Cycle progress

[Mark Lathrop]

I was going to wait a month before starting my new 20g long, but I got new tank fever on Friday and went for it. I originally wanted to use ammonia drops to kick start the cycle, but couldn't find any. I ended up just doing what was recommended to me and placed my new rocks in with old ones on top, along with the decorations. So far, after about 2 days, the tank is still holding on at 0ppm ammonia. I also pinch flakes inside 4 times a day. I'm kind of tempted to put my rasboras in there for 2 days to get it started off, but that's mostly just the new tank fever talking.

What's a brand of ammonia you can get at the store? I have one more fish specialty store to check out.

[gm72]

You really should do fishless cycling. Adding food to create ammonia is a bad idea as there is no way to control how much ammonia is in the water and it just makes a mess in general. Search around for pure ammonia and you'll be much better off. You may find it in a dollar store if you can't locate it anywhere else. It will be worth your time to do it this way. With a seeded tank and fishless cycling you could be up and running in one or two weeks. With what you are trying it could take 3-4 weeks.

You have to have ammonia to avoid killing off your existing bacteria on the rocks and decorations.

[Lady Hobbs]

Mark, if there any dollar stores near you, they generally carry the pure ammonia. $1 for one quart.

[Mark Lathrop]

Whoa, didn't think of looking at the dollar store, thanks!

[gm72]

Sometimes the old mom-and-pop shops and dollar stores are the only places to find pure ammonia. Everything else has perfumes/cleaning agents/coloring/etc.

[Mark Lathrop]

You're right, I called around to some stores and nobody had it. The Dollar Tree defintely had some. Thanks for the tip you guys! I dropped in just short of 1.5 teaspoons and have 2ppm ammonia! Woo-hoo! Tomorrow I'll drop in a few more drops. :)

[gm72]

Make sure you have read the sticky post about fishless cycling. Easy to do, safe, fast. Great work!

[Mark Lathrop]

Definitely read the sticky.:thumb:

I also just added a tad more ammonia cause I just finished reading Lady Hobbs blog and she mentioned getting the ammonia to 5.

I'm so stoked to move the fish into their new home!

[gm72]

Record the number of drops you added to get to 5 ppm, add that daily, cut in half when you get your nitrIte spike. NitrAtes peak, large water change, add fish. Easy!

[Mark Lathrop]

Thanks, I was wondering what the next step was after seeing the nitrite spike. I have exactly 5ppm ammonia right now, and .25ppm nitrites. I'm on my way! :)

[gm72]

Nicely done. Keep up with your water testing, check your parameters about 30 minutes after adding your ammonia to see what you get.

[jessie]

You will know you are done once you see 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, and a nitrate spike. (after following all the other steps the others mentioned)

[Mark Lathrop]

A pre-bedtime reading now shows 4ppm ammonia, 1 nitrite. Nobody cares and I need to be committed. I admit it, I am addicted.:14:

[GoldLenny]

For future reference, Ace Hardware chain stores carry their own brand of janitorial grade ammonia (plain ammonia).

[Mark Lathrop]

Weird, did measurements again after adding another 4 ammonia ppm yesterday, came home after work today and had 1ppm ammonia, 0 nitrite, and still just 10-15 nitrates (same as day before). What happened to all of my nitrites? I added 5 ammonia just now. Hope they show up tomorrow.

[zackish]

Weird, did measurements again after adding another 4 ammonia ppm yesterday, came home after work today and had 1ppm ammonia, 0 nitrite, and still just 10-15 nitrates (same as day before). What happened to all of my nitrites? I added 5 ammonia just now. Hope they show up tomorrow.


They will, you should be adding ammonia every day, the same amount, until a week or so when your ammonia should start decreasing then cut that amount about in half.

Now I have a question that goes for myself.
I am using the shrimp method and I had 4 shrimp in my 30 gallon. THe ammonia reading was off the charts and the water was really cloudy. I took out 2 of the shrimp and did a 50% water change and still have like around 8.0 ammonia reading. I tested the ammonia right after I put the new water in, should I give it a few hours or test it tonight or should I take even more shrimp out? Note: they are really really big shrimp like 7 to 1 lb.

[tmartini]

Weird, did measurements again after adding another 4 ammonia ppm yesterday, came home after work today and had 1ppm ammonia, 0 nitrite, and still just 10-15 nitrates (same as day before). What happened to all of my nitrites?

The bacteria in your tank turned them into nitrates (which is a very good thing). I think the real question is why didn't your nitrates level go up?

Do you have any live plants in the tank? Nitrates=plant food... plants (including algea) eat that stuff up.

[Mark Lathrop]

The bacteria in your tank turned them into nitrates (which is a very good thing). I think the real question is why didn't your nitrates level go up?

Do you have any live plants in the tank? Nitrates=plant food... plants (including algea) eat that stuff up.

Thanks for the response. I also thought it was weird that my nitrate level stayed the same. At the time, I had no plants in the tank at all...and still don't minus an avacado seed I threw in before I went to bed last night, but it hasnt even sprouted yet. I can't get the nitrite level over .5 now, I'll test the nitrates tonight. Ammonia gets eaten up by the end of the day no problem. Is my cycle done?

[Mark Lathrop]

Took a test when I got home from work: ammonia 2, nitrites 0, nitrates 40. My nitrite spike appeared to be 1, and could never get it over that. Can't even get it over .5 now.

What do I do now? My nitrites are teh dead.

[gm72]

Sounds like you're done. Large water change and add fish.

[Mark Lathrop]

Just did a 50% water change. Ammonia 1, nitrites 0, nitrates 15.

My nitrates appear to be eating the nitrites before they can do there job! What can I do now?! Is it even safe to add the fish with 1 ammonia (it'll probably be zero by tomorrow morning)?

Adding large amounts of ammonia (5ppm) creates .5 nitrites, less than that creates 0 nitrites. I'm about to just dump in like 8ppm of ammonia as 5 is plainly either not enough or something is just wrong here.

[Mark Lathrop]

I take it that nobody has ever really dealt with this issue before. I find it odd myself.

Last night, after the water change I brought the ammonia back up to 5 see what would happen. I checked it mid-day and it had remained at 5 all day creating under .25 nitrite, almost nil. By now the ammonia is at about 4. As mentioned before, nitrites have never went over 1, telling me I've never had my nitrite spike, and my ammonia never exceeded 5. Nitrates shot from 15 to 80 in one day.

If I were to have put fish into the tank, they would have introduced ammonia, and I would have 0 nitrites to do anything about it.

[zackish]

I take it that nobody has ever really dealt with this issue before. I find it odd myself.

Last night, after the water change I brought the ammonia back up to 5 see what would happen. I checked it mid-day and it had remained at 5 all day creating under .25 nitrite, almost nil. By now the ammonia is at about 4. As mentioned before, nitrites have never went over 1, telling me I've never had my nitrite spike, and my ammonia never exceeded 5. Nitrates shot from 15 to 80 in one day.

If I were to have put fish into the tank, they would have introduced ammonia, and I would have 0 nitrites to do anything about it.


I would do a 50-75% water change and test ammonia and nitrites...if both of them = 0 i think your cycled.

[Mark Lathrop]

The weird thing is that after a 50% water change, my ammonia was at 1. Will this go away? Having 1 ammonia is in no way safe for fish.

[zackish]

The weird thing is that after a 50% water change, my ammonia was at 1. Will this go away? Having 1 ammonia is in no way safe for fish.


ya but that was before....try the water change again.

[Mark Lathrop]

75% water change, and ammonia 1. I'm going to bed now, gotta get up at 5am. :(

[gm72]

Well you should always have 0 nitItes and will usually have some nitrAtes as they are at the end of the chain. You are fine there, no worries.

Your ammonia problem is very odd. What do you have in the tank? With such large water changes you shouldn't even be getting a reading on the ammonia. I'm not trying to be ignorant, but are you sure you are using and reading the results correctly? Tests are accurate? Very strange!

[Mark Lathrop]

Well you should always have 0 nitItes and will usually have some nitrAtes as they are at the end of the chain. You are fine there, no worries.

Your ammonia problem is very odd. What do you have in the tank? With such large water changes you shouldn't even be getting a reading on the ammonia. I'm not trying to be ignorant, but are you sure you are using and reading the results correctly? Tests are accurate? Very strange!

I don't think you're being ignorant at all, I appreciate the response. I have an API liquid test kit and am very sure I was reading the results correctly.

Some good news though, I came home from work and ran a test and read .25 ammonia. It's finally going away! I may do a small water change, but might just wait for it to fade by itself.

In my tank I only have some decorations (from my last tank that had a zero ammonia reading, and they also had benefical bacteria) and one avacado seed, but that was only added a day ago or so.

[SkarloeysMom]

What kind of water conditioner are you using? Have you tested your tap water for ammonia? I was using a water conditioner that didn't take care of ammonia when started up my first tank and I couldn't figure out why I would always get an ammonia reading after a water change. Tested my tap water and it was a .5ppm ammonia! I was putting ammonia in the tank with every change. I switched to Amquel and that solved the problem. When I was researching I found no federal guideline for the amount of ammonia that can be in public water supplies. We drink RO filtered water around here.

[gm72]

Skarloey has a great idea to test your tap water, could be coming from there. Stop doing your water changes though, you are, I believe, doing more harm than good. If the ammonia is going down and your other parameters are acceptable there is no reason for a water change.

[Mark Lathrop]

I too wondered what my water parameters were out of the wink 2 days ago and tested. Ammonia was at zero.

I think the ammonia will be completely gone by tomorrow. It's just being slow for some reason, confusing, but oh well.

[Mark Lathrop]

Okay, everything cleared up. I moved the fish into the tank. So far the Rasboras love the length of the 20 long and swim acrossed its length non-stop. I've never seen them so lively like this before. They're really cool looking.

[gm72]

So did you check the water parameters of your tap water? You could have ammonia in there and that would be a huge contributing factor. Just make sure before your next water change or you may harm/kill your fish.

[RobbieG]

What kind of water conditioner are you using? Have you tested your tap water for ammonia? I was using a water conditioner that didn't take care of ammonia when started up my first tank and I couldn't figure out why I would always get an ammonia reading after a water change. Tested my tap water and it was a .5ppm ammonia! I was putting ammonia in the tank with every change. I switched to Amquel and that solved the problem. When I was researching I found no federal guideline for the amount of ammonia that can be in public water supplies. We drink RO filtered water around here.

I LOVE Amquel. Our tap water is horrible and for the longest time I was carrying 60 gallons of water a week up 3 flights of stairs to keep from using it. Cocoa Pleco talked me into getting an RO filter now with that a little Amquel - a little DeChlorinator and a crapload less work my fish are happier than ever!

[Mark Lathrop]

So did you check the water parameters of your tap water? You could have ammonia in there and that would be a huge contributing factor. Just make sure before your next water change or you may harm/kill your fish.

Hehe, I answered that one in the post just before my last one.thumbs2: Ammonia zero out of the tap.

[gm72]

Opps, sorry about that. Missed it.