1St Time 0Ppm - Next Step ?

[anon02]

Day 50
Double zeros at 12 hours from a 5ppm dosing

I went to my LFS yesterday to have a look at some harlequins, they have been in there for 2 weeks now and I can see that they look healthy, are behaving normally and there are no sick fish in the tank, the girl assured me that they are feeding well so it`s looking good. I just hope that when I get rid of the nitrate and bicarb that my water parameters are reasonable, the LFS is only 5 minutes from my house so it should be ok

 

[Skins]

Skins

 

[waterdrop]

 

[OldMan47]

If you have healthy fish at the LFS that you know have been there for 2 weeks, that should be the fish you are looking for. My own LFS gets a new shipment of almost everything about once a week and I never have any idea if they are healthy or just new in the shop. In this case it is almost like the LFS is providing the quarantine for you to know the fish are truly healthy. It has been a long time since any shop around here has done that for us hobbyists.

The repeated double zero reading sounds to me like it is time to do some fish shopping. How about a nice big water change and then post pictures of your new fish.

 

[frida]

Yeay!! Fish day is so close

 

[anon02]

3rd day of double zeros at 12 hours off a 5ppm dosing

Nitrates has been off the chart for a while so I did a practise run down to gravel clean and water change yesterday

This morning I`ve still got 20 - 40 ppm so I`ve just done another 90% change

The LFS is more of a general pet shop that also sells tropical fish which works out well for me seeing that the fish I want to start off with have been in her tanks for at least 2 weeks. Just have to hope nobody beats me to it like they did with a group of 3 lined corys

 

[waterdrop]

I know that feeling of seeing a batch of ones you like and keeping tabs as if the LFS is doing your Q work for you and then hoping you don't come back to find them all sold!

 

[anon02]

Just an epilogue to this thread

My 50 ltr is now a temporary residence for 6 harlequins and 2 peppered cory (I know I need more but they were freebies). Going by the inch per gallon rule I am about 80% stocked, and in the 4 days the guys have been in there, testing at 12 hours has not shown a measurable alteration in any of the measured parameters

On another note I have also been cycling a 215 ltr which will eventually become my main tank, with about a fortnight difference in start dates. The spooky thing looking back over both journals, is how closely both tanks have progressed (leaving aside the useless stingray filter episode), even down to the annoying trace nitrite (which isn`t half as frustrating if you have fish to look after in another tank)

Rightly or wrongly it leads me to conclude that to a large extent the way a fishless cycle progresses has an awful lot to do with the tapwater you start with, unless of course you introduce mature filter media

Anyway thats it from me on this thread, I`d just like to say a VERY big thank you to waterdrop and all you guys who supported me through this madness. I hope to see you guys out of beginners corner and in the rest of the forum in very short order

anon

 

[Skins]

Rightly or wrongly it leads me to conclude that to a large extent the way a fishless cycle progresses has an awful lot to do with the tapwater you start with, unless of course you introduce mature filter media

I agree.

Skins.

 

[waterdrop]

Thanks for the kind words anon02 and I'm glad you have fish!

For the sake of other beginners here, it might be good for us to note that this was a 50 day (7 week) fishless cycle, right? So they don't always take the pessimistic 70 days that I often prepare people for, just to be on the safe side, lol.

And more importantly, just in case any beginners reading this missed it, can we confirm that little sentence that might have slipped by without notice: Once you put fish in, there was no discernable change in measured water stats (ie. the fish were introduced to pristine, zero ammonia, zero nitrite, low nitrate water) and they are looking alert, healthy and in color, right?

This is what the fishless cycle is all about!

~~waterdrop~~

 

[anon02]

That`s right a 50 day cycle

The 8 fish went into newly cycled, 1 week qualified water and I haven`t seen a sign of toxins since. The fish have regained their colour and are feeding well and behaving normally, in fact 2 of the harlequins are swimming closely side by side and shimmying which I believe is a dry run at spawning

Latest test
NH3 = 0ppm
NO2 = 0ppm
NO3 = 10ppm
pH stabilised at 7.6

I expect to reduce the NO3 tomorrow when I do the first of what will become my weekly gravel clean water changes

 

[waterdrop]

You'd be fine with that NO3 forever. Seems like a nicely functioning biofilter anon, congratulations.

The job of nitrate(NO3) tests once we have a stocked tank is to serve as the "canary in the coal mine" (if you've ever heard that saying) because NO3 is relatively easily measured and gives us a double benefit. As the final step in the nitrogen cycle we are already used to checking it to see that our N-Bacs are producing it and at what rate.

But in its canary role, it is really our surrogate for all the hundreds of other heavy metals, inorganics and organics that are in our tank but that are too expensive or difficult for us to want to measure or monitor. So we occasionally measure NO3 and we watch to see whether our water changes are keeping its level steady or whether it might be creeping up on us (we can be fooled into thinking we are ok over time because we get more fish and have to make a mental judgement about feeding and sometimes we're wrong.

So plan to keep the occasional eye on your NO3 levels as a check on whether your gravel-clean-water-change habits are successfully counterbalancing your feeding habits. Anything that's 15 to 20ppm above whatever your tap level is would be considered well within an ok range for a typical tropical community tank. There are a very small number of species that really appreciate very low NO3, German Blue Rams being an example.

~~waterdrop~~