Cycling the tank

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juliebob

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Hello! I have a 10 gallon tank that I set up 5 days ago with water and substrate. 4 days ago I put in a few live plants. 3 days ago I put in 3 molies and 2 dwarf african frogs. My pH up until today was steady at 7.5 and no ammonia. Tonight my pH has a slight shift to about 7.6 and there is a slight color to the test tube (not quite to .5) for ammonia). Am I starting to cycle?? Should I be concerned about the pH shift? Help!

Thanks!!

I almost forgot, I have an ammonia cartridge on my filter
 
Julie,
What you are going through is the cycle for all fish tanks, when you start a new tank , fish produce waste(Ammonia). Ammonia is bad for your fish, but whe mollys you have will fare better than some, The frogs I dont know about. As your Ammonia begins to spike you will notice that your Nitrites will start to climb. Again this bad for your fish, but you should be alright. Asyour Nitrites begin to spike Your Ammonia will fall towards zero and your Nitrates will increase. Nitrates are what you are looking to get to. When you get to zero on Ammonia and Nitrites and hopefully zero on the Nitrates your tank will be cycled. The whole process can take anywhere from 2 to 6 weeks.
You are going to want to watch you levels so they dont get to dangerous levels but mollys are pretty hardy fish and as I said they tend to do alright.
If you have any questions please feel free to ask


Les
 
Thanks. I knew that it had to start cycling soon. Dwarf frogs are pretty hardy as well, so I am told. I will keep an eye on the levels. I am sure that I will be back to check with everyone to make sure that I am still okay!!

Julie
 
As far as I know, some frogs are not too hardy. If your tank is not cycled yet, I would find a friend who has a tank and ask if your frogs can live in their tank for a few weeks, just until your tank is cycled, then return them.

Les is right on the mollies though, just make sure that your nitrIte levels don't go too high, and that your PH doesn't go much higher than it is at now
 
I'm not familar with an ammonia cartridge :/

...and so not sure what effect this will have on the cycle as this is what some of the benificial filter bacteria feed on :/

As I've just mentioned in another thread I'd question the neccessity of this in a properly working set-up ?

...but am interested to hear from people who use them....


O and btw hiya and welcome Julie :thumbs:



:)
 
Wet,

the amonia filters are a white rock called zeolite. they make drop ins for power filters but I would recomend against them. as you said ammonia is needed to build up the essential bacteria. they also make ones for UGF tubes. I am using them as I had a major ammonia spike during ich treatment (power filter died mid treatment). my fish became very sluggish and losing color (signs of ammonia poisoning) I put a zeolite catridge on both my undergravel tubes and while the ammonia stayed spiked (6ppm) as my tank cycles again, the fishes color came back and they became active again. in a properly cycled tank they would probably be unneccasary, but during stress times I have seen their benefit.
 

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