Driftwood The Problem?

[SOD83]

Hello everybody, I was due to start my tank soon after doing a fishless(adding fish flakes) cycle for over 3 weeks. I got the usual readings over the weeks with spikes in nitrite and ammonia and then nitrates rising. I was doing my tank set ups and thought it would be a good idea to add two large pieces of driftwood to make them more at home. The day before the driftwood was introduced i did a test and got 0 ammonia .5 nitrate and 0 nitrite. Added the wood two days ago and was about to head down to the fish store to pick a few fish up but decided to do a quick test first and i got the following readings ammonia .25 nitrate 10 nitite 1.00!! do you think the driftwood added more bacteria and cycled my tank over??

 

[Smells a bit fishy]

I very much doubt your tank was fully cycled.

Adding fish flakes can work to cycle a tank but its not accurate and you have very little control on how much ammonia is being added because it takes a while for the food to break down to create ammonia. Which is what I think has happened here. The food is still decaying.

What was the highest ammonia and nitrite reading you got?

I would get some pure ammonia from a hardware shop and read through the fishless cycle thread in the beginners section.

I hope this has answered your question.

 

[ninjacheesefish]

Driftwood won't effect your nitrite/ammonia readings. It could be that the fish food cycle you did was too inaccurate, and your tank wasn't properly cycled like Smells a bit fishy said.

The fact that the water quailty dropped when you put the driftwood in was coincidence. I wouldn't get any fish just yet, leave your tank to cycle with ammonia and go from there.

 

[4seasons]

My experience with using fish food for fishless cycling is that it takes food 2 days to start breaking down into ammonia and can take a week to finish breaking down. My guess is when you added the wood you stirred up food that then finished breaking down. While it is hard to control fishless cycles with food it will work. It may even be easier because it is somewhat hard to find ammonia that doesn't have surfactant in it. But if you use bottled ammonia it is easy to control the amount and timing of your ammonia dose rather than running 2-7 days behind.

 

[SOD83]

thanks for that replied, come to think of it i had just done a vacuum of the tank and tested afterwards which probably stirred up the flakes from the bottom. but is it usual for zero ammonia a high nitrate and nitrite? stupid question but what else does pure ammonia do if its sold in a hardwareshop?

 

[Smells a bit fishy]

It's a very good cleaner. That's why most have surfactants in it.

 

[pdludbrooke]

It's a very good cleaner. That's why most have surfactants in it.

I wouldn't use it to clean my house, I had my first and final whiff of it, nearly knocked my head off LOL

 

[4seasons]

It's a very good cleaner. That's why most have surfactants in it.

I wouldn't use it to clean my house, I had my first and final whiff of it, nearly knocked my head off LOL

That would be the other thing it is good for. It will burn the hair right out of nose. Don't ask me how I figured that out.