First Fishless Cycle..

[Tag2008]

sounds like it, just keep going until you are consistently getting the sky blue nitrite test after 12 hrs

Thanks Miss Wiggle

Ive never done so many water tests in my life lol

 

[Miss Wiggle]

sounds like it, just keep going until you are consistently getting the sky blue nitrite test after 12 hrs

Thanks Miss Wiggle

Ive never done so many water tests in my life lol

fun isn't it!!

 

[Tag2008]

12 hrs since Ammonia feed...

Ammonia : 0

Nitrate: 10 (Orangey redish colour) Down a bit from last reading
Nitrite : 0 < very light blue in colour...It took a couple of mins to reach the pale blue.. started as the pale lavendar

PH: 7.6

 

[Tag2008]

Not so good this time round..

Ammonia : 0

Nitrate: 10 (Orangey redish colour)
Nitrite : 0.50 < very purple ... Big difference again and not what I expected?


=========================================================
Next one...

Ammonia : 0

Nitrate: 5 (Orangey yellow)
Nitrite : 0 < light blue


===========================================================

Next one...

Ammonia : 0

Nitrate: 5 (Orangey yellow)
Nitrite : 0 < light blue

====================================================

Next one...

Ammonia : 0
Nitrate: 5
Nitrite : 0

====================================================


Tag..

 

[Tag2008]

And again..

Ammonia : 0
Nitrate: 5
Nitrite : 0

Would you say im cycled and good to go with a water change?

Regards as ever
Tag

 

[Miss Wiggle]

sounds like it, i always think you should carry on for a few days extra just to make sure, so keep adding ammonia until the weekend then do the water change then, means you've then got all day sat to go round fishy shops

 

[Tag2008]

Thanks I cant wait..
Regards as ever
Tag

 

[waterdrop]

sounds like it, just keep going until you are consistently getting the sky blue nitrite test after 12 hrs

Thanks Miss Wiggle

Ive never done so many water tests in my life lol

fun isn't it!!

I did 141 days, tests twice a day

Sounds like you might be cycled Tag, usually good to keep doing it until a weekend comes up just to be sure it doesn't give you any surprises. Better to get a surprise without fish.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Tag2008]

Thanks Guys,

I went to the LFS where I hope to get my fish and was chatting briefly.... I dont like to ask to many questions as it usually ends up costing me or I buy things I dont need lol..

Anyways I was telling him about my fishless cycle and he was well clued up on it and said why am I going to do such a large water change as my waters fine I should maybe do a weekly 25% change....he says to change up to 90% is a waste of time and good water?

Well all I could say is Im following a guide on here and I dunno why else other than I thought after the cycling process the water may be tired out??

Id appreciate your thoughts and comments.
Regards as ever
Tag

BTW: Looks like I may go for a half dozen Kehole Chilids for this tank

 

[Tag2008]

sounds like it, just keep going until you are consistently getting the sky blue nitrite test after 12 hrs

Thanks Miss Wiggle

Ive never done so many water tests in my life lol

fun isn't it!!

I did 141 days, tests twice a day

Sounds like you might be cycled Tag, usually good to keep doing it until a weekend comes up just to be sure it doesn't give you any surprises. Better to get a surprise without fish.

~~waterdrop~~

Blimey 141 days what was you testing for?

What kind of surprises do you think I could get before the weekend? and what can cause them?

Thanks
tag

 

[Miss Wiggle]

lol, WD is a special case........ he was actually cycled a while back but didn't have the time to get fish until recently so just kept the cycle ticking over.

right, 25% water changes are a sensible weekly routine, at the end of a fishless cycle you have a massive nitrate build up so you do a great big water change to reduce the nitrate.

There's nothing 'good' about the water, it's the filter that is now cycled, weather you put the same filter into old water or new water it'll still perform the same and process the ammonia, all your doing by keeping the old water is keep a bucket load of nitrate.

a newly cycled tank is not always stable, you sometimes get a little blip of a mini cycle a couple of days after the cycles finished, this is why we say carry on for a week extra or something around that. if you are unlucky and have a little blip it's better to have it with no fish in the tank.

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, very good talking point here: nothing much good comes of thinking your water is "good" after it has been around a while. You were getting a mild taste, in the LFS, of the old thinking that "aged" water is somehow good and this myth has had a very difficult being laid to rest, especially in fish stores. The myth came about way back when the implications of the nitrogen cycle were not widely understood (basically, people seemed to get the message that tanks began to be safer fish habitats after some time had gone by and they mistakenly attributed it to the water, when in fact what was really happening was that bacteria populations were being established in their filters and their filter was being cycled!)

Current understandings now allow us to make sure the filter is cycled prior to fish introduction and to ideally accept the pH and other parameters of our own tap/source water and the easiest baseline environment for our fish. Thus, ideally the conditioned tap water forms the best water for our fish and over a little time does nothing but go downhill, by having a buildup of trace elements, organic matter etc. What we do is have our biofilter to change the worst two poisons into a lesser problem (nitrate) and the greatly lower all these problems by taking them away at the end of the week (or per our judgement) with a water change. Its a much better system than days of old.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Tag2008]

Yes, very good talking point here: nothing much good comes of thinking your water is "good" after it has been around a while. You were getting a mild taste, in the LFS, of the old thinking that "aged" water is somehow good and this myth has had a very difficult being laid to rest, especially in fish stores. The myth came about way back when the implications of the nitrogen cycle were not widely understood (basically, people seemed to get the message that tanks began to be safer fish habitats after some time had gone by and they mistakenly attributed it to the water, when in fact what was really happening was that bacteria populations were being established in their filters and their filter was being cycled!)

Current understandings now allow us to make sure the filter is cycled prior to fish introduction and to ideally accept the pH and other parameters of our own tap/source water and the easiest baseline environment for our fish. Thus, ideally the conditioned tap water forms the best water for our fish and over a little time does nothing but go downhill, by having a buildup of trace elements, organic matter etc. What we do is have our biofilter to change the worst two poisons into a lesser problem (nitrate) and the greatly lower all these problems by taking them away at the end of the week (or per our judgement) with a water change. Its a much better system than days of old.

~~waterdrop~~

Thank you waterdrop,

I must confess if Id been asked about water Id have said the same regarding aged water..

So that being the case can I do huge water changes if it took my fancy at ant time if the need arrose and have no worrys as my bacteria is all in the filters?
I cant think of a reason id normallly want to change 90% of my water but if I took a notion then my tank and fish would be fine as long as it was good clean tapwater I was adding?

Regards as ever

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Yes, on occasion we will advise people to do massive water changes, not often but just sometimes. It is perfectly safe to do so, you have to watch the temp of the water so you don’t freeze the fish but otherwise you shouldn’t do any harm.

Couple of examples of situations where you might do this sort of change are if you’ve spilt something into the tank which needs to be removed immediately (I’ve done this, done water tests on the lid of the tank and knocked one over spilling chemicals into the tank…….. that was a very bad idea! Luckily a 100% water change later the fish were fine but that was a hair raising experience), likewise if you have some problem which causes your tank to have a cycle and you need to do massive changes to get the ammonia level down to 0 then that’s also fine.

 

[rhostog]

...
So that being the case can I do huge water changes if it took my fancy at ant time if the need arrose and have no worrys as my bacteria is all in the filters?
I cant think of a reason id normallly want to change 90% of my water but if I took a notion then my tank and fish would be fine as long as it was good clean tapwater I was adding?

Regards as ever

There is an exception - once you've got fish, it's risky to do a very large water change suddenly if you haven't done any changes for a long time. This won't apply to you of course as you obviously know what you're doing and will do regular smaller changes, but since getting my tank I've spoken to two different friends with very similar stories: no water changes for months, fish were fine, then did a large water change as 'the water was looking dirty', fish promptly dropped dead, friend gave up fishkeeping. Reading other threads on here, I gather they're not alone. Without regular water changes, the water in the tank may gradually change in pH and mineral balance etc., and the fish will often adapt to this slow change, but if you then suddenly put them in new water with different parameters, the shock can be fatal.

There's a link here to an article about it:
[post="0"]http/www.fishforums.net/content/forum/22...-Tank-Syndrome/[/post]