# fishless cycle and vacation



## jeff5347 (Aug 15, 2011)

Hey all. I had my tank set up for a week and added some feeder fish a few days after. As a few where dying I read up on the fishless cycle ( had always cycled w fish previously). I brought the rest back to the store and proceeded to start my fishless cycle. What I have is a 75 gallon with a penguin hob and a susnsun 4 stage canister filter and used the recommended doseage of API stress zyme+. I have my media ( bio and mechanical) in both filters and have the tank set to 82 degrees and have an air stone in to oxygenate the water. I'm using Austin's clear ammonia and from what I gather it has about 3 % ammonia in it as I had to dose about 40ml to get 4 ppm of amm. In the tank. I started dosing on June 27 so I know I won't see a change anytime soon. I tested this morning and have still ~4ppm amm and just under .25 ppm nitrites (bluish purple color). 

Now that I listed my specifics this is what I'm wondering. I just found out we will b on vacation at the start of 4th week into cycling. So I will have 3 weeks to continually test and adjust on what the tank is doing but the 4th week will be gone about 6 days. I've read to add frozen shrimp, get a food dispenser and add fish food, add extra ammonia before leaving ,ect but I'm worried about crashing the cycle or taking the wrong advise. What would you all day I should do as I will be gone in the middle (and probably most crucial) part of the cycle.


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## Gizmo (Dec 6, 2010)

I would do the frozen shrimp route, it's how I normally cycle my tanks.


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## Fishtail76 (Oct 17, 2013)

Your fishless cycle may be done before you go on vacation. Mine finished in about 18 days. I have read many fishless cycle threads, some finish in about two weeks, others finish well beyond four weeks.


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## jeff5347 (Aug 15, 2011)

As of right now at just shy of a week amm is still close to 4 ppm and nitrates just getting to .25 ppm. I'm going the route of waiting til it drops to 1 ppm and redosing to 4. Ive read different posts that the add and wait method can be quick and some say It takes a long time. Will leaving the shrimp for a week be messy and how many should I put in the tank?


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## Fishtail76 (Oct 17, 2013)

I used same method as you are. You said your getting a .25 nitrate reading, would that be nitrite? It is very early for a nitrate reading.


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## jeff5347 (Aug 15, 2011)

Fishtail76 said:


> I used same method as you are. You said your getting a .25 nitrate reading, would that be nitrite? It is very early for a nitrate reading.


Yes nitrites. I always mess those 2 up. How long did yours take to cycle?


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## Fishtail76 (Oct 17, 2013)

jeff5347 said:


> Yes nitrites. I always mess those 2 up. How long did yours take to cycle?


A little over 2 weeks, 17-18 days. I had nitrite readings within 4 days.


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## jeff5347 (Aug 15, 2011)

Fishtail76 said:


> A little over 2 weeks, 17-18 days. I had nitrite readings within 4 days.


Awesome. Just checked levels for today and kinda hard to decipher the amm ppm but looks a bit less than 4. Nitrite readings have increased from below .25 yesterday to between .5 and 1 ppm today. Things seem to be moving in a good direction


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