disneyninja

On Friday the tank was very close to being finished.  Here are Friday's test results

Today the good signs of my Nitrogen Cycle continued.  My Nitrites were at a pretty low .05ppm even after an ammonia add last night.  I'm getting really close to being finished.  

So good signs continue to come along.  My nitrites are dropping at about the one week mark of having spiked.  Actually they dropped a little quicker than I thought they might, but like I said before I had some filter elements from a previous tank, so hopefully that helped it along.  My nitrites are still high, but my test is registering the levels.  At this rate I'll be looking at having a fish added to my tank in a week and half or so.  I really hope so.  I've been really diligent about testing water and adding ammonia.  Once my nitrites drop and before add another ammonia dose I'll measure the pH to make sure my water conditioner is working on the water I added and to make sure all of my water levels are safe.  The Nitrates will be taken out with the large water change the day before I get my fish(s).

My Ammonia level finally dropped to less than 1ppm and my Nitrite levels are still too high for my test to read.  At this point my tank can cycle about 4ppm of ammonia within 24 hours, and that is a great sign.  Now for the process I will continue to add 2ml of my ammonia solution every time the ammonia level drops to .25 - .50ppm and bring it back up to approx 3 - 4ppm

After a few days of feeling stalled out I had some pretty good changes in the water.  Still, I haven't had to add more ammonia yet, but I'm just pleased that the ammonia is being cycled properly.

pH - not tested for today
Ammonia - 1ppm
Nitrite - >1ppm (that is as high as my test goes)
Nitrate - not tested for today

I'm really hoping that in 24-48 hours I'll hit my first ammonia add since the first.  After that I should be looking at 2-3 weeks before I'm finish with the entire cycle.

So I have decided against an every day update because it isn't changing and may not for a while, so I will up date on the first day I add ammonia and then continue more updates after that.

Today was an interesting day.  My friend and I did a small tour of local fish stores and found some pretty interesting species and set ups.  One store was almost all saltwater and that made me very envious.  The store owner was so nice and I know where I'll be going once I get the experience to start a saltwater tank.

The water measurement today was interesting, to me anyway...

pH - not measured today
Ammonia - 2.5 (same as yesterday)
Nitrite - .2 (up from .1 yesterday)
Nitrate - not measured today

So more nitrite developed but not a measurable amount of ammonia was processed.  So it is moving a long a little.  I'm hoping that tomorrow of the day after with be my first ammonia add since the initial add. 

Test and have patience!

It seems like the Nitrogen cycle is moving along.  Right now I'm waiting for my ammonia test to develop.  I have done it once today but I always feel like when I compare the results to the chart that I'm not reading it right.  With the Nitrite test the color change from 0 to 1 is quite drastic, with the ammonia test the difference from 5 to 2.5 is a little more subtle. 

Here are today's results

1. pH - not tested today
   
2. Ammonia - 2.5 (down from 5 yesterday)
   
3. Nitrite - 1 (up from 0 yesterday)
   
4. Nitrate - not tested today

One thing about this tank is that the sponge in the filter is the same since I wasn't able to get a replacement.  Also there was the water and some material from the plants from the aquarium at the store, so I'm hoping that those two elements help speed up the process.  If I'm awake I'll measure this again in 12 hours to see if more ammonia needs to be added. 

My plan now is to test daily, and photograph my tank as it goes along.  The process can cloud the water and grow algae and I want to keep track of how bad it gets before it gets good again.

So readings for today:

1. pH - not measured today
2. Ammonia - 5ppm
3. Nitrites - not measured today
4. Nitrates - not measured today
   

As mentioned previously I have started what is called the nitrogen cycle.  This is the natural, continous break down of waste and debris into ammonia, nitrite and nitrate.  All of these chemicals are toxic to fish.  If you are building a new tank it will not be cycling.  This process has to be started by the introduction of ammonia in some form.  This is why when most new tanks are started the first fish die fairly quickly.  The fish are the first introduction of ammonia, and the tank hasn't produced the appropriate bacteria to cycle out the ammonia quick enough and that in turn poisons the fish.  So the idea is to start the cycle, produce the bacteria, and get the tank cycling out ammonia fast enough so that it won't kill your fish. 

I found a great article from the website fishlore.com about starting the nitrogen cycle by directly introducing ammonia, instead of introducing waste (food, plant material) and waiting for that to break down into ammonia.  Fishless Nitrogen Cycle Article

I will be blogging about how I started the cycle and how long it takes for me to keep track and hopefully help someone out with their first tank too.

For me, step one was setting up the tank.  As I stated in a previous blog, I had it set up with treated water for several days before starting the cycle.  Today was the first day I introduced ammonia into my tank. 

You do need to have some supplies to do this, and the ammonia itself was the hardes to find.  I found it in a store that sells commercial sized cleaning supplies, and they only had a 1 gallon jug, which for my purpose is way too much, but it was the only ammonia I could find.

IMG_0154

I started with this one gallon container full of treated water.  This is so I could determine how much of the ammonia solution I would need per gallon of my tank to bring the ammonia levels to 5ppm(parts per mililiter).  All ammonia solutions are a little different, so what worked here may not work for you.

IMG_0149

I found a dosing syringe, which has ammounts measure in mililiters, and used that to add ammonia to my water so that I would have an approx. measurement instead of having to count drops.  With the ammonia I had it ended up being about 3/4 ml per gallon of water to bring it to 5ppm.

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This test measures ammonia, and it is what I used to measure the levels in the water.  There are several types of test kits out there and some pretty elaborate kits as well.  For my purposes, I have a small kit that measures pH, ammonia, and nitrite.  I will be getting a nitrate test in the next few days.  The test process is simple, using the appropriate ammount of water and following the directions for mixing and timing, your water will turn to a color that you compare to the provided chart.  This test measures from 0-7.5ppm

Once I figured out how much ammonia I would need for my actual tank I added it and now a waiting process begins.  The first thing I must do now is start testing my tank for ammonia daily.  Once these levels drop to 0-1ppm I will be able to test for nitrites to see if the ammonia is getting processed.  When the ammonia gets that low I will add enough ammonia to bring it back up to 3-4ppm.  The goal is to have your tank be able to process 3-4ppm in less than 12 hours.  During this you will want to test for nitrites as well.

IMG_0152

This is the additive for my nitrite test.  For a while it may not even be able to be measured by this kit, so I will need to continue testing to see when that spike in nitires (caused by the processing of the ammonia being added) drops to zero as well.  Once the nitrites are down to zero, it is time for a pretty big water change out (conditioned water of course) to reduce the nitrates that have built up during this cycle.  You are still left with the bacteria needed to process the ammonia the fish with produce.

When you are introducing the fish you are looking for the appropriate pH for the species, the appropriate temp. and ammonia and nitrite levels to be at zero