Am I Ok With This

[PatrickL]

Hello guys

I thought I had finished cycling a 95 UK gallon tank.

I have external tetratec 1200. The big Juwel internal and a 200 litre sponge filter.

Fishless cycle was remarkably painless and within 22 days was clearing 21 ml (5ppm) ammonia and the resultant nitrite in a little over 9 hours.
I continued cycling for 2 weeks and was still clearing , so i ordered my fish (10 3.5 to 4 inch discus)

Three days before fish arrived I noticed a little rattle in the internal filter so I rinsed the little motor and gave some of the sponges a light rinse in a little juwel rekord I was intending to set up.

Next day the ammonia failed to clear in 24 hours. I added baking soda as pH had fallen and raised ammonia level to 5 ppm again. Ammonia cleared in 12 hours but not nitrite.
I then did a 95 + % water change as fish would be arriving in less than 24 hours.

Have I damaged the bacteria growing in the internal filter too much or will they continue to develop saftely. I always intended to change 10% water daily.is this enough.
Discus have been in tank for two days and seem more than happy, they are feeding well and coloured nicely.
Reading this morning are Amm = 0 Nitrite =0 Nitrate=5 - 10 ppm.

Would these little discus produce anywhere near 5 ppm ammonia per day

Your thoughts as always will be greatly appreciated.

I have temporarily lost my home internet connection so if I dont respond to your comments for a few days I'm not being ignorant , I can access forum on my phone but cant respond (go figure)

Thank you

Patrick

 

[OldMan47]

Your small discus population will produce far less than 5 ppm of ammonia in a day but they are very sensitive to chemical conditions compared to many fish and will not appreciate you raising the GH /KH with baking soda or anything else. You will need to use water changes as the primary method of keeping your discus tank water healthy.

 

[PatrickL]

Thanks for speedy reply Oldman

pH was raised the day before i did my huge water change. I only raised the pH for 1 day to get as much ammonia as possible cycled.

pH in tank at the moment is 7.1(from 8.4). My pH form tap is usually around 6.5 - 6.8.

I have about 1 cm of sand in tank and emptied the water right down to that level before filling it up with tap water with Heavy Metals and chlorine and chloramines removed. Would the little water that remained contain enough bicarb of soda to keep the pH above 7 and if so will it dissipate in the next few days.

Ideally I would like to keep the pH at the 6.5 - 6.8 level and dont really want to mess about with it.

Again thanks for your thoughts, reading both your and waterdrops posts on other threads really got me through the cycle painlessly (until my own stupidity with the sponges kicked in.)

Patrick

 

[OldMan47]

The bicarb will be consumed by the acid that forms from nitrification so it won't last long in the tank after a big water change.