Return To The Vale!odrome

[Vale!]

It's fun and games time! Those of you who may know me of old will have been steeling yourselves for this moment, feeling it creep closer with threatening inevitability.

My old 'Hoy' tank was replaced last Autumn(ish) with a Juwel Rio 240. It's standard issue except for the filter pump, which I downgraded to a less powerful version.

It has got a thin layer of substrate plus two deeper planting islands, the latter filled with planting medium and capped with the same gravel as the substrate. There are a few bits of wood in there and a handful of shrimps.The filter outlet points down, so the water surface is relatively still.Temperature has been (and is) just North of 26C. I'll post a pic when I next fire up my PC.

I began to cycle it towards the end of December but after a few doses of ammonia solution, stopped. For the sake of brevity I won't go into all the whys and wherefores unless pressed.

It remained running in respect of its heater and pump. The lights have been off. A few weeks ago, actually on 18th June, I restarted the cycling process, using doses of 3.8ml of 9.5% ammonia solution to reach an in-tank concentration of 1.5mg/l. Redosing was done only if/when the in-tank concentration fell to zero (I've been tracking nitrite, too, but let's keep this as simple as possible by considering just ammonia).

Relevant vital statistics at the time of the cycle restart were: 

GH 6 (via test strip)
KH 7.0 (Salifert liquid test)
Conductivity 328uS/cm (hand-held ExTech meter)
pH 7.76 (in-tank monitor)
O[sub]2[/sub] saturation 48% (hand-held dissolved oxygen meter).

[I think I must have filled it with a mix of tapwater and reverse osmosis water, looking at the above  - I can't actually remember!]

In tracking the oxidation of ammonia I've been noting the time (in hours) it takes for the ammonia concentration to hit zero, using a JBL liquid comparative kit. I call this "TA0", where 'TA' stands for Total Ammonia.

So your first play in this (what should be a) series of little games is to offer your best guess as to where we are now : what is the current TA0, do you reckon?

You may be able to make your guess based on experience ; or you may just be interested and can only make a wild one. Whichever, I certainly won't consider any guess ridiculous. There may or may not be an overall 'prize' at the end! And, if all goes well, there is an overarching purpose to all this!

I will need ten Forum Members to make guesses in order to continue (I know most people just aren't interested in this sort of thing, so I'd like to know that I have at least some sort of audience!)


Faites vos jeux, Mesdames et Messieurs!

[Vale!]

Here's what it looks like at the moment :

[Gingerlove05]

I’ll hazard a guess
A few weeks into the cycle, highish kh. I reckon its around the 36hour mark

[Sarah]

I'll play! I have absolutely no real idea but I'm gonna guess you might be further on than you were expecting. 12 hrs?

[Cheltgirl]

I'll guess at bang on 24 hours

[Mito]

Not a clue, but how about 15hrs 35 mins! This guestimation is based on total ignorance.

[Stephen]

Hi Andy, can I have a guess?

My guess is 6 hours.

[plankton]

4.5 hours.

[chris.tinker]

6 hrs... based on nothing but i like 6 hrs

[fr499y]

10 hours