Ammonia - 3ppm Or 5ppm

[yabadaba]

There are just too many variables to know for sure but I agree with OM47 that usually just a large water change will be sufficient to get you farther down the fishless cycling road.

Without a KH measurement you don't know how much buffer is in there to resist the downward movement forced by the now more rapid rate of nitrate production. And of course that rate is a variable itself. Another factor though is that its a lot of fresh tap water, a large volume, so a number of tank conditions will have changed due to that and it may be enough to take you on out to the end of the fishless cycle!

~~waterdrop~~

Thanks for that. I'll keep a close eye on things...particularly the pH and just do another water change if/when it get close to 6.2.

Water changes on my existing 110 litre tank and son's 60 litre tank only take a few minutes, but it's a much bigger operation with this new tank that is around the 500 litre mark. Mind you, I'll have to get used to doing weekly (albeit smaller) changes on it, so I guess I shouldn't start complaining now!

 

[waterdrop]

Surely you are using a hose system on it? I use a hose system even for a small 29G/106L. For me its a must so that I won't hurt my back lugging buckets around (plus I don't have to room to use a big rolling trash bucket and pump, which is also another good way to go about it.) But being able to just adjust my sink tap to the right temp and then just put it on full force to fill the tank has been a revelation compared to fooling with buckets!

~~waterdrop~~

 

[yabadaba]

Surely you are using a hose system on it? I use a hose system even for a small 29G/106L. For me its a must so that I won't hurt my back lugging buckets around (plus I don't have to room to use a big rolling trash bucket and pump, which is also another good way to go about it.) But being able to just adjust my sink tap to the right temp and then just put it on full force to fill the tank has been a revelation compared to fooling with buckets!

~~waterdrop~~

The hot water in my house comes from a large metal cylinder that is heated via a boiler that pumps hot water through it as well as and around to the radiators (gravity fed heating system), as opposd to the incoming mains water supply being heated 'on demand'. So, as it can stand for a while before being used and there is no doubt a certain amount of 'gunk' in that cylinder I'm not sure whether it would be 'safe' to feed that directly into my fish tank. My current procedure is to use an Eheim pump to remove the required amount of water and I then fill up 2 or 3 80 litre bins with cold (mains) water, using a hose pipe and add some hot from a kettle and some de-chlorinator. I then use the Eheim pump again to transfer that water into the tank.

If I thought I could safely fill straight from my domestic hot water supply and then just add the dechlorinator directly into my tank then I would. Maybe I'm being over cautious.

 

[OldMan47]

I think you are right Yabadaba. The kind of domestic system that you are describing would end up with lots of metals dissolved in the water. Sometimes WD and I forget that the whole world doesn't have the same kind of plumbing that we enjoy here.