A few beginning questions
- Thread starter Kruse
- Start date
The nitrogen cycle is dependant upon other conditiosn which you cannot replicate by using ammonia. There are microrganisms which break down solid waste which produce the ammonia that the nitrogen fixing bacteria eat. By using ammonia, you are not establishing a balanced environment and risk future ammonia spikes as the other bacteria colonize.
Any ammonia load you place on the tank will result in a spike in your bacterial colonies and then a die off as the bacteria colony dies off which will throw the tank back into a mini cycle and cause decreasing mini blooms and die off until it stabilizes.
There is no reason why an under stocked tank being sparingly fed should ever show ammonia above .5 ppm. That tank will cycle in 2 weeks and be ready to add incrementally more fish every two weeks without having a spike in ammonia.
Better yet, throw in a bit of water sprite and never worry about fish in cycle harming the fish.
Any ammonia load you place on the tank will result in a spike in your bacterial colonies and then a die off as the bacteria colony dies off which will throw the tank back into a mini cycle and cause decreasing mini blooms and die off until it stabilizes.
There is no reason why an under stocked tank being sparingly fed should ever show ammonia above .5 ppm. That tank will cycle in 2 weeks and be ready to add incrementally more fish every two weeks without having a spike in ammonia.
Better yet, throw in a bit of water sprite and never worry about fish in cycle harming the fish.
Are you talking about the fish in cycle? I'm curious because I did one aquarium that way - in fact probably had it somewhat over stocked - and never got an ammonia reading over .25ppm and never a nitrite reading, yet I now have nitrate readings of at least 20ppm, sometimes higher in that tank. My second tank seems to be proceeding the same way, except I did have a nitrite spike one day (.5 - 1ppm those purples are hard to read), but after 2 25 % water changes that day, they both dropped to zero two days later, although I only have 5ppm nitrates as yet.
Kruse,
I did the fish-less ammonia cycle on my 29 gallon a couple months ago. Nitrates were off the chart and the tank would process 3tsp of ammonia per day. I didn't do a water change during the 3 weeks I took to cycle the tank. I ended up having to do two back-to-back 90% water changes to get nitrates down to 25ppm and nitrites back on the charts. I did another 50% water change the next day and was able to reduce nitrites to 0ppm and nitrates to 12.5ppm. I added fish the next day. Since then I have done regular water changes and have had 0ammonia/nitrite and nitrates are at 12.5ppm or less.
Point is: you may need to do a big water change or two to get rid of the excess nitrite. I think the bacteria that processess ammonia into nitrite is much more efficent and established than the bacteria that processes nitrite. If you have nitrates showing up then you have the right bacteria present, its just not able to keep up with the amount of nitrite being produced.
Once you see nitrates showing up if nitrites are still off the chart and don't appear to be coming down do a massive water change and see how the tank handles.
I did the fish-less ammonia cycle on my 29 gallon a couple months ago. Nitrates were off the chart and the tank would process 3tsp of ammonia per day. I didn't do a water change during the 3 weeks I took to cycle the tank. I ended up having to do two back-to-back 90% water changes to get nitrates down to 25ppm and nitrites back on the charts. I did another 50% water change the next day and was able to reduce nitrites to 0ppm and nitrates to 12.5ppm. I added fish the next day. Since then I have done regular water changes and have had 0ammonia/nitrite and nitrates are at 12.5ppm or less.
Point is: you may need to do a big water change or two to get rid of the excess nitrite. I think the bacteria that processess ammonia into nitrite is much more efficent and established than the bacteria that processes nitrite. If you have nitrates showing up then you have the right bacteria present, its just not able to keep up with the amount of nitrite being produced.
Once you see nitrates showing up if nitrites are still off the chart and don't appear to be coming down do a massive water change and see how the tank handles.
