Sue's Fishless Cycle

Day 26, 5 April

Nitrite over 5.
Water changed
Added ammonia





I was hoping that this cycle would run smoothly from start to finish as a demo for someone just starting out. But I'm going to have a hiccup.

My father-in-law died on Wednesday. We live in Teesside (sandwiched between north Yorkshire and County Durham) and my in-laws live in south Wales. My brother-in-law lives in the same town as his father and is doing all the arrangements so we are only going down for the funeral itself. It will be a three day trip. I shouldn't really be worrying about a fish tank cycle at a time like this, but obviously I won't be able to continue the cycle as I'd hoped.
My husband wants to leave by lunchtime on the day before and we'll be back early afternoon the day after. My plan is:
Do a 100% water change the day before we leave.
Add the usual dose of ammonia first thing on the day we go, do no tests as there won't really be time and I don't want to seem as if I'm putting the tank first.
Add a dose of ammonia as soon as we get back, that will be two and a half days after the last dose.
Next day, test the water in the morning as I have been doing (but do ammonia as well this time), do a 100% water change if necessary, add the usual dose of ammonia and see what happens then.

The ammonia eaters will have been starved of their food, but there shouldn't be much die off. Unless there is a sudden spurt of growth of nitrite eaters before we go, there should be some nitrite in the water when we get back. Whether, and how, the cycle will be affected remains to be seen.

Sorry about that, Sue.

Could you, perhaps, throw a bit of food in before you go to let it break down a bit and provide some ammonia?

That thought had occurred to me Colin. But which is worse, the ammonia eaters going without for a couple of days, or feeding the ammonia eaters and risk the nitrite level getting too high.

Remember Sue - you're doing this for research purposes and research means risk!!

It's always easy to say that about someone else's risk.

Glad everyone is coping well Sue - grief is always such a tricky thing to predict, especially where a parent is concerned.

Ha yes, I was hoping my cycle would be a nice example for people on the forum, but instead it might have put people off!

Day 27  6 April
Nitrite 2
Ammonia added

It is possible that by the time we go, the nitrite level will have started to fall, in which case I will definitely add a bit of fish food the day before we go (to allow it to start decomposing). If there's still no sign of a nitrite drop, I'll just add some ammonia just before we leave and some more as soon as we get back regardless of the time of day.


It is looking very likely the funeral won't be for another 9 days-ish. My brother-in-law is seeing the undertaker on Monday so we don't think he'll be able to arrange anything for next week.
I'm going to have a word with my across-the-road neighbour and ask if she'll have a door key in case my mother has a fall. Before she came to live with us, Mum carried a phone round with her all the time so she could ring for help in an emergency so she says she'll do that while we're away. My son and daughter-in-law who live a few miles away will be coming with us if d-in-l can get the time off work so they won't be able to come round to keep an eye on her. If d-in-l can't come, she'll pop in on her way home from work to make sure Mum's OK.
As my mother says, it's only a couple of days.

Day 29  8 April

Nitrite over 5

Water changed
Ammonia added

Oh no! Fingers crossed your ammonia eaters are fine and you've also grown some nitrite eaters!

Day 31  10 April

Ammonia zero
Nitrite 0.5

Ammonia added.


It's looking hopeful. I added the amount of ammonia that gives between 0.5 and 1ppm ammonia and the nitrite reading has not increased.


It is beginning to look as though the cycle will be finished before my father-in-law's funeral. We were astonished yesterday when my brother-in-law finally had a date. The funeral in 22 April, 19 days after my father-in-law died . On Monday evening my husband jokingly said that the way things were going Margaret Thatcher would be buried before his father. We never expected he would be right.

It'll be home for a betta. Just a betta (though maybe possibly also a nerite snail)

I have 2 identical 25 litre tanks. One is a betta tank, the other a quarantine tank. My last betta developed some rather suspicious lumps which looked very like lymphocystis, an infectious viral disease. I got so bad, and his behaviour changed so much, that I put him down. Normally when my bettas die (usually of old age) I just add ammonia to the tank to feed the filter bacteria till I can find another I like. This time I can't do that or the new betta would probably beome infected. So I sterilised the tank and everthing in it with bleach - including the filter. I threw away the media from the filter. While it was soaking I got out the quarantine tank and instead of stealing some media from one of my other tanks as I do when I use the QT I decided it was about time I actually did a fishless cycle for the first time in my life. How can I advise people on fishless cycling if I don't do one myself 

It's easier for me to be patient as I do have 2 other tanks. I haven't used any media from one of them as newcomers to the hobby rarely have access to mature media. And I haven't used 'bottled bacteria' as I wanted to see how the cycle would progress with just ammonia and brand new media. The filter and heater haven't been used for a couple of years and were totally dry, as was the tank, so there is no chance of any bacteria surviving on the surfaces.

Basically, I wanted to see what a fishless cycle was like 





We don't know what the problem is with my father-in-law's funeral. He died last Wednesday. My brother-in-law registered the death on Thursday and he made an appointment to see the undertaker on Monday. That's when he discovered 2 problems - because he will be buried in the same grave as my mother-in-law, there has to be paperwork from additional department to open an existing grave; and because the grave is in a council cemetery in a different council area from where they lived, it is more complicated to arrange. The next available dates were the end of next week - in the mornings. Brother-in-law wants an afternoon so that relatives can travel there and back in a day, and the next available afternoon is in almost 2 weeks.

It seems that a couple of deacades and more ago, everyone wanted morning funerals. Everyone lived locally and it gave the opportunity for a wake lasting the whole afternoon. Nowadays, family and friends are scattered wide. Everyone wants afternoon funerals so that mourners living some way away can travel there and back in one day. My husband's aunt and uncle in the midlands will be able to do this, for example. But it is a five hour drive for us, too long to be done in one day for people our age. We'll drive down the afternoon before and return home the morning after the funeral.
But even so, 19 days is a bit much. My mother-in-law died in January 2011. Her funeral was 11 days after her death, and that was delayed because bad weather caused a bit of a back log (difficult to dig graves when the ground is frozen solid they said). The wait is getting to my husband; he wants it sooner, but what can you do? We are too far away to arrange anything ourselves. We have to rely on my brother-in-law.

Wooh! Looking good Sue. Seems you've had a nice simple cycle so far, fingers crossed it stays like that!

Sorry to hear about the awful situation with the funeral too. I always find funerals to be a source of closure, so it can't be nice to be stuck in a limbo situation. Unfortunately we had a similar situation with my grandad as he died in December, and with the run up to Christmas it took a while to get a date organised