cycling a new 55 gallon.

[mfgl]

day 5, ammonia seems to be going down slower then the first few days, but I have nitrates now....1ppm. At this point do I keep bumping the ammonia up to 4 ppm? or reduce it?
guess ill dose it to 4ppm one more time tonight till i check back in here

 

[cypher1024]

There are a few different schools of thought on that issue. From what I understand, the general rule is to maintain 3-5ppm of ammonia throughout the cycle.

 

[Unholy1761]

i used instant cycle with my new tank i havent had any deaths i let it set for a few hour and ive tested all my levels they seem fine for the past 2 days.

 

[mfgl]

Day 6 ammonia went from 5 ppm to 0 ppm in less then 24 hours, nitrates are off the chart. Hopefully this goes quick, because since I took all the rocks out of Dexter's temp home to put into his permenant home he is developing a chimple for the first time in his life.

 

[cypher1024]

Day 6 ammonia went from 5 ppm to 0 ppm in less then 24 hours, nitrates are off the chart.

Wow! I'm on day 14 and I've only got 5-10ppm of nitrate (nitrite has been off the card for 9 days) - then again, my seeded bio-media came from a tank that was only halfway done cycling.

Have your nitrites dropped yet? As soon as they're at 0 and your BB can chomp down 5ppm of ammonia a day, you just need to do a big water change (to get the nitrates to a safe level) and it's ready to stock.

 

[Columbian Shark Catfish]

What's with the iPod?

 

[zennzzo]

If you want to sans all the cycling you can use a product I found last year to be a straight up winner in the "new tank" game...

It's called STABILITY from "seachem"...follow the label to the "t", and you'll be cycled in 7 days perfectly...

And all the while with a tank full of fish.
With only one, piece of cake...
I'd bet the farm on it...

 

[redinfinity]

If you want to sans all the cycling you can use a product I found last year to be a straight up winner in the "new tank" game...

It's called STABILITY from "seachem"...follow the label to the "t", and you'll be cycled in 7 days perfectly...

And all the while with a tank full of fish.
With only one, piece of cake...
I'd bet the farm on it...

x2. Seachem Stability worked wonders for me as well.

HOWEVER, do not do what I did and do a fishless cycle with Stability. The concentration of ammonia from the fishless cycle seemed to kill the BB in Stability so I got nowhere in that time lol. I decided to "cycle" doing the week with Stability and using Prime to detoxify ammonia and nitrites, but after removing all the ammonia'd out water. I added a few fish in day 1, with plants, and all has been well.

But yeah, don't use it if you already have high ammonia in your tank.

 

[mfgl]

Stability is expensive here. Ammonia is cheap, plus I just wanted to try cycling. Ive usually just set up tanks and put fish in, with no cycling at all, Ive never lost a fish in 15 years of fishkeeping. But then again I dont overload my tanks either. I normally stock 1-2 very young fish. This time its just goint to be one 6 inch rhom going in there. He probably would have been fine in an uncycled tank, hes not a big eater.

Anyhow I put in more ammonia when I went to bed last night 3ppm. I woke up this morning and tested 0 ppm. Nitrites seem to be down a very bit, my api test kit only goes to 5 ppm. last night it was so dark it was almost hard to see thru, this morning its darker then 5 ppm, but not as dark as last night.

PS...what Ipod? are you guys talking about my digital thermomoter on top of the filter? Or should I have made up some elaborate tale of playing classical music to the baby bacteria to make them grow faster and see how many people tried it

 

[mfgl]

Wow! I'm on day 14 and I've only got 5-10ppm of nitrate (nitrite has been off the card for 9 days) - then again, my seeded bio-media came from a tank that was only halfway done cycling.

Sorry that was a typo, My nitrite is off the chart, I dont even test for nitrate. I just assumed there was nothing you can do to get rid of nitrate except water changes so i dont bother testing it. When ammonia and nitrite hit 0 for two days Im gonna change 80% of the water, set temp and put fish in.