84l (22gal) Fishless Cycle With A Semi-mature Filter.

[Miss Wiggle]

it's 1947 hun

that does sound a bit odd! Are you doing your tests consistently, like in the same room in your house, with the same lighting etc. Sometimes the colours are so hard to interpret that just doing them in a different room (especially if it's decorated in a strong colour) can affect the reading!

 

[jimmyringo]

Oh right...as in the 4th of July? Cool! Or is it 7th of April....

i took it to mean 1947



EDIT beaten to it by MW

 

[Lazerus]

Well...I was thinking that....

Ok..its possible that yesterdays reading may have been 4ppm if my eyes were a bit wonky...

But I honestly don't think it was....it definitely looked more like the 2ppm colour. But it must have been 4ppm for it to make sense.

On the test just now, I definitely left it the standard 5 mins no more, no less and I looked at it in daylight...the colour appears stronger than yesterday. Definitely 4ppm...no doubt about it.

I'm using the CO² diffuser in the tank...this wouldn't have any bearing on it would it?

Another thing I did was up the temp by about 2º....so that its at a constant 26º now. Other than that there has been no changes to the tank at all.

Also one thing is VERY noticeable in the tank this morning is that the water is very clear....unlike yesterday when it was cloudy as hell & there was a white residue on the plants leaves - I thought it was either a light silt from the substrate or that the plants were getting a fungal problem....but it all this has cleared up this morning.

Hmmm

And about the 1947 thing....that's still not old! Your only as old as the man/woman you feel!

 

[Miss Wiggle]

And about the 1947 thing....that's still not old! Your only as old as the man/woman you feel!

Damn Ian's 6 months older than me.... missed a trick there! :lo:

no CO2 and temp shouldn't have affected it, however the fact that the tank looks clearer today could do, if there's a lot of muck in the substrate then this could release as ammonia, maybe it's now all released and it's bumped up your ammonia a bit. give it a few days and see what happens.

 

[Lazerus]

Okay then...

Everything was brand new going into the tank of course, so I would have thought there would be no ammonia source, but as there is humus in the substrate (and before anyone gets smart, it's rotting organic material in the soil that I mean, not a chickpea dip ) thats is a possibility alright?

So I'll just leave it alone and let it work it out for itself...I'll not add any ammonia or fiddling around with anything else.

Not in any hurry here at all....

(By the way, that makes me 2 months older too...hmmm, I don't like that saying anymore! ha,ha!)

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yes 'rotting organic material' will almost definately give off some ammonia...... we have a solution to the mystery i think.

just leave be for now, keep monitoring and only top up if it gets to 0, keep an eye that it doesn't send ammonia too high, if it gets up to 8ppm then do a water change to bring it down to around 5

 

[Lazerus]

Coola bula! (as they say here in Ireland! )

 

[waterdrop]

Yeah, that -huge-.. an actual organic substrate, that's not something we normally figure in when going over symptoms here. That's probably it, lots of ammonia from that!

(sounds like the "planted" aspect of your tank will take off better than mine Laz, CO2 and serious dirt under the gravel, pretty good!)

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Lazerus]

On hind sight, when researching about this substrate, I do remember reading a topic about watching out for high ammonia readings in the first week...it just slipped my mind.

Yes, my plants look really lush today....the little Tetraplant CO² kit was a nice buy. It lasts about 2 months then you replace the canister. Its only good for tanks less than 100L (27gal?) though.

I'm thinking of putting the same kind of set up in my 10gal too.

 

[Lazerus]

Hi all....

Okay, my results this morning....

Ammonia: 4ppm
Nitrite: 1ppm

Didn't bother testing the Nitrate.

But one thing that has happened is that my pH has gone right down to 6...or it could be possibly less for all know, its just the pH tester only goes down to that colour.

So, I'm suspect I may need to do a water change to bring this pH back up? Would this be correct?

My pH is normally 7.8!!!

 

[Lazerus]

Well not knowing what I'm doing really I did an 80% water change anyway.

I checked the pH coming out of the tap and its 7.6...so a little bit lower than normal anyway.

The water is very very clear now, and in about an hour I'll check the ammonia levels the pH levels again just to see if there is still anything present before adding more ammonia solution.

I'm a little bit unsure but I think this was the correct thing to do???

 

[Truck]

Hi all....

Okay, my results this morning....

Ammonia: 4ppm
Nitrite: 1ppm

Didn't bother testing the Nitrate.

But one thing that has happened is that my pH has gone right down to 6...or it could be possibly less for all know, its just the pH tester only goes down to that colour.

So, I'm suspect I may need to do a water change to bring this pH back up? Would this be correct?

My pH is normally 7.8!!!

big WC or add some bicarb.

 

[Lazerus]

Thanks Truckasauras....I guess I did do the right thing then by doing that water change!

I'll leave messing with bicarb for another time!

I not in any real urgency as there are no fishes lives at stake, but still, I didn't want to stall my bacteria growth unnecessarily....

 

[Miss Wiggle]

CO2 drives down your KH which then drives down your pH, Adeed to which the process of cycling also drives down KH so the combination of the two can be a little tricky to manage.

do you have a KH test kit?

 

[Lazerus]

Hi...was out all day.

No, I don't have a KH test...the only one I don't have. I guess I'll have to get one.

Will I stop using the CO² for the time being?

Another thing.....all my equipment, plants, logs and gravel are covered again with a white silty substance...similar to what happened the other day? It cleared up very quickly. The water is very clear though...but not crystal clear.

I assumed this was from the water change, and some dust got thrown up, but it wouldn't be anything more sinister would it?

By the way, I tested the water earlier on today before I went out after about 2hrs after my big water change....
Nitrite was back to 0pmm..
Ammonia was at 0.05ppm....
pH was at 7.6

I will need to top up my ammonia I imagine tonight, but I'm a little unsure of how much to use....I think I used too much the other night.

I'll have to do that test Waterdrop was talking about....to determine how much ammonia solution I need to bring my tank up to 5ppm.

Also, I'm wondering has the release of ammonia from the plant substrate stopped at this point? I'll know by doing another ammonia test now I imagine...either its gone up or its gone down.

Oh dear, I'm feeling that 'way out of my debt' feeling again.