Great news!

Nigelk8485 · Dec 11, 2014

Since nobody I hang out with understands my obsession with fish, I have to post my good news here. My 150 is almost cycled! The ammonia has been processing within 24 hours, last night I checked the nitrites and they were 5+ppm. I redosed to 3-4ppm ammonia last night, this morning ammonia is at 0, nitrites are right between 0-.25, and then nitrates are around 80.

Since I don't have any fish yet, should I do a water change before redosing with ammonia to confirm the cycle or just leave it be until I plan on actually putting fish in there?

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predatorkeeper87 · Dec 11, 2014

I would do a water change, though I haven't done a fishless cycle since I discovered SafeStart and Stability. I cycle tanks in like 3 days lol.

pacu mom · Dec 11, 2014

Nigelk8485 said:
Since nobody I hang out with understands my obsession with fish, I have to post my good news here. My 150 is almost cycled! The ammonia has been processing within 24 hours, last night I checked the nitrites and they were 5+ppm. I redosed to 3-4ppm ammonia last night, this morning ammonia is at 0, nitrites are right between 0-.25, and then nitrates are around 80.

Since I don't have any fish yet, should I do a water change before redosing with ammonia to confirm the cycle or just leave it be until I plan on actually putting fish in there?

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Do not do a water change until the tank is cycled. At that time, do a massive water change just prior to adding your fish to remove the nitrates. The nitrates will be sky high at the end of cycling. Congratulations on fishless cycling.

Warborg · Dec 11, 2014

I'd advice stocking it slowly to make sure the tank is keeping up.

Nigelk8485 · Dec 11, 2014

Warborg said:
I'd advice stocking it slowly to make sure the tank is keeping up.

If it's been processing 3-4 ppm of ammonia in 24 hours and I stock slowly wouldn't that cause some of the bacteria to die off? I had already planned to start with my smaller fish and lighter bio load and letting them grow out a bit before adding the larger fish.

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pops · Dec 11, 2014

it will all be good, once you have no nitrite reading you are ready for fish. do the water change and get the nitrate down to 5 or less and add fish. your BB will be fine.

pops · Dec 11, 2014

barring a loss of oxygen the BB does not die easy.

Nigelk8485 · Dec 11, 2014

pops said:
barring a loss of oxygen the BB does not die easy.

Awesome awesome awesome. Yeah I'll hold off on fish until it's a definitive zero with the nitrites. I was actually hoping the cycle would take about another week anyways so I could finish doing everything I need like building a spraybar and putting plants in, but I won't complain that it didn't take a long time.

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pacu mom · Dec 11, 2014

I'd watch the nitrites for a while. When we fishless cycled our tank, it took several weeks for the nitrites to drop. Nitrates were at 160 ppm at the end of cycling. You could have a die off of bacteria if the fish you add produce less than 4 ppm of ammonia that the tank was cycled to.

Nigelk8485 · Dec 12, 2014

pacu mom said:
I'd watch the nitrites for a while. When we fishless cycled our tank, it took several weeks for the nitrites to drop. Nitrates were at 160 ppm at the end of cycling. You could have a die off of bacteria if the fish you add produce less than 4 ppm of ammonia that the tank was cycled to.

The majority of my fish will be added at once, namely a shoal of rainbowfish and a bichir, however they're a lighter bioload. That's where I'm nervous about bacteria dying off. My other two larger fish I plan on adding, an oscar and severum, will go in once the others grow a little. You think the bacteria will be able to repopulate itself without any complications if I'm adding in the oscar and severum as juveniles?

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