they can reproduce.

 

In my cycle, the nitrite and ammonia were almost immediately cycled, I just didn't realize, as I thought that they BOTH had to go down to 0 in 24 hours, not ammonia in 24, then nitrite in another 24. However, I believe this is because I got lots of hardscape from the store, and my plants took in ammonia. Also, I had a small algal bloom as I let the tank light run for 24 hours on max (was losing brain cells and tried to use it as a seed germination heater), so I assume that's how it started cycling on its own before I added my ammonium chloride.

 

ahhh. I have a five stage fluval hob filter. But now I’m wondering if Purigen would effect this? I added it at the beggining to help with the tannins from my Mopani. I haven’t tried cleaning it with bleach or anything. I haven’t touched my filter at all.

 

ahhh. I have a five stage fluval hob filter. But now I’m wondering if Purigen would effect this? I added it at the beggining to help with the tannins from my Mopani. I haven’t tried cleaning it with bleach or anything. I haven’t touched my filter at all.

I haven't touched my filter, ever, other than when I assembled it. I have a fluvial aqua clear HOB, and it works fine.

 

Could I add more filter medium to a small bag, and just sink it in the tank? would this add or does it have to be inside the filter? No room.

I haven't touched my filter, ever, other than when I assembled it. I have a fluvial aqua clear HOB, and it works fine.

How long has your tank been running? Curious about timing on rinsing out media (after cycling of course).

 

Could I add more filter medium to a small bag, and just sink it in the tank? would this add or does it have to be inside the filter? No room.

How long has your tank been running? Curious about timing on rinsing out media (after cycling of course).

I wouldn’t mess up the filter media, as that is what holds most of the bb. However, if you have some filter media from a matured tank, then you can add it to the tank for a quicker cycle starting

 

So I did a 75% WC…couldn’t help it! It’s reading .25ppm nitrite. I think I have some nitrite bacteria… it’s just weak. I’ll see how long it takes to get to zero this time. Thanks for both your help. Have a great rest of you day!

 

So I did a 75% WC…couldn’t help it! It’s reading .25ppm nitrite. I think I have some nitrite bacteria… it’s just weak. I’ll see how long it takes to get to zero this time. Thanks for both your help. Have a great rest of you day!

If it reads 0.25ppm, sounds like it was closer to 1ppm before the water change. I mean it definitely has to be moving. 2ppm ammonia should convert to 5.4ppm nitrite anyways, so definitely you do have nitrite oxidation occurring. Hope things will progress ever faster!

Purigen by the way, should not affect the cycle. It says it helps control ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, but turns out in the description, it says this is 'by removing nitrogenous organic waste that would otherwise release these harmful compounds' and later on even more clearly, 'Purigen® will remove organics before they can be converted by bacteria into ammonia, nitrite or nitrate, resulting in lowered nitrate concentrations over time, but it will not directly remove these chemicals from the water'. So it does not actually absorb/remove ammonia, nitrite, or nitrate directly. Very shrewd wording on their part, I am impressed.

 

I havent rinsed out my filter media. I started running the filter on July 25th.

 

I havent rinsed out my filter media. I started running the filter on July 25th.

Meaning?

 

Meaning?

? I turned on the filter on that day... Was there another interpretation?

 

? I turned on the filter on that day... Was there another interpretation?

nah I'm just confused as to what you were referring to. I can't figure out what you mean. Could you maybe reword it, cuz I read the whole thread and still confused as to what you mean

 

nah I'm just confused as to what you were referring to. I can't figure out what you mean. Could you maybe reword it, cuz I read the whole thread and still confused as to what you mean

I am not sure why it may be confusing, but I guess I could try to help reiterate what Revan said.

Revan's filter was turned on since July 25th, and since then Revan have not rinsed out any of the filter media in said filter.

Is that the right interpretation, Revan?

 

I am not sure why it may be confusing, but I guess I could try to help reiterate what Revan said.

Revan's filter was turned on since July 25th, and since then Revan have not rinsed out any of the filter media in said filter.

Is that the right interpretation, Revan?

I think that's what it meant, but I was confused cause it was kinda random/out of the blue and there was no direct context

 

I think that's what it meant, but I was confused cause it was kinda random/out of the blue and there was no direct context

It was in response to op's talking about op's filter and whether to rinse out media or not. The context of it may not be familiar to someone who had not been following this thread, but yeah it made sense to us who have been I guess.