Fishless cycle help.

[mattnano13.5]

So I set up my Evo 13.5 on the 20th so 5 days ago and today the 25th I just added 1oz of turbostart900. I’m doing a fishless cycle. When do you believe I can add a fish? Or do I need to dose 2ml a ammonia in my tank a few times and check to make sure? Just wondering what my next step is from this day on. 

[Dave21]

I did a fishless cycle with a piece of dinner shrimp and it took over a month. I eventually bought a bottle of ammonia and dosed until it would completely process the ammonia in 24 hrs (redosing when ammonia measured zero) I did do several water changes during the cycle when my nitrites got too high because I read that would slow the cycle. 

 

From all the info I gathered, I'll skip the shrimp on my next tank and will start with a bottle of bacteria and I'll dose 2pm of ammonia and monitor ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate daily redosing when the ammonia reaches zero until it can completely process 2pm of ammonia within 24hrs with no nitrite and some nitrates. 

[mattnano13.5]

1 hour ago, Dave21 said:

I did a fishless cycle with a piece of dinner shrimp and it took over a month. I eventually bought a bottle of ammonia and dosed until it would completely process the ammonia in 24 hrs (redosing when ammonia measured zero) I did do several water changes during the cycle when my nitrites got too high because I read that would slow the cycle. 

 

From all the info I gathered, I'll skip the shrimp on my next tank and will start with a bottle of bacteria and I'll dose 2pm of ammonia and monitor ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate daily redosing when the ammonia reaches zero until it can completely process 2pm of ammonia within 24hrs with no nitrite and some nitrates. 

Well I just messed up…. I ended up putting too much ammonia in my tank. The API test said it’s 8ppm+ so what now? Do I do a 20% water change? Wait a few days to see if it goes down?

[seabass]

A 20% water change won't be enough.  You'll need to change out something more like 75% (maybe even more depending on how high the level actually is).

 

What product did you use to dose?

[mattnano13.5]

7 hours ago, seabass said:

A 20% water change won't be enough.  You'll need to change out something more like 75% (maybe even more depending on how high the level actually is).

 

What product did you use to dose?

Ace hardware janitor stuff it passed the foam test. Yeah I did about a 75% water change last night and now am reading around 2ppm. So my next question would be do I need to go buy another bottle of bottled bacteria since I removed so much water? I just put a bottle of turbo start900 in probably 3-4 hours before I changed 75% of the water. 

[seabass]

20 minutes ago, mattnano13.5 said:

do I need to go buy another bottle of bottled bacteria since I removed so much water?

No, you won't need to buy another bottle.

 

Initially, right after dosing, the bacteria will be in the water column.  However, nitrifying bacteria colonize on hard surfaces (the rocks, walls, pump, sand etc).  So when you changed out 75% of the water, not only did you leave 25% of the bacteria that was still in the water column; but more importantly, you left all of the colonized bacteria residing on the hard surfaces.

 

In fact, once the bacteria become fully established, you can change out all of the water and not affect your tank's biofilter.

[mattnano13.5]

1 hour ago, seabass said:

No, you won't need to buy another bottle.

 

Initially, right after dosing, the bacteria will be in the water column.  However, nitrifying bacteria colonize on hard surfaces (the rocks, walls, pump, sand etc).  So when you changed out 75% of the water, not only did you leave 25% of the bacteria that was still in the water column; but more importantly, you left all of the colonized bacteria residing on the hard surfaces.

 

In fact, once the bacteria become fully established, you can change out all of the water and not affect your tank's biofilter.

Alright yeah it honestly may have been closer to 80-85% I’m not sure. But I hope I didn’t just delay my cycle a bunch with this hiccup. 

[seabass]

I wouldn't worry too much about it.  Bacteria reproduce quickly.  Monitor ammonia and wait until it reaches 0.25 ppm.  Then dose it back up to 2 ppm.  When your tank can process 2 ppm down to 0.25 ppm within 24 hours, your nitrifying bacteria population can handle the addition of some livestock.