Fishless cycle advice for a nervous beginner :)

Hi Team (I feel like that’s what we are here lol)! I am working on cycling my first 20 gallon tank using Fritz ammonia, and also Nite Out II/Special Blend. I feel like I got a good bottle this time because I saw some movement while using it, but now that I poured the rest of the bottle in and haven’t added more, I’m wondering if it’s typical to not see movement at all for a couple of days. Here is what I’ve done so far with my cycle, and I did add a small pinch of fish flakes this morning after reading one of the posts on here that suggested it might help:

Pretreated tap water: 0 ammonia, 0-5 ppm nitrate, 0 nitrite, 0 ppm GH, 0 ppm chlorine, 120 ppm KH, 7.6 pH

Day 1: 2ppm ammonia, 30 ml special blend, 10 ml nite out II, temp 70 degrees

Day 2: added heater, 2ppm ammonia, 0 ppm nitrite, added 10 ml nite out II, 80 degrees

Day 3: 1-2 ppm ammonia, 0 ppm nitrite, added 10 ml nite out II, 10 ml special blend, added bubble wall for oxygen

Day 4: 1 ppm ammonia, 0 ppm nitrite, added 1/2 dose ammonia, 10 ml nite out II, 10 ml special blend, 2 ppm ammonia

Day 5: 2 ppm ammonia, 0 ppm nitrite, added 10 ml nite out II, 10 ml special blend

Day 6: 2 ppm ammonia, 0 ppm nitrite, added 20 ml nite out II, 10 ml special blend

Day 7: 1 ppm ammonia, 0 ppm nitrite, added remainder of nite out II, 30 ml special blend

Day 8: 1 ppm ammonia, 0.25 ppm nitrite, 8.2 pH, 10-20 ppm nitrate (I don’t know about you all, but I can’t tell the difference between 10 and 20 nitrate colors ), added 1/2 dose ammonia

Day 9: 2 ppm ammonia, 0.25 ppm nitrite

Day 10: 2 ppm ammonia, 0.25 ppm nitrate, 8.2 pH, 20-30 ppm nitrate

Day 11: added small pinch of fish flakes in AM, 1 ppm ammonia, 0.50 ppm nitrite, 20 ppm nitrate

I just don’t want to get too far into this if I’m doing something wrong or could be doing it better! I struggled cycling my first tank (10 gallon), and had to start over twice. Should I get more bacteria? I realized too late that I should have put the entire bottle in at startup since I don’t have any fish yet. Should I add more ammonia or wait for it to drop to almost zero? Thanks much in advance!!!

 

So there are two possibilities here - depending on the answer to this question:

Are you using Nite-Out II, Special Blend, or both?

 

I always cycle my tanks as so: takes about 1-2 months to be solid. I start with plants for the first 2+ weeks. Easy growing low tech plants like ground cover and some other aquatic plants like Jungle Val. I also use marginal plants like pothos to help with the filtration of the tank. After a few weeks of plant growth I add in a couple of snails to organically spike the ammonia. Wait a bit more, do a water change. Make sure everything is stable then add fish. Some more delicate species need longer cycles but one month is usually solid. This reduces ammonia crashes and such. A lot of people underestimate the beauty and functionality of plants

 

So there are two possibilities here - depending on the answer to this question:

Are you using Nite-Out II, Special Blend, or both?

Both, as I was told they work well together. I ordered a bottle of Fritz Turbo Start 700 from an aquarium shop that will get here next week. Figured it wouldn’t hurt to have on hand in case something stalls or just for water changes/maintenance in general.

 

Both, as I was told they work well together. I ordered a bottle of Fritz Turbo Start 700 from an aquarium shop that will get here next week. Figured it wouldn’t hurt to have on hand in case something stalls or just for water changes/maintenance in general.

Microbe-Lift Special Blend is not suitable for cycling, nor similar products like Seachem Stability and Brightwell Microbacter 7, as they allegedly contain non-nitrifiers that competes with the nitrifiers we want to establish.

If you notice, ammonia decreases slowly, and there is not really a sign of nitrite increasing. Then when you added fish food, surprisingly ammonia dropped quite a bit, but not a lot of increase in nitrite. This is indicative that the 'wrong' type of microorganism was consuming the ammonia, probably introduced via Special Blend. With a sudden influx of a carbon source (food), they were able to consume ammonia as a nitrogen source (versus the nitrifiers as an energy source).

Anyways, not the end of the world. Just dose the remaining Microbe-Lift Nite-Out II if you have any. When the FritzZyme TurboStart 700 comes, dose all of that too.

Don't dose anymore Special Blend. Don't add fish food, that defeats the purpose of ammonia-dosing.

You should also only re-dose ammonia when both ammonia and nitrite drops to zero.

 

Microbe-Lift Special Blend is not suitable for cycling, nor similar products like Seachem Stability and Brightwell Microbacter 7, as they allegedly contain non-nitrifiers that competes with the nitrifiers we want to establish.

If you notice, ammonia decreases slowly, and there is not really a sign of nitrite increasing. Then when you added fish food, surprisingly ammonia dropped quite a bit, but not a lot of increase in nitrite. This is indicative that the 'wrong' type of microorganism was consuming the ammonia, probably introduced via Special Blend. With a sudden influx of a carbon source (food), they were able to consume ammonia as a nitrogen source (versus the nitrifiers as an energy source).

Anyways, not the end of the world. Just dose the remaining Microbe-Lift Nite-Out II if you have any. When the FritzZyme TurboStart 700 comes, dose all of that too.

Don't dose anymore Special Blend. Don't add fish food, that defeats the purpose of ammonia-dosing.

You should also only re-dose ammonia when both ammonia and nitrite drops to zero.

Great, thanks for the advice!!

 

Microbe-Lift Special Blend is not suitable for cycling, nor similar products like Seachem Stability and Brightwell Microbacter 7, as they allegedly contain non-nitrifiers that competes with the nitrifiers we want to establish.

If you notice, ammonia decreases slowly, and there is not really a sign of nitrite increasing. Then when you added fish food, surprisingly ammonia dropped quite a bit, but not a lot of increase in nitrite. This is indicative that the 'wrong' type of microorganism was consuming the ammonia, probably introduced via Special Blend. With a sudden influx of a carbon source (food), they were able to consume ammonia as a nitrogen source (versus the nitrifiers as an energy source).

Anyways, not the end of the world. Just dose the remaining Microbe-Lift Nite-Out II if you have any. When the FritzZyme TurboStart 700 comes, dose all of that too.

Don't dose anymore Special Blend. Don't add fish food, that defeats the purpose of ammonia-dosing.

You should also only re-dose ammonia when both ammonia and nitrite drops to zero.

So today, Day 12, I’m still at 1 ppm ammonia, 0.5 ppm nitrite, 20 ppm nitrate. Do I still do nothing (turbostart hasn’t arrived yet)?

 

So today, Day 12, I’m still at 1 ppm ammonia, 0.5 ppm nitrite, 20 ppm nitrate. Do I still do nothing (turbostart hasn’t arrived yet)?

Yus.

It takes time for the nitrifiers to really start going.

 

Same results today. I don’t remember seeing ammonia stop with my first tank, but I will keep waiting and hoping to see some movement soon

Day 13: 1 ppm ammonia, 0.5 ppm nitrite, 20 ppm nitrate, 8.2 pH, 75 GH, 120 KH

Thanks for stopping me from being impatient and messing it up more haha!

 

Same results today. I don’t remember seeing ammonia stop with my first tank, but I will keep waiting and hoping to see some movement soon

Day 13: 1 ppm ammonia, 0.5 ppm nitrite, 20 ppm nitrate, 8.2 pH, 75 GH, 120 KH

Thanks for stopping me from being impatient and messing it up more haha!

A full cycle can take between 4 - 6 weeks when starting from “scratch”.

Yes, be patient. . . If you read enough posts on Fishlore, you’ll see a fair number of examples where cycles fail or are prolonged due to impatience.

 

Same results today. I don’t remember seeing ammonia stop with my first tank, but I will keep waiting and hoping to see some movement soon

Day 13: 1 ppm ammonia, 0.5 ppm nitrite, 20 ppm nitrate, 8.2 pH, 75 GH, 120 KH

Thanks for stopping me from being impatient and messing it up more haha!

Yep, just gotta be patient at this point. It'll move eventually.

 

At what point do I do a partial water change in order to replenish the minerals in the water? This was something I read about on here that I didn’t previously know about. If the nitrites get too high?

 

At what point do I do a partial water change in order to replenish the minerals in the water? This was something I read about on here that I didn’t previously know about. If the nitrites get too high?

Generally there isn’t a need to. Usually the nutrients available in tap water from the get go is enough for nitrifiers to consume for growth.

With that said, the addition of food did seem to allow for the growth of non-nitrifying heterotrophs, which can compete for the same resources.

So might be worth doing a water change sooner rather than later. What I personally would probably do is wait until the FritzZyme TurboStart 700 bottle arrives. Then do a 100% water change (since it is only a 20 gal, so not too much effort), re-dose ammonia to 1ppm, and then dose the Fritz.

Or I’d just dose the Fritz and see what happens. It depends on how lazy I am.

 

Great, it was delivered today so I’ll do that tonight! Thanks!

 

Great, it was delivered today so I’ll do that tonight! Thanks!

Good luck!

 

Good luck!

So here we are… hmmm.

Day 14: 2 ppm ammonia, 0.5 ppm nitrite, large water change, 0.25 ppm ammonia, half dose ammonia (1 ppm), 2 oz Fritz turbo start 700

Day 15: 0.5 ppm ammonia, 0.25 ppm nitrite, 5 ppm nitrate

Day 16: 0 ppm ammonia, 0 ppm nitrite, 10 ppm nitrate

Should I dose 1 ppm or 2 ppm ammonia?

Thanks!

 

So here we are… hmmm.

Day 14: 2 ppm ammonia, 0.5 ppm nitrite, large water change, 0.25 ppm ammonia, half dose ammonia (1 ppm), 2 oz Fritz turbo start 700

Day 15: 0.5 ppm ammonia, 0.25 ppm nitrite, 5 ppm nitrate

Day 16: 0 ppm ammonia, 0 ppm nitrite, 10 ppm nitrate

Should I dose 1 ppm or 2 ppm ammonia?

Thanks!

Oh hey. Whooo.

Just dose 1ppm, and see what ammonia and nitrite is after 24 hours.

 

Oh hey. Whooo.

Just dose 1ppm, and see what ammonia and nitrite is after 24 hours.

Fingers crossed!!!

 

Fingers crossed!!!

How did it go?

 

How did it go?

Well, it cycled! And I got 3 tetras on Sunday, with plans to get 3 more once I see that everything is going well. I appreciate all of your cycling help and advice and glad that I followed your suggestions! I feel like I am now capable of doing this cycle again on my own!

But now I have an other problems and just posted a long thread asking for help because I am losing confidence and ready to give up on the whole thing haha. My tank is all of a sudden full of floating white stuff and I also can’t figure out how to get these fish to eat! We shall see… thanks again!