Fishless Cycle

So I am now 11 days in.

My readings last night: Ammonia 4ppm and Nitrites 5ppm. I'm scared! The last ammonia was put in 3 days ago. PH7.4

I did a 30% water change 2 days ago as well.

My plants are doing well, but a few are shedding leaves below and growing above, if that makes sense, but I do try and keep these cleaned.

Should I just do a big water change? I did about 50% 6 days ago.

Hi Sue,
For the first few days I didn't add anything and also didn't get any of the immediate ammonia spike they forecasted.

I added 4ppm first day, reading 30 mins later 3ppm.
3 days later and ammonia reading was 1ppm, nitrites <1ppm. Added 3ppm, reading 4ppm.
3 days later ammonia reading was 2ppm, nitrite 1ppm - added 2ppm, reading 4ppm
2 days later (last night) readings as shown, nothing added.

Above from memory as have my notes at home. 

Sue, also meant to mention I was persuaded and ended using Tropica substrate with gravel as opposed ADA soil. Not so much influence re ammonia (?)

Thanks Sue.....I will see what the readings are tonight and will do the change as necessary.

I wanted the plants, so these situations are actually fine, as I am learning so much along the way. Thanks to all here as without the insight and feedback it would have been hopeless.

On the plus side, the plants seem to be doing well, and I find the tank mesmerising anyway. I used the Interpet Tri Spec High Output LED light, and the app controller is now launched, so the sunrise and sunset settings are fascinating, mixing blue gentle breaking light before a gradual element of white and then red, up to the settings you make.

I am enjoying all aspects of this, although my wife is a bit bored that I keep talking about it and not much else. The kids just keep saying when are we getting fish!

Did you do the water change or did the ammonia go down by itself?

Let me get this straight in my mind.
On Jan 10, you had readings of ammonia 4, nitrite 5. You added ammonia 2 days before that to get 4 ppm (and I have just realised you said that the ammonia was 2 ppm on that occasion so you added another 2. More about this later.)
And on 12 Jan you have 0 ammonia, 4 nitrite.

If the ammonia did drop by itself without a water change, wait another 2 days and test again on 14 Jan. If the ammonia is still zero, you have 2 zero ammonia readings 2 days apart so add the 1 ppm dose then, on 14 Jan and only if ammonia is zero again.



Re that 2 ppm dose ammonia you added a few days ago

I added 4ppm first day, reading 30 mins later 3ppm.
3 days later and ammonia reading was 1ppm, nitrites <1ppm. Added 3ppm, reading 4ppm.
3 days later ammonia reading was 2ppm, nitrite 1ppm - added 2ppm, reading 4ppm
2 days later (last night) readings as shown, nothing added.

Above from memory as have my notes at home. 

The method says that after adding the first dose of ammonia, test every 3 days and wait till ammonia drops below 0.75, and nitrite is above 2.0. So you shouldn't have added that 2 ppm ammonia, you should have waited till you had the test results on 13 Jan. This extra ammonia accounts for the readings

Sorry, I should have spotted that yesterday 

I'll use my fishless cycle from last year as an example


Day 1 - added ammonia Stage #1
Day 4 - no change
Day 7 - no change
Day 10 - no change
Day 13 - no change
Day 16 - ammonia still same but just a hint of nitrite though still well below 0.25
Day 19 - same as day 16
Day 21 - ammonia still showing between 1 and 2 and nitrite the merest hint. Got frustrated and did a 100% water change then added ammonia to give a reading between 2 and 4 ppm.
Day 24 - ammonia between 1 and 2, nitrite 0. The ammonia dropped from 2 - 4 to 1 -2 but no idea where it went.
Day 26 - tested after 2 days because getting fed up. Ammonia 1 to 2. Nitrite merest hint.
Day 28 - ammonia 0.5 nitrite > 5 (off the top of the chart). Added ammonia to ~ 3ppm Stage #6
Day 30 - ammonia 0, nitrite >5
Day 32 - ammonia 0, nitrite >5. Zero ammonia on 2 test 2 days apart, added the one third dose of ammonia. Stage #8
Day 34 - ammonia 0, nitrite >5
Day 36 - ammonia 0, nitrite >5. Zero ammonia in 2 tests 2 day apart, added the one third dose of ammonia Stage #8 again
Day 38 - ammonia 0, nitrite >5
Day 40 - ammonia 0, nitrite >5. Zero ammonia on 2 tests 2 days apart, added a one third dose of ammonia. Stage #8 again
Day 42 - ammonia 0, nitrite 0. Added a 2 to 4 ppm dose ammonia Stage #10
Day 43 - ammonia 0.25, nitrite 1.0
Day 44 - ammonia 0, nitrite 0. Added 2 to 4 ppm ammonia. Stage #10 again Then power went off for 4 hours.
Day 45 - ammonia 0, nitrite 2 - was the cycle affected by the power cut?
Day 46 - ammonia 0, nitrite 0. Added ammonia to 2 to 4 ppm Stage #10 again
Day 47 - ammonia 0, nitrite between 0.5 and 1. Added ammonia to between 2 and 4 ppm Stage #10 yet again
Day 48 - ammonia 0, nitrite 0. Finally stage #14


Ignore the dose of ammonia added on day 21 - I only added that because I removed all the water from the tank and replaced it with all new water so I had to replace the ammonia I'd put in on day 1.

On day 28 ammonia had finally dropped to below 0.75 and nitrite was over 2.0 so I added the second 3 ppm dose of ammonia and continued testing every two days.

On day 30 I had zero ammonia and nitrite over 1 for the first time.
On day 32 I had zero ammonia and nitrite over 1 for the second time so I added  a 1 ppm dose of ammonia and continued testing every 2 days.

Zero ammonia and nitrite over 1 on days 34 and 36 so added another 1ppm dose of ammonia and continued testing every two days.

Zero ammonia and nitrite over 1 on days 38 and 40 so added another 1 ppm dose of ammonia. Continued testing every 2 days.

Day 42 finally had ammonia below 0.25 and nitrite below 1.0. Added a 3 ppm dose of ammonia and started testing every day.

Day 43 - both above zero. Test again next day.

Day 44 - both zero so added another 3 ppm dose of ammonia.

Unfortunately we then had a power cut in the afternoon of day 44 which seemed to affect the cycle, so it didn't follow a nice pattern from here, but you can see the pattern for the last few days of the cycle.
Just continue as my cycle from day 42 to day 44 until you get zero ammonia and zero nitrite 24 hours after adding 3 ppm ammonia.



Does this help 

Update....
2 consecutive readings (every other day) 0 ammonia, Nitrites still high. 
Added 1/3 dose, see what happens over next set of readings. Think I have got it now. Progress I n the cycle.
Have a lone snail, obviously from the plants. Tiny and as non purchased I don't suppose I'll know what species it is.

When do I consider cleaning filter, not in the cycle I guess (if I do it's in the aquarium water being removed)?

Thanks

Hi Sue, I'd say it is similar to that picture. It's very small. would you remove it ; kind of nice to have an animal living in the tank, even a pest.

When I started keeping live plants, I found 3 snails (each of which I removed) and then one instance of a lone snail which I rehomed to a pond (as I assumed more would follow - this didn't happen, though). Sometimes I do wonder if I ought to have kept him. I can understand that desire to have something living in the tank, so, if I were you, I'd keep a hold of him and wait to see if others do appear or not.

When I first had snails appear in my tank quite a few years ago I thought that snails were bad. We had no internet back then and all the rather old library books said snails carry parasites and had no place in an aquarium. So I did my best to get rid of them, failed, gave up and accepted they were there to stay.

Now I know that snails are not bad and I am quite happy to have them. I have both small ramshorns (some species grow to over 2 inches but you have to buy those!) and the pond/tadpole etc snails. If I see them on the glass during a water change, I do suck them up but there are so many more left behind.