RTR wrote:That technique is fine. Alternate days will work when you are adding such small amounts. There is no problem with the needed bacteria from alternate day additions. The ammonia additions should be halved when the ammonia titer spike is passed and the ammonia is being oxidized to nitrite quickly. High ammonia titers suppress the nitrite oxidizing bacteria.
Alternate day additions are not quite as safe as reduced daily additions, but that would require a preliminary 50% dilution of your ammonia itself.
Three weeks however is a log time for the ammonia spike. What were the ammonia titers during the spike? If they were quite high for that time you may need to re-inoculate with the bacteria. And what ammonia titer are you getting with the one-drop addition.
It is hard to impossible to generalize in "drops". Various prepared ammonia solutions on the market can vary in strength; also, drop size depends both on the dropper itself and the technique used in dropping.
Because this is my first fishless cycle i did actually have some issues in the beginning which is why the ammonia stayed high for so long. i really think i added too much at first, so i did a partial water change and left it alone for a few days to settle, then i added some bacteria and started with the smaller amounts of ammonia. in the beginning the ammonia was off the chart high but after the big water change it came down to 4 and didn't really go above that, now it's at 2. i add my one drop in the morning as i'm leaving for work and when i test it when i get home it's usually at 2 now, it was at 4 a few days ago until the nitrite spike. i haven't tested it yet today.
luckily don't have a fish on order or waiting for me so if i screwed the cycle up i could easily start over again and do it right, i've got plenty of time.
My Puffers: Puffers I have kept: T lineatus T miurus A modestus T biocellatus C valentini C coranata C papuan C lorteti DPs suvattii burrfish T niphobles
That technique is fine. Alternate days will work when you are adding such small amounts. There is no problem with the needed bacteria from alternate day additions.
Thanks for straightening me out on that.
You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...
Well, it is not the best, but you can't do half a drop unless you go to micropipettes. Most hobbyists have no access to such. Once the ammonia has dropped, or drops to undetectable after 24 hours, alternate days are better than suppressing the nitrite-eater by too-high ammonia titers.
That suppression of the second set of bacteria is responsible for most of the extended fishless cycles, and it dates back to too much ammonia initially.
It is possible (but tricky) to cycle a tank with no detectable ammonia by hobby kits. But it takes longer and requires repeated bacterial additions, plus $$ test kits. You just move down one order of magnitude. It is certainly not worth the effort or cost.
Something strange has definitely happened in my tank. Yesterday when i checked the water i got:
Ammonia: 0 -0.25
Nitrite: 5
Nitrate: 40
Today i checked it and got
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
i didn't change anything that i can think of, okay it was a little warm here yesterday and the tank heated up a few degrees, is this enough to kill off all the bacteria?
i have no idea what happened. Does this mean i have to start from scratch?
My Puffers: Puffers I have kept: T lineatus T miurus A modestus T biocellatus C valentini C coranata C papuan C lorteti DPs suvattii burrfish T niphobles
