Starting the Cycling Process

So, I decided I would start my own thread to document my cycling process so that others could learn by looking at where I stumble.

The process I decided to go with was the fishless cycling process using Pure Ammonia. The brand I went with was the Blue Ribbon Clear Ammonia purchased from True Value hardware.

My tank is a 10 gallon tank that has about 8 gallons of water after subtracting the 10 pounds of dry rock and sand that I have placed into the aquarium. Well, probably about 10 pounds of dry rock and two pounds of live rock. The water temperature is currently 78.1.

I added 8 drops of the ammonia to see what level that brings things up to...I want to try to max out at about 2ppm ammonia as I went above that amount the last time and my nitrites grew out of control so I decided to do a reset. I know that I could have simply done water changes, but I want to try to learn more about the sciences involved, because how often am I going to have a tank with no occupants in it to do testing?

I will update this daily and if anyone wants more information about tank specifics of to interject their own knowledge, feel free to do so.

 

In total, it took 24 drops of (blue ribbon) Ammonia to bring my ammonia level up to 2ppm (or close to). My nitrite level is at 0ppm and I'm not going to bother measuring my nitrate level at this point, unless anyone thinks it is a good idea to do.

Now it is just a waiting game as to when the ammonia completely dissipates. If at any point I notice my nitrites get above 5ppm I will do a water change to bring them to as close to that as possible as I've heard that when nitrites get above 5ppm it slows the cycling process down.

 

For completelness sake, I measured Nitrates and those were 0 ppm or close to as well. Not measurable on a stick test.

 

IMO i'd get other tests besides the stick test!

 

Agreed, I actually have the liquid API test kits for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. All the test results today were calculated using the liquid tests with the exception of the nitrate because I had a strong hunch it would be zero and I didn't want to waste any liquid drops at this point as I sort of hate the strip tests as it is harder to read and probably not as accurate. Thanks for the input because I made the mistake early on of getting those types of testers.

 

It probably would have just been easier to drop a raw shrimp in the tank...but this seems to be working, just remember to take your time

 

I have thought about dropping a shrimp in the tank. The issue is that the tank resides in a small office environment, so I'm not sure what kind of smell that would produce...otherwise I would be all over that idea as it would give me a constant source of ammonia instead of now having to add some more when the ammonia consuming bacteria start to get hungry while the nitrite consuming bacteria are starting to grow....

If I ever start up another tank in my home, I will drop a shrimp in.

 

Something happened that I hadn't counted on...I initially started cycling this tank a few weeks ago...this was supposed to be a restart, however, I think what I ended up with was good bacteria surviving through a 99% water change. The reason I reset, as earlier stated, was that my nitrites were through the roof. My rock, sand, and filter must be hosting some beneficial bacteria that somehow survived.

I seeded the tank with 2ppm ammonia yesterday with zero nitrites and zero nitrates. Now I am getting close to 0 ppm ammonia, 3 ppm nitrites, and 20 ppm nitrates. I will follow up with another test to verify but it looks like at least the ammonia eating bacteria survived and I'm guessing that there would be 0 nitrates in the water if nitrite eating bacteria were not present in some form...I guess I'll wait a day or two and add some more ammonia maybe and then check 24 hours later to see what happens.

 

After retesting the water using all API drop kits (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate) my ammonia is close to zero ppm, my nitrite is between .5 and 1 ppm and my nitrate is at 5 ppm.

I redosed with 12 drops of ammonia to put my ammonia level back up to 1ppm and tomorrow morning I will do a test to see if my levels are 0, 0, < 20ppm.

Then I guess I can add a fish if all tests well....

Once the tank is cycled and there is at least one fish living in the water is it OK to turn the protein skimmer back on or should I let the fish live in the water for a while before doing so?

 

There was no need to dose more ammonia. All you are doing is prolonging your cycle for no reason honeatly. I would just let the tank set without addin anything else now and allow the BB to do its thing
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