10gal Tank Started 7th June 08 & Cycling With 6 Cardinals

[Lazerus]

Ok...The girls are in the garden in their box playing...I'm all set to clean these decorations...

Just some questions...I'm going to take the decorations out plastic plants and logs and rinse them....

But what about the gravel? ....should I clean around with the siphon while the things are out or leave it alone? Some of the gravel is green you see....and there'll be a lot of poo I imagine too at the back.

Should I touch the filter casing and clean it also?

Also, should I take the fish out & put them in a bucket while doing this job?

By the way, my test results this morning were...
Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrite:0ppm
Nitrate: 0pmm
Thats 4 days sinces my last water change.

 

[Lazerus]

Edited because I meant to add to the other post not do a new post.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Yes give the gravel a good clean while you're doing the big clean, if you expect an awful lot of muck to be stirred up from the gravel then remove the fish, if you don't think a lot of muck will be stirred up then leave them in.

just a side note, when you're doing vaccing you should move the ornaments and do the gravel underneath as poop collects under there, like movng the sofa to hoover underneath it

 

[Lazerus]

Grand so! If its anything like my sofa...I shudder to think!

Well I did a big clean yesterday…..all the ornaments & silk plants were scrubbed and I did a bit of re-arranging while I was at it. I took out a few things actually…I may have had too much in there overcrowding the fish.

There is much more ‘unplanted’ swimming area for them at the front of the tank now…and they are swimming up and down there this morning….and picking at the gravel etc… that’s new!

As for the gravel…it got a bit disturbed while I was adding the decorations back in, but I didn’t vacuum it as I’m was trying to see how many days I can go before another ammonia reading. I figured if I vacuumed it would have taken water out of the tank and I would have had to replenish it with fresh water then, undoing the last four days of effort.

This morning however, my ammonia was up anyway (0.25ppm)…that’s after 5 days since my last water change so I did the gravel clean after all while changing out the water.

I’m wondering is this because the gravel was disturbed or is it a genuine reading that my filter is still not processing all the ammonia?

Time will tell….I’ll keep that algae in check in future.

Nitrite and Nitrate still at 0pmm.

Ok, talk later...

 

[Miss Wiggle]

I’m wondering is this because the gravel was disturbed or is it a genuine reading that my filter is still not processing all the ammonia?

Time will tell….I’ll keep that algae in check in future.

as you say time will tell....... could quite possibly be either?!

 

[Lazerus]

Results this morning after all the algae was removed and a 30% water change yesterday was:
Ammonia...Not bright yellow, a slight tinge of lime. Not 0.25ppm though either.
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate:0ppm


Just thought I'd add this now, as I'm on the other thread at the moment asking about my substrate....(gravel or sand)

 

[Lazerus]

Hi again,

Well this morning I did a water test and the results were:
Ammonia: trace…very slightly lime
Nitrite: trace…very slightly purple
Nitrate: trace….very slightly orange

Don’t know what the story is there

Also for the past week I noticed one of the lads has a tiny spot on its fin…possibly fungus…so I monitored it and as it hasn’t gone away I decided to put a dose of Interpet no.8 in just in case. I was supposed to this anyway as a follow up course for the other sick tetra after the Interpet no.9 on recommendation of one of the ‘disease’ experts on this site….

So, I need to increase the aeration so as I don’t have an air pump in my tank… I raised up my filter up so that the water is making a small cascade of water, which is creating some bubbles…

Will this be enough?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

what is the white patch, is it a spot like a grain of sand, is it cotton wool type growth or is it a sort of sore on the body?

the trace of ammonia and nitrite indicate that we may have been right about the algae, following the clean up the cycle appears to now be developing. I would keep making sure the tank is algae free over the next week or so and monitoring the results (obviously doing water changes as necessary) and in a week or so we'll have a clearer picture..... hopefully!

sounds fine for oxygenation

 

[Lazerus]

The tiny spot of white is right on the tip of the fin (it’s on the fin under his belly…the anal fin I think its called)

It started as a white speck, but today it appears more fluffyish…like cotton wool as you say… it’s still really, really small and it’s not close to his body at all.

The interpet no.8 deals with finrot, cotton wool growths and fungus, so I thought this might be the best option? I had it in the house anyway, as I was supposed to use it on the other fish.

Perhaps I shouldn't have done this?

About the nitrite…I didn’t end up changing my water yesterday so it’s been 48hrs since my last water change. The shade was a tinge of purple…definitely not the sky blue I normally see, but not near the 0.25ppm mark either.

I changed the water immediately…30%

 

[Miss Wiggle]

sounds like the right treatment then

it's good that you are getting nitrite and nitrate, it means we can now see that ammonia is being processed and the cycle is moving on rather than the limbo you've been in!

 

[Lazerus]

Ok...I ran off to take a picture...which is really, really hard because they are fast buggers!!!

You can see the spot at the bottom of the fin there...not a great pic but the spot is fluffy...you can't really see that in the pic though. It is tiny as I say...but I wanted to nip it in the bud before it got bigger or before any other fish caught it.

Anyway...yes, I suppose its good that I'm finally seeing the nitrite. Its one step further anyway.

 

[Lazerus]

So,this morning results were:
Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrite:0ppm
Nitrate:0ppm
But I suppose thats because I did a water change yesterday...I'll see what happens in a few days time.

The fish with the bit of fluff on his tail looks the same, no change...it'll take a few days for that medicine to kick in.

Anyway, thats the update for today.

 

[Lazerus]

Todays results were:
Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: Nearly 5ppm...but not quite.

So tempted to buy shrimp or an oto to help with this algae problem!!!! Don't worry I won't though!

....all my gravel is covered again....Its out of direct sunlight, and I covered one side of the tank just in case....but it simply going nuts again.

I think my mopani wood is covered too, but I can't really see it properly as its so dark, if you know what I mean. The algae is creeping onto the glass again, and the silk plants.

Any suggestions as to how to stop this rapid algae production....can I buy something to help keep it under control?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

controlling algae isn't a case of just dumping a chemical into the tank, you can buy products to do this and they will work, but the algae will just come back a few days later so it's not fixing the problem.

There's 3 things which cause algae - light, ammonia and unstable CO2

Now light you can obviously change by adjusting your timers for your lights, CO2 is not something I'd advise tinkering with at the moment as if you get it wrong you'll just make the problem worse, the last one, ammonia, is obviously what you're trying to control with cycling anyway.

Personally I would just keep cleaning it up every few days while you're cycling. once the cycle is done then see if the problem is still occuring or if it goes by itself. Quite a lot of the time people have algae problems in new tanks but it goes once it's cycled.

 

[Lazerus]

Ok, Thanks.

Perhaps light is my problem, I have a sky light in my kitchen, and I noticed that the sun has risen over head now that its nearing the end of the summer and its shining in on the tank for about hour in the morning.

I'm going to have to put a covering on it or something. In the winter I don't seem to have the same overhead light.

I'll need to clean all my stuff again later when I get a chance too....

My stats this morning are:
Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 0ppm