A Fishless Cycle Log Of Sorts

[Timmy_Bee]

by the by, your wood will leak tannins for quite a while, but usual w/c when you've got your fish should mean its not that obvious. Also, its not harmful to the little guys

 

[Katch]

Today at T+24h I am at double zeros!

Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - ~70

I am unable to make 12 hour checks on the tank at the moment so I'm going to just keep dosing at my add hour until such time as I have a few days in a row where I can make 12 hour checks.

 

[waterdrop]

Sounds good, it can take it quite a while to go from 24-hour-drops to 12-hour-drops. WD

 

[Katch]

This morning I was greeted with double 0s at 12h

Day 31

Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - ~80
pH - 8 (added a few spoons of bicarb last night as it had dropped to ~7 over the last week)

In other news; got Tolak to fix the typo in my user name - I now have a consanant and anyone looking back at any of my old posts will wonder why people keep calling my Kstch...

Bring on the fish day! 1 week to go...?

 

[waterdrop]

It worked! I was hoping that by saying "takes quite a while" it would bring you good luck...

 

[Katch]

Day 32

Zeroes - unable to do a 12h check but zeroes at 20h

Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - ~80

 

[waterdrop]

good

 

[Katch]

Day 34

Double zeros another 2 days running 12h check zero yesterday...

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Who's this then..?

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and the wife;

I can't believe how much the male Ram coloured up when I put him in the tank. He looked ok in the shop but now he really shines.

They've been in there with 3 pygmy corys and 8 splash tetra for 24 hours and still got zeros. Stay tuned for cory pics and more.

Special thanks to OM and WD for all their help getting me to this stage and general thanks to anyone else that has had something useful to contribute.

Good luck and stay with it to all the other cyclers out there.

 

[waterdrop]

Great pics! You're going to have fun raising them! WD

 

[OldMan47]

OK, you are doing fine Katch.
Have you determined which fish you will be using in your new tank? The possible stocking of rams is one that appeals to me but are you really ready for them in terms of water chemistry? I continue to avoid rams to this day because I fear the ability to provide them the proper water chemistry starting with the water that I have.

 

[BigIan]

Congrats,

got there in the end and not that slowly either...

 

[Katch]

The possible stocking of rams is one that appeals to me but are you really ready for them in terms of water chemistry? I continue to avoid rams to this day because I fear the ability to provide them the proper water chemistry starting with the water that I have.

My water is very very soft and I have a large piece of bogwood in the tank. My LFS is a real enthusiasts shop, they've been at it for years and really love what they do. Their rams thrive in the shop tanks which are run on local water and UGFs - I tested some of the shop water in the bags and it was identical to my tank water.

I shall proceed with caution and see how they go but they have coloured up beautifully in my tank and are feeding well on bloodworm and small cichlid pellets. I have selected rams based on my water, I hear they love the soft stuff, and hopefully my large filter should keep the water quality up with regular 25% w/cs.

My only concern is perhaps there is a little too much water movement in my tank - there is an 800 lph return making fairly strong currents. They seem to be fine, as do the pygmy corys, but I may drop down to a slower head in the future - I'd lke to keep the circulation up while the filter and plants really mature.