My Fishless Cycle

[waterdrop]

Excellent! This is totally normal. The ammonia often falters (see my post somewhere in hungrydougs fishless cycle) near the end and it can be either the ammonia or the nitrite that doesn't want to quite clear at the 12 hour test. But regardless, you are now so much farther along than you were before!

~~waterdrop~~

 

[scotty]

nitrite 0 in 12hrs,ammonia 0.25 in 12hrs. nearly tempted to go the same way as you jayne

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, if you understock (perhaps half stock on your first stocking) then you can often get away with it during this last "sticking" behaviour. You just have to be prepared for water changes if it decides to spike on you.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[scotty]

if i did decide to do that WD would i need to do a complete waterchange first?

 

[LilyRose Tank]

I would, you would normally do a 90% wc before adding fish when the cycle is done so why not. Take it down to gravel and make sure you add half tank of water and resiphon it off to get all residue of everything gone. Then refill asnd go shopping.

 

[scotty]

so completely empty tank of water if possible,half fill it again,empty it again,then totally refill it?

 

[LilyRose Tank]

yeah thats right, make sure you agitate the gravel ( good practise) to release any hiden nonsence to give it a good clean....dust from the gravel that sort of thing... good luck. I check my water levels every 3-4 hours during the day so I can stamp out trouble if it arises.....so far only doing waterchanges for nitrates, ammonia and nitrite been great. take it easy and understock, adding 1-2 more fish each week but only if your water levels have been 0 for a week without waterchanges for ammonia or nitrites. good luck again, have you decided on a stocking plan? mine went out the window and now I have platy with fry in tow. plus i bought another tank today, 48L for my betta as i will need to use the 64L for the fry for the next 6-8 months when it finishes cycling.

 

[scotty]

my birthday is on the 1st march,so i think i will go fishless till then,and hopefully by then everything should be ok

 

[LilyRose Tank]

oh great, happy birthday for march 1st. ok, well that sounds like a good idea

 

[waterdrop]

O, great idea tying it to your birthday! Good luck on it further dropping and good advice there from Jayne about the "big water change" that always comes at the end of fishless.

Just remember when you do it... not to do anything silly: No more ammonia, no more baking soda, no more high heat for the bacteria... all must now be oriented to the new fish. You must choose a balancing temp between the ideal temps of all the species you choose (not a big deal really as most community trop tanks end up in a pretty typical temp range..)

~~waterdrop~~

 

[OldMan47]

Don't you love how these relative newcomers can support each other WD? A good job being done by all here.

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, good to get them commenting in each other's threads right away!

 

[scotty]

what temp would be best for me to be able to pick from the widest variety of fish.this is my stocking ideas so far

6 x Corydora
3 x Platy
2 x Swordtail (Female)
2 x Queen Aberesque plec

 

[waterdrop]

There are certainly experienced members here who can just look at that list and tell you a nice number but the more valuable lesson will be for you to see how to do this for yourself. As a fishkeeper you have to get in the habit of always considering a readjustment of your temperature if a new species is introduced!

Here's how I would go about it. First I'd take my species list, like you've got there and I'd check for a species entry on TFF and see whether a temperature range is listed and write it down next to the species. If TFF didn't have it then perhaps I'd do a quick google search on the species and find a few sites and see if the ranges they give settle in to some agreement. Once I've got the list of temperature ranges of all the species stacked on top of each other I'd just look to see what number is shared or closest to being shared among all of them. Try it! We'd be interested to see what you find!

~~waterdrop~~

 

[scotty]

ammonia still at 0.25 after 12hrs,nitrite at 0 after 12hrs,my nitrates never seem to go above 80,i expected them to be a lot higher by now