Fishless Cycle Readings ( New Question)

[gavinmcwalter]

HI just a little look into my cycle

I gave up on the cycle I was doing so did a 90% water change re dosed prime as tap water very high( nitrate 20 ppm, nitrite - 0 ppm ,ammonia 1 ppm ).
waited 24 hours and added tss ( for hopefully a little help )

dosed ammonia to 1ppm and have monitored the results every day

ammonia fell slightly so dosed it back up to 1ppm at one point
nitrite rised and ammonia was falling
( tho ammonia never gone to 0ppm ) ( IN ANY OF MY ATTEMPTED CYCLES)

today must be about a week and a half into the cycle

today my nitrite has gone to 0 ppm and my ammonia is at 0.50 ppm

shouldn't the ammonia go to 0ppm before the nitrite ?

ph has been steady at 8.2 throughout the cycle so know that is not a problem.

oh and it is a FISH LESS cycle to save confusion

MANY THANKS IN ADVANCE

 

[Mick Frost]

How often are you changing water?

 

[gavinmcwalter]

How often are you changing water?

since adding the tetra safe start I have not done a water change

 

[mattgirl]

It sounds to me like your cycle is right on track.

today my nitrite has gone to 0 ppm and my ammonia is at 0.50 ppm

shouldn't the ammonia go to 0ppm before the nitrite ?

Not necessarily. At this point you need to just continue adding ammonia to feed the bacteria (actually that is all a cycle is) and now that your nitrites have gone up and come back down you should not see them again.

Once a tank is cycled you should not see either ammonia or nitrites. They are still there but a strong cycle will process them so quickly the tests won't pick them up.

 

[gavinmcwalter]

It sounds to me like your cycle is right on track.


Not necessarily. At this point you need to just continue adding ammonia to feed the bacteria (actually that is all a cycle is) and now that your nitrites have gone up and come back down you should not see them again.

Once a tank is cycled you should not see either ammonia or nitrites. They are still there but a strong cycle will process them so quickly the tests won't pick them up.

so shoulddI wait for the ammonia to go to 0ppm or just top it up now ? the reading is 0.50 for ammonia

 

[Ms rose]

mattgirl , is very knowladgablem she worked me threw a hard cycle and I am now finished. I wiuld agree you are very close dear, hang in thwre

 

[Ms rose]

I wouldnt water change as the bb needs some ammonia to eat from. Unless you mean top off ammonia, in that case I would get it up to 2ppm then wait n c how long it takes to 0 out

 

[gavinmcwalter]

I wouldnt water change as the bb needs some ammonia to eat from. Unless you mean top off ammonia, in that case I would get it up to 2ppm then wait n c how long it takes to 0 out

yes I meant dosing the ammonia
thank you

 

[mattgirl]

so shoulddI wait for the ammonia to go to 0ppm or just top it up now ? the reading is 0.50 for ammonia

I would top it up now. You should try not to let it go down to and stay at .25 for any length of time. You may want to go ahead and dose it up to 2 each time it drops below .50. Once it gets to where it is going from 2 down to zero several days in a row you can consider the tank cycled.

 

[Ms rose]

Yeah, onve 2ppm get converted and zeros out in a 24 hour period, repeate that step again, if it zeros out again in 24 hour period, you are done cycling. I believe you are almost there, just always keep ph no less then 7.0, keep tank heated, the warmer the better, and always, Always keep ammonia up while cycling, you wouldnt want to starve the bb it took so long to build lol.

 

[gavinmcwalter]

Yeah, onve 2pom get converted and zeros out in a 24 hour period, repeate that step again, if it zeros out again in 24 hour period, you are donr cycling. I believe youare almost there, just always keep ph no less then 7.0, keep tank heated, the warmer the better, and always, Always keep ammonia up while cycling, you wouldnt want to starve the bb it took so long to build lol.

thank you
the only question I have is I have been dosing to 1ppm since adding the tetra safe start .. you say dose to 2ppm .. I thought that the tss could fail if it was that high ? far from saying your wrong but its so confusing ha

 

[Ms rose]

I am not going to answer that, because I am unsure, I dosed to 20ppm ammonia on a tank I'm expirementing on and used tss+, so I hope that's not true, or else I wasted 10 bux hahaha

 

[TexasGuppy]

Did you add anything to the tank that can create Ammonia? Food, shrimp? Dying plants?
Bump temp to 86.

Also, TSS has ammonia in it, just don't know if it constantly give some off? Maybe...

 

[gavinmcwalter]

Did you add anything to the tank that can create Ammonia? Food, shrimp? Dying plants?
Bump temp to 86.

Also, TSS has ammonia in it, just don't know if it constantly give some off? Maybe...

well I did get a couple of plants which have a slight melt on them .. not green fingered so was gonna see if they survived but maybe dying is a possibility

 

[gavinmcwalter]

so I did not any ammonia yesterday as was going to add today to get it to 2ppm.
I tested the readings today just to see if ammonia went to 0 but it has actually gone up and is now at 1ppm .. I did move a few plants around to check for decay . would this of caused the increase in ammonia and if not what else ?

 

[TexasGuppy]

assuming new substrate, so no fish poo to stir up into the water.. maybe any dead plant debris up from the substrate? I think the TSS contains it's own ammonia as a food source, so it could be releasing into the water.. seems high though even for just that.

 

[gavinmcwalter]

I'm guessing it was dead plant debris as there was a bit of melt off the plants
seeing as my tap water is so high in ammonia added with the dead plant debris is why it is a high reading

I have just ordered seachem ammonia test which tells you the nh3 and nh4+ separately so hopefully this will give me a better idea on the ammonia in the tank ( specially with the tap water readings )

 

[gavinmcwalter]

Seachem ammonia test arrived ( topped up ammonia to 1ppm yesterday ) And concluded the 1ppm is ammonium. so that is why my apI test was not going to 0ppm.
I tested my nitrite again today and it was 0.50 ppm ( before TODAY it was 0ppm for a while ) .. why could this be ?

 

[TexasGuppy]

The API test kit test for both, not just just free ammonia. The ammonia converting bacteria may have started to 'take off' in growth now overwhelming the nitrite converting bacteria. If you hadn't dosed in a few days, the bacteria starts to die off, in particular, the nitrite ones. They'll now need to grow to catch up. This is referred to as the 'second spike'. I think it's normal, how big and how long has many factors, including your dosing of TSS which usually makes it small and short. I would raise ammonia to 2 each time it hits zero, the nitrite converting bacteria will catch up. You may need to do a water change if it gets over 5 because they just get too far behind.