Ammonia and the Fish less cycle

[WildJon]

here are my readings for the last week:

Ammonia Nitrate Nitrite pH

Day 14 thursday February 19th 2015 1PPM 4PPM 5PPM+ 7.6PPM re dosed to 4 PPM Ammonia
Day 15 Friday February 20th 2015 1PPM 5PPM 5PPM+ 7.6PPM re dosed to 3-4 PPM ammonia
Day 16 Saturday February 21st 2015 0.5PPM 10PPM 5PPM+ 7.6PPM re dosed to 3-4 PPM ammonia
Day 17 Sunday February 22nd 2015 0.5PPM 10PPM 5PPM+ 7.6PPM dosed to 3-4 PPM ammonia
Day 18 Monday February 23rd 2015 0.25PPM 10PPM 5PPM+ 7.6PPM re dosed to 3-4 PPM ammonia
Day 19 Tuesday February 24th 2015 0PPM 10PPM 5PPM+ 7.5PPM re dosed to 3-4 PPM ammonia (24 Hours apart) 8:50 am
Day 19 Tuesday February 24th 2015 0.25PPM 10PPM 5PPM+ 7.5PPM re dosed to 3-4 PPM ammonia (12 Hours apart) 9:20 PM


Tank has begun to show the ability to lower ammonia from 3PPM to 0PPM in approximately 12 Hours.


Day 20 Wednesday February 25th 2015 0PPM 10PPM 5PPM+ 7.5 redosed to 3-4 PPM ammonia (12 Hours apart) 9:20 A[table="width: 500"]



Bacteria has been oxidizing the ammonia into nitrite and the nitrate levels have slowly been rising but I have had to seriously increase my ammonia doses to get to 3 PPM before it was 3-5 Drops per Gallon , now i'm having to dose at least 7-8 Drops per gallon to get that same reading. by the time it reaches 9:20 pm when i re analyse, it will have dropped back to 0PPM, the question is this , Why am I having to increase my ammonia dosage in order to see 3PPM ?

I am checking my water about 1 hour after dosage. I thought, maybe it's an inaccurate reading ? even if it were , my result are still back at 0ppm within 12 hours. Anyone have any idea's as to why this is happening ?

[pcsb23]

Jonathon, I edited your post as using size 1 made things too small for folk to read.

I'm assuming that the last column is your pH - if so it isn't measured in ppm it is just pH so 7.6

The first thing to mention here is that hobbyist test kits are wildly inaccurate. The next is that drop size can also depend on multiple factors. The long and the short of it is don't worry over it. It is typical that ammonia gets converted quickly once the bacteria have established, the trick now is to keep the ammonia going in until the nitrite is being converted to nitrates in the same sort of timescales.

Looks like you are well on your way.

[WildJon]

Jonathon, I edited your post as using size 1 made things too small for folk to read.

I'm assuming that the last column is your pH - if so it isn't measured in ppm it is just pH so 7.6

The first thing to mention here is that hobbyist test kits are wildly inaccurate. The next is that drop size can also depend on multiple factors. The long and the short of it is don't worry over it. It is typical that ammonia gets converted quickly once the bacteria have established, the trick now is to keep the ammonia going in until the nitrite is being converted to nitrates in the same sort of timescales.

Looks like you are well on your way.

thank paul much appreciated for the Edit and the input. I think i found out what the problem may have been. I left the bottle of ammonia open for 24 hours . im assuming a good amount of the ammonia was released. either way , i think the nitrites are starting to come down. it looks like it has dropped to the maximum readable amount of 5 PPM , so lets see what the next few days bring.

Also , i have seen these electronic test devices at the LFS , i had seen one for ammonia . has anyone ever used one and know if it's relatively accurate ?

[pcsb23]

Never used the electronic ammonia tests so can't comment. I have used lab grade stuff though which made use of colorimeters - expensive but very accurate (not needed for our purposes).

Yep, leaving the lid off will have caused the ammonia to evaporate.

Shouldn't be long now before your tank is ready :)

[WildJon]

Never used the electronic ammonia tests so can't comment. I have used lab grade stuff though which made use of colorimeters - expensive but very accurate (not needed for our purposes).

Yep, leaving the lid off will have caused the ammonia to evaporate.

Shouldn't be long now before your tank is ready :)

Im at the point on where my nitrites have jumped off the chart so high that my readings have gone from the darkest purple to Gray. Im guessing another two weeks, which is absolutely fine with me. Not in any rush to add fish. Im going to see hans in may.