Thursday & Friday (Days 10 & 11)

Quick update (no pics today haha!).

Yesterday (day 10) I had a strange mix of results. I have seen no ammonia at all, but the nitrite was a  a bit odd.

Before work (11.5 hrs after re-dosing) the nitrite was the highest it has been - between 2 and 5!  Perhaps I put too much ammonia in??  

I re-dosed anyway before work and then measured again when I came home at one hour intervals (my husband has gone away and I was bored!).

The results were 7pm 0.5-1, 8pm 0.25, 9pm 0. Then I re-dosed. 


This morning at 8.30 (11.5 hours after re-dosing) I'm getting double 0s.


So now I just need to re-dose it and tomorrow or Sunday I will drain the water and go FISH SHOPPING  Hurrah!

Tuesday & Wednesday (Days 8 & 9)

Get ready for this people, it's a rollercoaster of emotion ;)

Tuesday, 7.45am (12hrs after re-dosing) - 0 ppm Ammonia and 0.5ppm Nitrite

Tuesday, 6.15pm,  10hrs 30 mins after re-dosing Ammonia. Ammonia 0, Nitrite  between 0 and 0.25 and  Nitrate around 5.

Tuesday 1t 10.15pm, four hours after re-dosing. 1.5ppm Ammonia , Nitrite 1ppm

And today's results.... *DRUMROLL PLEASE*

Firstly, a thought for the poorly zebra danio which got stuck behind the filter, who has now gone to fishy heaven. RIP little buddy. He was one of only two men against six lady danios ,probably stuck himself to the filter in sheer exasperation. There is only so much procreating you can attempt.

But on a lighter note...

At 7.50am, the results were much like yesterday...

L - 0 Ammonia and 0 Nitrite results from a fully cycled tank for comparison
R Ammonia, Nitrite and  Nitrate tests from this tank. Nitrite between 0 and 0.25 again...

So I re-dosed...and this evening...

Ta-da! Double 0s!

Now I have re-dosed and I'll keep doing so for the next few days to make sure it's not a fluke... Fingers crossed! Now I have to put some real thought to stocking :S

So far I have decided on a krib or kribs, and five banded barbs... However what I go out with the intention of getting and what I actually come back with may be two very different things!

Monday (Day 7)

So 7.45am the results looked like this...

0.25 Ammonia

0.25 Nitrite

So I re-dosed 6ml and 12 hours later at 7.45pm I have:

That's absolutely no ammonia, and just trace nitrites (<0.25). Hooray!

Time to re-dose and hopefully over the week I'll see nitrites at a big sky blue 0 after 12 hours. Then with any luck I will be ready for fishies this weekend or the next. The great thing about cycling this way (with no fish) is that you can add them all at once and it won't overload the filter because a tank full of fish won't produce 4ppm ammonia, so the filter will be able to cope.

Now I just have to decide which fish I want!

Sunday night update

Well it has been a miserable Sunday, and rather than go out and do anything worthwhile I've spent a lot of it just relaxing and watching my fish. Not a bad way to spend the day really!

I've also been researching what will go into my new tank when it's up and running. So far I like the look of five-banded barbs and a pair of kribs, however it depends how long I have to go because I may well change my mind!

So because I bet you're dying to know, I have been testing my water throughout the day and I can reveal the results:

L-R - 10.30am immediately after re-dose to 4ppm, 4.5 hours later at 3pm (around 3ppm), 8.5 hours after re-dosing at 7pm  at 2ppm and then finally at 9pm, 10.5 hours after the re-dose at 1ppm.

You can see for yourself! Isn't it pretty.

Nitrite is about 0.25 and has remained there all day. Nitrate is  about 10-20ppm, it's difficult to tell in this light.

I have added another 3/4ml of my favourite household ammonia which should bring it back up to the 4ppm level, as I am not sure I will be able to tomorrow morning.

Well, I am sure you will agree that's quite enough excitement for one day!

Tuesday - Friday (Days 1 - 4)

I am starting this journal to document my new tank doing its fishless cycle. This journal is primarily for my own sanity however I would love to have your comments or suggestions on stocking, planting, decor or the cycling process! 

I am using the API Freshwater Master test kit to test for Ammonia, Nitrites and Nitrates and ordinary Household Ammonia from homebase to cycle the tank.

By way of introduction, these are my current tanks:

Fluval Roma 200

This one has sand substrate (with a few stray pieces of red and grey gravel which was a terrible experiment!). Lots of bogwood, lots of plants. One cheeky male powder blue dwarf gourami, affectionately named King Boffer, who seems to know exactly when the camera is on him!

The Fluval Roma 200

As well as King B and his girlfriend (pictured below...), it's home to some male platies, male guppies, zebra danios, cardinal tetras, peppered cories and a baby bristlenose.

A bit of a blur!

65l

Please forgive the floating plants, I think my plec has been uprooting!

This one has a cat litter substrate, and bogwood/mopani wood 'cave'. There are also lots of plants, some of which appear to be floating - oops! This one is the first tank we bought and we are now using it as a 'room divider'. There is a background on the far end but you can see right through the long side and it doesn't seem to have changed the behaviour of the fish - although this picture does look pretty bare! It's home to a few lady guppies, a few lady platies, a shoal of 8 inquisitive pygmy cories and one grumpy and rather elusive clown plec:

Go away, this is my cave.

And, finally, this is the new tank.

Fluval Roma 125

It's a Fluval Roma 125 which came second hand with a 3d 'rock' background and rather than take it out, I decided to go with it and use it as a theme. I've added black sand and some decorative rocks (two hollow, two real) which I already had, but had taken out of the other tanks in favour of wood. There is also some wood and a spawning hut which have been taken out of de-commissioned tanks. These are by no means permanent, they're just there because they have no where else to go!There are a few plants in there which couldn't be squeezed in elsewhere but no where near as many as I am hoping to have eventually.

Tuesday (day 1) We set it up, filled up with some old tank water and some dechlorinated water, turned on the filter (also second hand - seemed to be soggy but doesn't appear the bacteria have survived) and chucked in some fish food.

Wednesday (day 2) Put in the sand and decor. I got some ammonia from homebase, and in the evening ammonia was measuring 0.5 so dosed up to 4/5ppm (5ml). Whacked the temp up to 31.5 degrees.

Thursday (day 3)After doing a weekly water change on the Roma 200, I took some of the filter media our and swapped it in to the 125 however there are a few new additions in the larger tank and I didn't want to take too much and risk an ammonia or nitrite spike. I will monitor both closely to see if i can take more next week. I also took the media out of a Fluval Edge which we shut down, however there was only a single fish in there so I can't imagine that did much. 

Friday (day 4)8.30am - still no change - Ammonia at 4ppm, Nitrite 0  Doesn't look like the media did anything at all.