# Fishless Cycle Help



## Piranha_Mcfly (Jan 11, 2007)

I looked for pure ammonia at about 20 different stores (literally) and all of it had additives. So frustrated with me quest I just dumped a crapload of fish food and pellets in the water. Without the liquid ammonia keeping the exact ammonia amount is really difficult. My ammonia level is 8 PPM. What is crazy is that in 2 days I already have nitrites. Does this mean the nitrogen cycle has already started? The nitrite reading is 5 PPM.


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## Piranha_Mcfly (Jan 11, 2007)

My Nitrates are at 10. I did a good bit of gravel transfer from a well established tank but the filter had not been used in months (Emperor 400). I am shocked if the cycle has already began n such a short perios of time.


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## RbpPower (Oct 30, 2007)

what u can do is put the media cartridges and bio wheels in an established tank for a couple of days then run them on your emp 400. This should speed things up a bit. IMO if you moved a lot of established gravel then it should be almost done with the cycle.


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## Coldfire (Aug 20, 2003)

Sure, the tank begins to cycle as soon as it has a NH4 source. NH4 shows up the day NH4 is introduced (e.g. fish food, fish's by-product, pure NH4, etc.), and NO2 should start showing up about four days after, then NO3 around 15-20 days later. Of course, this process can be speeded up with the addition of a bacteria additive (e.g. Biospira) or seeding the tank with established filter media. Here is a graph of a general cycle.


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