Reprinted from Tropical Fish Forums
37 Gallon Tall Eclipse with lousy standard lights
I decided to do a fishless cycle because I didn't want to risk hurting any fish. Found something on the net and have basically followed directions. Thought I'd post my experience in case anyone else wants to do this as well.
Day 1, Dec. 23
Filled her up, heated her up to about 78, poured in about one table spoon of ammonia and a bottle of Fritzyme for a starter.
Day two, added one tbs ammonia
Day three, same
Day four, same
Day five, away for the day, no ammonia
Day six, away, no ammonia
Day seven, no ammonia added
Day eight, Ammonia at 8.0 or higher, added quarter tsp, about ten plants and fertilizer. I added plants because I heard that the bacteria in their roots and in the containers they come in will help. Realized later that ammonia might be high for the plants but it was too late. Anyway, I needed to do something in lieu of buying fish!
Day nine, ammonia 8.0, ph 7.8 no added ammonia, borrowed an algae covered plastic plant and a little gravel from a friend's established tank.
Day ten, January 1st - ammonia somewhere between 4.0 and 8.0 (my chart doesn't read between those numbers) no ammonia added. raised the heat to 86, which is as high as my heater will go, because I read the high heat will help the bacteria grow faster.
Day eleven - ammonia 2.0, nitrite .5, ph 7.8, no ammonia added, installed DIY Co2 set up (again, I had to do something productive!) Drank too much wine that evening and ordered bio spira off the internet thinking I could add it to hurry the process.
Day twelve - ammonia 2.0, nitrite 1.0, no ammonia added. Co2 looks like it's hardly working - I get one fat bubble coming out of the diffuser about every five or ten seconds... arggg Still, the ammonia is decreasing and nitrites are rising, so this looks good!
Day thirteen, ammonia 1.0, nitrite 5.0, no ammonia added. Sat on my hands and wallet.
Day 14. Ammonia ZERO! woohoo! Nitrite 5.0 or higher. PH 7.2 which I belive means the Co2 is working! Double Woohoo! added 1/2 tsp ammonia
In the evening my ammonia was back to zero.
Day 15. Ammonia zero, nitrite 5.0, added 1/2 tsp ammonia. By evening the ammonia read zero again. Plants not looking very good, tho... Bio spira arrived, it's still in the fridge. Haven't decided to add it, having doubts that it will do anything. I'd be interested to know what anyone here thinks about that.
Day 16, January 7...
AM - ammonia zero, nitrite 5.0, added one full tsp ammonia
PM - ammonia zero, nitrite 5.0 seems to devouring that ammonia. Adding one full tablespoon of ammonia tonight before I go to bed. Just want to see...
PH is still 7.2 plus I have white crusty (carbon?) buildup on the side of the tank with the diffuser.
Tomorrow is Saturday so I'm going to by a KH tester to determine how well my Co2 is really working. I'm also planning on buying a quarantine tank to give me something to fiddle with because I understand the nitrite process takes longer than the ammonia process and I have become obsessed with all things fishy. smile.gif
Jan 8
My water is kinda greenish. Not algae, there is only a small amount that came on the plastic plant I borrowed from a friend for the bacteria. I DO have snails, however. Must have hitched in on the ... I think it's lilaeopsis. grassy stuff, messy.
Snails are interesting to watch, even if they're teeny tiny. I suppose they'll be an issue eventually but I'll cross that bridge later.
Other plants are Balcora or Ludwigia, not sure. It's grown an inch or more in the past few days. Bottom leaves are brown and icky tho. Top is sparser, reaching for the light. I've seen this with terrestrial plants - just not getting enough light.
Also have four or five very tall vals. They're doing okay.
Have one rooted sword type plant, I think. Haven't been able to find a picture of it anywhere. It's got sharp narrowish "swords" with a lot of red on the edges. I've had one leave melt away and I have melty spots on several other leaves. Could be the light, the nitrites, or shock. Just have to give it time I guess!
Day 18 - Jan. 9
Added one tsp ammonia last night. This morning"
NH3 - zero
NO2 - 5.0
I added ten lbs of gravel last night, washing it really well before hand. I neglected to treat the water I soaked it in with dechlorinator and then I added ammonia. Woke up panicking this morning that I'd killed off all my good bacteria since the wet gravel and certainly some of the untreated water went into the tank, but it was fine.
Nitrite is taking forever to cycle, it seems like
Day 19
NH3 Zero
No2 5.0
No2 160 or higher
This is the first time I've checked for Nitrates and I was shocked to see such a high reading. I thought that wouldn't go up until the Nitrites came down.
Am now consistently feeding half a table spoon of ammonia morning and evening. Within 12 hours I'm always back to a zero reading.
Wondering if I should change out some of the water - the directions I've read say not to but I wonder if the bacteria can catch up at these levels?
We have lift off! wooohoooo!
Wasn't going to check today after my numbers yesterday... but just
before bed tonight I decided to just check the nitrites and got...
ZERO! So I checked the ammonia and got Zero and the nitrates - and got
ZERO!!!
I don't know how that's possible since yesterday when No2 and No3 were
off the charts, but there you have it. I have a beautifully green
water, algae up the glass growing, cycled tank! Twenty days of
fishless cycling...Yay!
Of course I have to work tomorrow, tomorrow night, the next day and
night... So Friday is the first chance I'll have to even make that huge
water change I'm supposed to do. Have to work Saturday, too, but I'll
make time for a trip to pick up my furcatus. Start with five if they
have 'em. That's about five inches of fish for 37 gallons to start.
Give them a week to work it out. Think that's enough? Of course I'll
continue to test all the while.
Question - do I add ammonia until Friday when I can do the water change?
So this is day 22.
I didn't test at all today, just did a massive water change and added about a tlbs of ammonia to feed the bacteria.
I did double check all my tests yesterday - well, last night.... ammonia was zero, nitrite (yes for real) was zero. NitrAte was 40 ppm...
I'll look tomorrow morning and report.
That's 22 days. Not so bad in the big picture but jeez it took a long time in fishy years... lol
Jan. 15
DISASTER - Day 23 no.gif
I added ammonia this morning - maybe a tad more than usual but not
double. This is after last night's 50% water change.
Tonight my ammonia is back to zero but my nitrites are thru the roof
again. Nitrates are up around 40 or maybe a tad higher.
My Ph is down to 7.0 and I'm having a hard time figuring out my Co2.
KH is 125. I think. The directions first say, "The test is completed
when the water in the test tube, after having been shaken, turns from
blue to yellow." But in the next paragraph, it says "bright yellow."
Now if we're just talking yellow as opposed to blue, my KH might be as
low as 71 or 89. None of these numbers correspond with the numbers on
the chart, altho somehow I figured out how to use it before I seem to
have forgotten or am too panicked to think straight now.
What the f$#% have I done? I was soooo meant to get fish tomorrow! sad1.gif
Jan. 16th
FINALLY got some fish! Bought 5 little otos and three baby angelfish. Less than 8 inches of fish to start with. Checked my water today (24 hours later):
NH3 - 0
N02 - 0
No3 - 40
unfortunately my PH is 7.6! My KH is 6 degrees so that means my CO2 has conked out. Got to get that moving again. Hope the Ph change doesn't bug the fish too much. I need to have a back up bottle next time.
Jan. 19
Lost one of my angels today. I noticed this morning that it spent its time alone in back while its two siblings were starting to swim around more. I don't have a magnifying glass or time to visit the lfs until Saturday but my water parameters have not changed and there were no white spots or any visible problems on its little corpse.
So sad.
Getting all the plants I ordered from www.freshwateraquariumplants.com on Saturday, I believe. I'll do a 50% water change so I can reach the bottom of tank to plant and use some of the water for my quarantine / hospital tank. Also taking my hood in to a lfs to get a retrofit 65 watt compact florescent. Between that, the Co2 and the plants all being particularly suited to low light, I should do okay.
Still haven't decided what kind of schooling fish I should get. Definitely want something with color - my angels and my ottos are all pretty much black / silver /white. I'd like something bright red or yellow.
I guess if I going to try cardinals, I should do it while my remaining two angels are so tiny? Just not sure if the tank is dependably stable enough to risk it yet.
Jan. 22
Got a ton of low light plants from freshwateraquariumplants.com yesterday, got totally overwhelmed with decorating decisions and swore never to do that again!
Having said that, the shipment was great. I would love to get more anubias nana - they're gorgeous. stapled the roots right onto the driftwood. same with the java ferns.
Also got my light retrofit - 1-65 compact, so I've got about 2 watts per gallon now and with the Co2 going strong, I should do okay.
Also bought two of the most beautiful German Rams ever. They've got so much personality and they're amazingly gorgeous. I am totally broke, of course, but I've got my fish... lol
