Recent content by juiceball1

For a cycled tank the ammonia and nitrite should be zero (0). The nitrates should be kept as low as possible with weekly/bi-weekly water changes. I think it's recommended to keep nitrates below 40ppm. I don't know if it's possible to have nitrates = 0.

I've just completed cycling my 125 gal fresh water tank. It took 19 days for my tank to cycle. I did a 75% water change to get the nitrates down to 5-10ppm. I plan to purchase fish for my tank this weekend. I plan to start a community tank. Note: my nitrites dropped from 2-5ppm to .25ppm in...

My experience with Bio-Spira is that it doesn't "instantly cycle" your tank. I'm doing a fishless cycle and I added bio-spira to my tank on day 7. Sure my nitrite and nitrate readings went up, but my tank did not instantly cycle. My ammonia reading did not dropped to zero (0) until day 16 (I...

I'm currently in the process of cycling my 125 gal freshwater tank. The ammonia brand that I'm using is called "Top Crest". The ingredients aren't listed on the bottle however, it works. I'm on day 18 of my cycle and I'm getting 0ppm ammonia readings since day 16 (I'm still adding ammonia...

The white cloudy water is a bacteria bloom. It will clear with time.

I don't think that you should do a 100% water change. You should try not to distrub the gravel once your cycle is finished. If your Nitrates is less than 40ppm you should do a 20-50% water change. If Nitrates are greater than 40ppm the most you should do is a 90% water change.

What a waste of money, I feel sorry for the poor fish.

Why not try fishless cycling? I'm doing a fishless cycle with my 125 gal fresh water tank. There are very good pinned articles on fishless cycling. That way you don't kill any fish.

It's good to keep nitrates under 40ppm. You probably should do a 50% water change.

If you are doing a fishless cycle you need to add PURE ammonia to your tank to kick start the bio-spira. Do NOT add ammonia if you have fish in the tank. I added bio-spira to my 125 gal fresh water tank while it was cycling (day 5). Within 2hrs I was getting a nitrite reading, prior to adding...

I'm in the process of cycling a 125 gal freshwater tank. You may have added too much ammonia. Too much ammonia will inhibit the cycling process (so I've read). You should decrease the amount of ammonia once you start getting a nitrite reading. I've just started my cycling (day 7) I'm getting...

Should I perform a water change before adding the bio-spira? I've already added ammonia to my tank for my fishless cycling.

I'm in the process of cycling my 125 gal fresh water tank. My 4 yr old is anxious to get fish. It's only been about 5 days since I started my cycle - no nitrite reading yet, my ammonia is arount 4ppm. My lfs suggested Bio-Spira but I'm a little skeptical and this stuff is expensive - $11.00...

No plans for stocking my tank yet, I'm taking it slowly hopefully it will not take too long to cycle. However, I know that I will get some kribensis and Bala sharks - two of my favs.

After futher research, I'm doing a fishless cycle. Started it 2 days ago.