That's great to hear! I personally would wait for Nitrite to stabilize to 0 ppm. Give a few more days and test again.
Nitrogen Cycle into 3rd Week
- Thread starter GulfFarmer
- Start date
Thanks for the response, I heard that bacteria don't grow colonies when nitrite is low? is this true?
Tbh never heard or read that but sure others will chime in with a concrete answer.
In an established system, and yours isn't quite there yet, but you're close, your ammonia and nitrite should always be 0ppm. That is bright yellow and light blue on the API test chart. By all accounts you are very nearly there, though I must admit getting that final bit of nitrite down to zero is dragging on a bit. But hey, each systems different, you just have to roll with it.
The important thing is not to become impatient and add fish prematurely just because your readings are NEARLY there. That would be a mistake.
Sounds good, this place seems to be like a safe haven for me to control my actions. Thanks !
What I've done in the past would be to dose a small amount of ammonia back in the tank at the end of your previous start cycle if it is truly cycled it will take care of it before the end of the day. Just enough to hit .5 ish. But I really haven't done fishless cycling in quite a while. I have used and stuck with mb7 and/or cycled media. That pretty much instantly cycles your tank.
One of the salt tanks I set up for a friend we used all dry rock as he didn't want any pests or chance of pests. We dosed 2.0 amount of amonina and used mb7 on Sunday. By sat there was 0 ammonia 0 nitrite. I made sure he was following the dosing instructions and dosed ammonia again. It was gone the next day and we were reading nitrite which by end of day was gone also. So basically the tank was able to cycle 1.0 worth of ammonia in 24hrs to nitrate just off the start off dosing. Unfortunately he wasnt getting his fish for another 3 weeks. So we dosed ammonia every 2 days and started doing water changes before we dosed. He had the math down to know how much ammonia to dose to get x ppm but it pretty much stopped registering on tests unless a huge dose was added in a few hours. That was just the weekly recommend doses of mb7.
Another recent tank we just used a bunch of cycled media. We added fish slowly no recordable amount of ammonia or nitrite at all.
I wasn't even thinking I set up a crayfish breeding tank a few weeks ago here. 40b 10 adult crayfish 2 of which were berried females. I just pulled a bag of cycled media out of my sump. It never registered ammonia or nitrite either.
One of the salt tanks I set up for a friend we used all dry rock as he didn't want any pests or chance of pests. We dosed 2.0 amount of amonina and used mb7 on Sunday. By sat there was 0 ammonia 0 nitrite. I made sure he was following the dosing instructions and dosed ammonia again. It was gone the next day and we were reading nitrite which by end of day was gone also. So basically the tank was able to cycle 1.0 worth of ammonia in 24hrs to nitrate just off the start off dosing. Unfortunately he wasnt getting his fish for another 3 weeks. So we dosed ammonia every 2 days and started doing water changes before we dosed. He had the math down to know how much ammonia to dose to get x ppm but it pretty much stopped registering on tests unless a huge dose was added in a few hours. That was just the weekly recommend doses of mb7.
Another recent tank we just used a bunch of cycled media. We added fish slowly no recordable amount of ammonia or nitrite at all.
I wasn't even thinking I set up a crayfish breeding tank a few weeks ago here. 40b 10 adult crayfish 2 of which were berried females. I just pulled a bag of cycled media out of my sump. It never registered ammonia or nitrite either.
I pretty much get what you mean,thanks, i feel that once when my tank is cycled ( quite soon hopefully), thus when setting up another, things will be much easier. The first time is indeed the most difficult time. Also is there any ratio or rate i should take care when adding water after a fresh cycle? I mean any certain gallon of water can take a specific amount of fish?
This is one of the reasons I use sumps for filtration, if I want to set up another tank, I attach it to the seasoned sump, and it is automatically cycled because the seasoned media in the sump is what is being used, and will easily handle the extra fish and water.
I just picked up another tank, and as soon as the plumbing is up and running, I will add fish, no need to cycle.
I will just reroute the outflow from the large tank on the left thru the empty one on the right, into the sump you can see behind.
Until I moved, using seasoned sumps, I hadn't had to cycle since the 80s.
I just picked up another tank, and as soon as the plumbing is up and running, I will add fish, no need to cycle.
I will just reroute the outflow from the large tank on the left thru the empty one on the right, into the sump you can see behind.
Until I moved, using seasoned sumps, I hadn't had to cycle since the 80s.
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This ahould be on MFK'ers t-shirt for OGs's lol.
