# Cycling - I thought I understood it.



## nerbaneth (May 1, 2008)

hi everyone!

I have been using fish less cycling for 5 days now in my 90 gal and nothing has happened to the ammonia levels. I have been using old filter media, 2 sponge filters attached to maxi-jet 1200s plants and injected Co2. I used prime to dechlorinate when I filled the water up. I've used leaf zone by API to fertilize.

I have several questions so I will try to split them up.

a) Does Co2 inhibit cycling?

b) Why has my ammonia not been converted into nitrite? - From my readings ammonia changes quickly to nitrite and then spikes there for a while before it is converted to nitrate.

c) Should I go out and buy biro-spira, cycle or turbo start? I have read an equal amount of people say that each one of these products works and doesn't work.

d) Are my plants going to die because they aren't getting nitrate? Also do plants only consume nitrate or do they consume nitrite and ammonia as well?

e)I know its only been 5 days, but shouldn't something have happened by now?

thanks if you can help
-Nerb


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## trigger (Sep 6, 2002)

I have one question to start with: did you add ammonia ???

Fishless cycling usually is to kick start a new filter... If you have a filter with seeded media, you can just add the fish. Keep an eye on the readings, because the different bio loads can make a difference.

When I got my last new tank, I hooked up the filter to my main tank a couple of weeks to seed it. When I got the fish for the new tank, I filled that with water, placed the now seeded filter on it and added the fish. The ammonia and nitrites fluctuated a bit when the filter was ajusting to the new bioload, but that was about it.


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## nerbaneth (May 1, 2008)

Yup my ammonia is at 4 ppm, I just washed off my biowheel and filter pad from my 20 gal into the new tank.

did it take more than 5 days for any ammonia to turn into nitrite?


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## fiupntballr (Jul 7, 2004)

have you tried adding a bacteria solution to help with the cycling?


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## nerbaneth (May 1, 2008)

nope I haven't tried that..



> c) Should I go out and buy biro-spira, cycle or turbo start? I have read an equal amount of people say that each one of these products works and doesn't work.


I'm not sure even which ones to try that will actually work. I read that there is some dry product that will cycle a 150 gal in 3 days.. but how could dry bacteria even work? :?


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## CichlidWhisperer (Apr 12, 2008)

I have tried BioSpira and Cycle... IMO, BioSpira is the best. I was able to add fish to my tank and never saw a ammonia spike at all. There was a very temporary spike in Nitrite which went down to zero in about 3 days.


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## nerbaneth (May 1, 2008)

i'd say my only problem is that bio-spira is expensive to stock a 90 gal tank.. I would need three packages at est. $20 - I don't think I can afford that/want to give my money out right now.


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## CichlidWhisperer (Apr 12, 2008)

Not that it is cheap, but I am pretty sure Biospira is $12 a package at my LFS... wonder if you can find it cheaper...


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## pancakeloach (Feb 4, 2008)

When I started fishless cycling, it took about a week and a half for the ammonia level to "zero out." I started out at ~5ppm, which I think was a little high, and although I used old filter material to seed the new filter, I didn't add anything like bio-spira. Remember that if you're using test strips or even the liquid reagent tests, the color chart isn't as accurate as a digital readout, so there could be change in ammonia levels that just aren't large enough to be picked up yet. Don't worry, patience works!


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