36 Hours In Hospital Has Cycled My Tank!

[Dogson]

Had to go in Hospital tuesday morning so on monday night I did a 90% water change and brought my ammonia up to 3ppm my nitrite was readable at 5. Get home this evening to find my nitrite has processed for the first time in 3 weeks my PH is sat at a nice 7.5 as it had crashed twice recently! and my nitrate is at 20. Happy days! I've just added another 3ppm of ammonia and will test in the morning and if all clear down to maidenhead aquatics I go in search of:

1x Yo yo loach or BN plec as undecided?
6x peppered cory's
2x pearl Gouramis
6-8 Purple Emperor Tetras

Can anyone anticipate a problem with the stocking in a 120 litre?

 

[djl08]

Have you done the qualifying week? meaning has both ammonia and nitrite processed in 12hrs for 5 consecutive days?

If not id hold our horses and wait until it does as you havn't yet finished your cycle.

Dj

 

[Geoff1991]

Dont you have to process 4-5ppm of ammonia in 12 hours?

 

[Dogson]

the tank has been cycling for 3 weeks with mature media and the ammonia has been processing well within 12 hours over the last 10 days so although shopping is on my agenda i'll await tomorrow morning's results and if need be will delay it if nitrites aren't coming down. I think because my tank was quite heavily planted they were using alot of my nitrate up so I removed some before I went into hospital and everything seems to be processing a lot quicker but i've put them back in now so tomorrow mornmings reult should give me a better indication!?
Any thoughts on the stock list?

 

[Geoff1991]

Id go for a BN plec and sterbai corys myself, but thats my opinion

 

[Dogson]

You have great taste Geoff and obviously more money that I The Sterbai's are very attractive but also command a higher price than the peppered. With the tank in its infancy I don't want to spend a fortune and possibly (hopefully not) lose a fortune.
Anyone had Purple emperor tetras are they hardy enough to go in or do they need a maturer tank?

 

[djl08]

the tank has been cycling for 3 weeks with mature media and the ammonia has been processing well within 12 hours over the last 10 days so although shopping is on my agenda i'll await tomorrow morning's results and if need be will delay it if nitrites aren't coming down. I think because my tank was quite heavily planted they were using alot of my nitrate up so I removed some before I went into hospital and everything seems to be processing a lot quicker but i've put them back in now so tomorrow mornmings reult should give me a better indication!?
Any thoughts on the stock list?

The nitrites need to process within 12 hours also, 5 days in a row then you know your cycled. From what ive been told the bacteria that process the nitrite develop alot slower then the ammonia prcocessing bacteria.

And dont worry about the nitrates being low, the level of nitrates isnt really important until there are fish involved. So leave the plants in.

Forgive me if im wrong, im a mere beginner myself, perhaps someone more experienced will come along and confirm what ive said.

Dj

 

[Geoff1991]

You have great taste Geoff and obviously more money that I The Sterbai's are very attractive but also command a higher price than the peppered. With the tank in its infancy I don't want to spend a fortune and possibly (hopefully not) lose a fortune.
Anyone had Purple emperor tetras are they hardy enough to go in or do they need a maturer tank?

Im putting 6 sterbais in mine straight off and just hope i havent messed up. Theyre a bit more expensive but i dont really care how much i spend as long as i get the tank that im visualizing in my head

 

[Dogson]

djlo8 don't worry i'm well aware of fishless cycling as i've been doing nothing but over the last 3 weeks and reading up on it. I'm not gonna spend any money on fish if my tank is not up to it
I must admit Geoff I had a look at aquaticlifedirect.co.uk and they have some julli cory's in stock but no Sterbai's just as good looking IMO similar price.
where are you getting your Sterbais from as they appear to be quite difficult to get hold of?

 

[Geoff1991]

Theres two shops by me that sell them.

A & D aquatics
and the hollybush garden centre.

About £8 each at both.

 

[Dogson]

Well this mornings test came out well! although i'm not really feeling up to going out and shopping today so i've placed my online order!

Tomorrows arrivals should be:
10 white cloud mountain minnows
8 purple emperor tetras
6 peppered corys
2 pearl gouramis

As soon as they have acclimatised I shall be posting pics!

 

[Platygirl11]

I thought you were only supposed to add 4 fish max a week! If you can add more...

 

[crazychris]

Well this mornings test came out well! although i'm not really feeling up to going out and shopping today so i've placed my online order!

Tomorrows arrivals should be:
10 white cloud mountain minnows
8 purple emperor tetras
6 peppered corys
2 pearl gouramis

As soon as they have acclimatised I shall be posting pics!

If you don't mind me saying that's too many fish to add at once.

 

[waterdrop]

Well, took a review of all the Dogson threads to see if I could figure any of this out!

Dogson, you look to be on about Day 19 of a fishless cycle that had mature media added, hope that's correct?

You've not given us much data along the way but it looks like you clearly are past your "nitrite spike" stage and have been dropping ammonia to zero in less than 12 hours for a while now. That only leaves the N-Bacs to catch up and it sounds like you feel you are about to, or already have, dropped nitrite to zero in less than 12 hours since ammonia was added to 5ppm, is that correct?

The test is to be able to add 5ppm of ammonia, note the time of day, come back exactly 12 hours later and test for both ammonia and nitrite(NO2) (with your liquid test kits) and find that they both clearly indicate zero ppm. If that happens it allows you to start your "qualifying week" where you keep adding 5ppm each day and watch it acheive "double-zeros" for the two toxins withing 12 hours each day and make sure your colonies don't have any "set backs."

Once that's achieved, you can perform the 90% water change and acclimate a full stocking of fish (Platygirl and CrazyChris, Dogson's stocking level is not a concern because its the end of a fishless cycle, not a fish-in cycle.) The only worry would be whether all the chosen fish are hardy enough to be among a first introduction, but to me they all look ok for that, so it should be fine as far as I can see.

Geoff, you've been following Dogson's case pretty closely, do you agree he's pretty close but we need to see some more days of data?

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Geoff1991]

Waterdrop, i havent seen much of his data but from what i understand hes dropping from 5ppm of ammonia to 00 in 12 hours, not too sure about his qualifying week...

I think it may be too late anyway as hes ordered enough fish to fully stock his tank and should be receiving them today. He seems pretty clued up on fishless cycling though so im going to assume hes been monitoring his stats closely and is sure that his tanks ready.