20gallon Journal - Updated Daily - Indir

[waterdrop]

Avoid the fish-in cycle at all costs Indir. Bump along with the fish food, taking readings and trying to keep things below 5ppm but hopefully watching them drop over various periods of time.. keep logs of course.

Meanwhile begin the search for the right kind of ammonia. If you don't find it, so be it. But if you do, its cheap!

~~waterdrop~~

 

[indir-emir]

Hmm okay ill have to get the ammonia. Will it be a problem since im probably in the second phase? How would i go about adding this ammonia at this stage of the cycle?

Also one more question (yes i know, im sorry, to many questions :\ )
Tested my tap water after leaving it in a glass for about 2 hours. I am getin a reading of ammonia of about 0.25 to 0.50(cant tell to well), how would i get rid of this when i do water changes?

Thank you,
Indir

 

[indir-emir]

Sorry for posting again before anyone posted, but had an idea... Would the tap water be enough of an ammonia source (maybe even with some fish food once a day) to increase ammonia in the tank?
My tap water results are:
Ammonia= 0.25 to 0.5 (hard to tell)
Nitrite= 0
Nitrate= 0
PH= 7.2 to 7.6 (bout the middle of both colours :\ )

Thank you,
Indir

 

[waterdrop]

Doesn't matter what stage of fishless cycling you are currently at. What you do with ammonia is always the same. You just carefully test such that your added ammonia brings you up to what you judge to be about 5ppm (basically guessing a shade darker than 4ppm on the API test) and then wait and measure 12 and 24 hours later to see what's happened. If your ammonia oxidizing bacteria (A-Bacs) drop the ammonia all the way down to zero anytime within the 24 hours, you don't recharge to 5ppm right away necessarily, but at whatever the "24-hour mark" was that you established with your first 5ppm addition. Usually people establish their 24-hour mark as morning or evening. You only ever add once in a 24-hour period.

Having ammonia in your tap water always worries beginners but its not a big problem. Once your filter is cycled, your bacteria will immediately eat all that ammonia just as if it were produced by other means! The only difference in behaviour for you will be to adjust your maintenance water changes (this is after you have fish, not during fishless cycling) so that they are a notch or so smaller percentages and more frequent (so for example if after you have fish, someone recommended that you do one 50% water change at a weekend, you might translate that into 2 25% changes, one during the week, thus diluting that ammonia even more, for less exposure to the fish.

As far as tap water ammonia supplying the food for a fishless cycle, yes, the ammonia will eat it and not know the difference, its just that it doesn't supply near enough and the cycle would take forever. In your case the fish food will have hopefully raised ammonia in addition to the tap water amount and you'll have made the current progress that way. It would be perfect if you could go out and easily buy a small pint bottle of ammonia as you are probably not that far from the finish, but usually its more like a half-gallon jug (in my case that was less than a buck though.)

~~waterdrop~~

 

[OldMan47]

Your tap water may be the only reason that you are not back at the first day of a fishless cycle. By having a bit of ammonia in it you had a small chance to get a start on the cycle but not much.

 

[indir-emir]

Yay for my tap water then lol. Looks like ill have to find some ammonia, hopefully its less than a buck here too

I think that your right OldMan47. The tap water must have given it a bit of a push (i filled the tank full with tap water, without conditioner as i didnt have it at the time lol)

Well thanks everyone, you guys are very helpful

Thank You,
Indir

 

[waterdrop]

Good luck Indir, keep us informed.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[indir-emir]

Thanks mate, gonna buy some ammonia (damn australia day, everything was shut lol) and see if amonia drop from 5 to 0 in 12 hours... Nitrites are still at 5+, Ammonia is still at 0, Nitrates went up to 20ppm now and PH dropped down to about 7.4.

Should i start a new topic for my cycle to get help if i need it (atm i have a set up in excel lol), not sure if i should since i only started testing a few days ago(after being set up for 2-3 weeks). What do you think?

Indir

 

[waterdrop]

That's ok, we can probably follow along on the end of this current thread. In the past there have been some cyclers who've posted a link to some sort of "published" (I guess html-outputted or some photo format and posted to a photo site perhaps, but not sure how they did it, then they just referred to it and you could click the link and look if you were helping them.) On the other hand, you can just every now and then post a couple of sets of test results and discuss what your question about them is or just say what you think they mean if everything seems ok with them, that sort of thing. We've had a lot of different styles over time and in some threads you may see us discuss how to make the postings clear for the helpers (there is even a brief bit of this in Miss Wiggles current thread titled "What to People Think" where we've been in the early stages of discussing writing up some more detailed add-ons to the methods documents.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[indir-emir]

Okay thanks waterdrop, ill just keep it here. Hopefully others will join the thread and help me out when i need a question I appreciate all the help you have given me so far, and appreciate all others who have also contributed ofcourse.

Im hoping that im in the nitrite spike phase, so that i can get some fishies swimming lol, sad to see the fish empty, but know its worth it Don't want my fish dying now do I lol.

Would i be able to test if my cycle is almost done by adding enough ammonia to get ammonia to 5ppm then testing the water after 12 hours to see if its at 0?

Also, how would i test to see how many drops of ammonia i will need for 5ppm? Or is this a guess and check thing?

Indir

 

[rabbut]

The ammunt of ammonia to add can be worked out, but it won't always be right. Ammonia will evaporate out of the bottle faster than the water it's mixed with, so often you need more that the maths says Have a look at the "Aquarium Calculator" link at the top of any forum page

AloeVera is supposed to improve a fishes slime coat, but I believe it does this by irritating their skin. One thing is for certain, some fish are seen to react badly to water conditioners containing it... The companies don't tell you how it works, and their reps tend to artfully dodge the question...

All the best
Rabbut

 

[indir-emir]

Hmm so im throwing out the dechlorinator then? And trying to find one without aloe vera? Dang, money down the drain then Thank you for the help though.

Good news for my tank The swirly surface substance is now almost completely gone, only a small amount is left.

Any suggestions for a decent brand of dechlorinating product i should try to find?

Indir

 

[Miss Wiggle]

don't necessarily need to sling the dechlor, i've used the aloe vera stuff before with no adverse affects, I'd just try it when you have fish in, if you notice them flicking or showing any signs of distress straight after a water change then switch brands.

 

[indir-emir]

Okay cool, well thats a bit of a relief Miss, as i only work once a week so money is a bit tight unfortunately

Im thinking about getting a few Danios for my tank.

Got a question (sorry that i ask so much, but i figure better all in one i guess). Has anyone had 'pitbull plecos'? I cant seem to find to much on the internet and car is at mechanics due to car accident so cant check out LFS for a bit so im researching like crazy for fish

Indir

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, what I did was put 2 gallons of tap water in a bucket, then use the calculator to estimate how much of my ammonia might be needed for that, then figure out how to add -less- than that to the 2 gallons and then gradually add a measured bit more (don't forget to clearly write down as you go as its easy to miss or forget) until after a couple of times it tested at 4-5ppm via my judgement of my API ammonia reading. I then extrapolated that to my tank size.

Then again, when I went to put my new calculated tank amount in the first couple times I put in ammonia to a known-low amount, almost enough, and then tested, added, tested and recorded what finally worked (all these words make it sound more than it is, its not all that precise of course.)

I used small glass droppers back at the time I did it but in my opinion its easier if you get a couple of syringes that have measurement graduations on them, usually from the drugstore/pharmacy. Always use one for ammonia only and set it on a marked paper. Use the other for tank water only, to help you fill the testtubes faster and more accurately. Many here report that this is the easiest approach.

(Sorry this all seems a bit detailed for someone who's cycle may soon be over!! But when we write it up we usually figure its for a wider beginner audience anyway... )

~~waterdrop~~