Broken My Fishless Cycle?!

[grumpysteve]

.

 

[plecostomus-mad]

.

 

[Gr44]

Yeah would be really good if we could tidy the thread up a little bit please!

Right I tested it again about 23 hours after I added the ammonia and my results are;

Ammonia = 0ppm
Nitrite = 1ppm I think... might be 5... arrgh!

It looks like it's starting to kick back into gear anyway so hopefully as you've said, it will start to go back to normal in a couple of days... then I can do a 60% change and load with some fish!

Will add another 3ml of ammonia now and check when I'm back from work tomorrow.

Thanks very much for your help, really hoping this comes around... I don't think I can take much more suspense!

Oh by the way, while this thread seems to have so much attention I'll ask 2 really nooby questions if I may;

1) I seem to have a lot of air trapped under my sand... do I need to disturb it or just leave it ?

2) I have watermarks on the inside of my glass, whats the best way to get rid of them?

Thanks!

~ Sean

 

[plecostomus-mad]

hang in there bud

1) I seem to have a lot of air trapped under my sand... do I need to disturb it or just leave it ?

2) I have watermarks on the inside of my glass, whats the best way to get rid of them?

Thanks!

~ Sean

question 1) im not sure, never used sand before

question 2) maybe an algae scraper?

It looks like it's starting to kick back into gear anyway so hopefully as you've said, it will start to go back to normal in a couple of days... then I can do a 60% change and load with some fish!

remember not to put too many in at first

 

[Gr44]

Yeah I don't have anything like that yet... I didn't get any algea when I did my fishless cycle I don't know why! (Hard water maybe?)

Spoil sport!!

I'll probably just put 10-12 Tetra's in to start with... let them settle then hopefully some Corydoras. Still trying to work it out because of my crazy water stats (see my post in Newbie forum. My pH in the tank is a little lower now though, 7.4-7.8 so that's a little better at least!

 

[fatheadminnow]

When your tank can process 5 ppm of ammonia to 0 ppm within 12 hours (Nitrite must also be at 0 ppm) then you have colonized enough bacteria to safely handle a full stocking of fish. So, with this said you can put in all the fish at once, hence one great benefit of a fishless cycle!

I would try to get all the air out of the sand as much as possible, as this can have other threats to the fish later on in the life of the tank. These pockets of air can become dangerous to fish, and if released into the aquarium, can kill the fish in some cases. Just stir the substrate up and you should be good!

-FHM

 

[plecostomus-mad]

When your tank can process 5 ppm of ammonia to 0 ppm within 12 hours (Nitrite must also be at 0 ppm) then you have colonized enough bacteria to safely handle a full stocking of fish. So, with this said you can put in all the fish at once, hence one great benefit of a fishless cycle!



-FHM

ahh, i stand corrected! so its when you do a fish in cycle, you have to be moderate with the fish stocking at first?

 

[fatheadminnow]

Yup^

-FHM

 

[grumpysteve]

with a sand substrate you're likely to get a build up of trapped gasses from time to time, if you usually use a siphon when doing a water changes just mix the sand up a little with your finger, then hold the siphon just above the sand. stiring the sand gets rid of the bubbles, and the siphon should suck up any debris without taking up too much sand. its pretty inevitable that you will suck up sand though so you can either collect what you've sucked up and put it back in, or just top it up with fresh clean sand from time to time.

as for water marks you can use a food grade sponge or algae scraper and give it a bit of elbow grease, i have hard water too and sometimes it can be a pain if left to build up too long. some sort of algae scraper or sponge is always handy to have for fish tank use only, you can use it to clean up your decor and stuff too.

the whole point of a fishless cycle is so you can add all of the stock at once, theres already enough beneficial bacteria to cope with the bioload of a fully stocked tank. thats why its popular with people that keep cichlids, if you were to add them slowly you'd have to re-arrange the decor each time to prevent aggression. whereas with fish in cycling you have to slowly build up the bacteria colony, hence adding fish slowly so theres not a huge amount of ammonia being created in the tank in one go.

 

[rebrn]

If it helps, I have found that food-grade bamboo skewers work really well for stirring the sand up, you can get them just about anywhere (at least in the US)Walmart, dollar stores, and any grocery store will have them, but Walmart carries the longer ones. I might be way off base with the bamboo, I only just recently switched to sand myself, but the one and only time I used them (thus far) they worked great and didn't affect any water stats (fish less cycling myself), plus they are dirt cheap about 100 for 97 cents at Walmart. If I am wrong for using them, please let me know, I don't want to pass on bad advise

Good Luck

 

[Gr44]

I just stirred my sand up with a fish net I have lol... loads of air came out but there is still loads more in there!

I'll keep an eye out for those Bamboo skewers and will pick an algea scrapper up when I get the fish

I did a test about an hour ago on my tank... which would be about 16 hours after I added the ammonia results were;

Ammonia = 0ppm
Nitrite = 1ppm
pH = 8

Looks like it's getting back on track, I'll add more ammonia in a little while and tomorrow I should be good to test @ 12 hours for a better reading!

Cheers,

Sean

 

[grumpysteve]

excellent, nearly there! did you test for nitrate?

just out of curiosity, what are the dimensions of your tank and what are you hoping to stock it with?

 

[Gr44]

Not testing for NitrAte at the minute.

My 12 hour after test yesterday was

Ammonia = 0ppm
Nitrite = 5+ppm

24 hour test was;

Nitrite = 1ppm

I think we're nearly back in business it just had a 'back log' of Nitrite to work it's way through. Be interesting to see the 12 hour today... if it's all 0ppm then it could be fish time this afternoon!!

My tank is small, 60cm x 30cm x 30cm. Very high pH and hard water, check me 'stocking' thread on the newbie forums as I'm still unsure and could use some advice!!

Cheers,

Sean