Hello! I have been trying to do a fishless nitrogen cycle in my indoor pond (Inside my house but open from the above) I have made biofilter as well. I stared the cycle three weeks ago, Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate were 0. In the Second week, Ammonia came to 0.25 and nitrite was 1 ppm Nitrate 5ppm. Now today marks the third week and Ammonia is 0.25 ppm, Nitrite is 2 ppm and Nitrate is 10ppm ( This result has been the same since the last 4 days) I check after every 2 days. Should i be worried that my ammonia and nitrite are just constant?
Nitrogen Cycle into 3rd Week
- Thread starter GulfFarmer
- Start date
Welcome aboard
It sounds like you are are almost there to end of Cycling. What type of test kit do you use to test your parameters? Make sure your testing vials are rinsed well before and especially after use.
If you are using the API Freshwater Test kit then I suggest you pickup a bottle of Deionized water or Distilled water to rinse out the testing vials . Both will keep any chemical residue from staining testing vials and giving false test results.
Thank you for your reply and the welcome! The only thing i am concerned about is that during my tests, I haven't had seen my nitrite more than 2ppm yet. However I've read that usually in cycles it goes crazy, maybe i might have missed the spike since i test after every two days but are these spikes just for 24-48 hours? Thank you for the heads upon the testing, i do use API, Ill do the necessary. Appreciate your response!
Thank you for your response, I just keep getting a lot of wild thoughts, whether my biofilter is working or am i on the right track, since the process is so long.
The time length of the spiking will depend on your population of beneficial bacteria.
Although ammonia and nitrite consuming bacteria are ubiquitous where ammonia is constantly produced by fish metabolism, before you started to add it, there was none, so no reason for those species of bacteria to appear (no sustenance) the ammonia you add is food for them, and will require a population of billions and billions, so this takes time (even at the prolific rate bacteria divide).
Although I have never used bottled bacteria (its supposed to work) or, if you know someone else with a tank, get a handful of substrate, or a piece of old filter media, which could jump start your process.
Aquarium plants also help, as would a rock or piece of decor from someones "established" aquarium (by established, I mean a tank that has been up for at least 6 months.
And even if you get it cycled, don't add a plethora of fish at first, add only a few at a time.
This gives the ammonia consuming population time to adjust to the metabolism load.
Although I have never used bottled bacteria (its supposed to work) or, if you know someone else with a tank, get a handful of substrate, or a piece of old filter media, which could jump start your process.
Aquarium plants also help, as would a rock or piece of decor from someones "established" aquarium (by established, I mean a tank that has been up for at least 6 months.
And even if you get it cycled, don't add a plethora of fish at first, add only a few at a time.
This gives the ammonia consuming population time to adjust to the metabolism load.
I got what you mean, However i used MICROBE LIFT N1 ( Which contains Nitrosomonas and Nitrobacter) Is there a requirement to add more during this cycle to increase the bacteria population? TIA
Did you add ammonia when you added the bacteria? It needs food so if you just added the bacteria and no food source they may have started to die off.
