Fish For A Interpet 64L Tank

[the_lock_man]

Right i have done a 50% water change using the hosepipe and added some fresh start water treatment and 2ml of ammonia, shall i test it tomorrow morning when the temperature gets back up to where it is suppose to be before i did a water change. Just one more thing that is puzzling me if i am trying to get my ammonia reading from 8ppm to 4ppm why am i adding ammonia (i cannot get my head round that !!!)....Cheers Colin

You shouldn't be!

Once you've got your level to 4ppm (and I think you've probably just upped it again to about 7ppm), you wait for the bacteria to grow enough to eat up all that ammonia, until there's none left (ie 0ppm). THis will take days. At that point, you start dosing daily to 3ppm, until you see that both ammonia and nitrite are going to 0ppm in 24hours.

Sorry if what I said was confusing.

 

[welshviking]

Right i have done a 50% water change using the hosepipe and added some fresh start water treatment and 2ml of ammonia, shall i test it tomorrow morning when the temperature gets back up to where it is suppose to be before i did a water change. Just one more thing that is puzzling me if i am trying to get my ammonia reading from 8ppm to 4ppm why am i adding ammonia (i cannot get my head round that !!!)....Cheers Colin

You shouldn't be!

Once you've got your level to 4ppm (and I think you've probably just upped it again to about 7ppm), you wait for the bacteria to grow enough to eat up all that ammonia, until there's none left (ie 0ppm). THis will take days. At that point, you start dosing daily to 3ppm, until you see that both ammonia and nitrite are going to 0ppm in 24hours.

Sorry if what I said was confusing.

No need to apologies my error for adding 2ml of ammonia, i will not add anything now until the ammonia level drops off on the test then i will add 2ml , when is the best time for my next test (tomorrow ?)...Thanks for your help....Colin

 

[the_lock_man]

Right i have done a 50% water change using the hosepipe and added some fresh start water treatment and 2ml of ammonia, shall i test it tomorrow morning when the temperature gets back up to where it is suppose to be before i did a water change. Just one more thing that is puzzling me if i am trying to get my ammonia reading from 8ppm to 4ppm why am i adding ammonia (i cannot get my head round that !!!)....Cheers Colin

You shouldn't be!

Once you've got your level to 4ppm (and I think you've probably just upped it again to about 7ppm), you wait for the bacteria to grow enough to eat up all that ammonia, until there's none left (ie 0ppm). THis will take days. At that point, you start dosing daily to 3ppm, until you see that both ammonia and nitrite are going to 0ppm in 24hours.

Sorry if what I said was confusing.

No need to apologies my error for adding 2ml of ammonia, i will not add anything now until the ammonia level drops off on the test then i will add 2ml , when is the best time for my next test (tomorrow ?)...Thanks for your help....Colin

No probs.

For best results, you need to test (and add ammonia where appropriate) at the same time every day. THere is apparently something about the pulsing nature of the ammonia dose that bacteria seem to like.

Once you get to the latter stages of the cycling process, you need to be testing every 12 hours, but I don't want to confuse the situation any further right now.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Correct. During phase one, which is where you are ("Pre nitrite spike"), you dose only when the ammonia hits 0ppm, and you test every 24 hours (same time every day).

Eventually you will get to phase three ("Post-nitrite spike") and then you will test at 12 hour intervals (i.e. dosing time at 8pm, test at 8am and 8pm). But you are sometime from getting there.

 

[welshviking]

Here is my latest test results, i did a 50% water change on Friday afternoon added some water treatment and stupidly added 2ml of ammonia, was only going to test for ammonia but did the whole lot as i had the master kit out

PH 7.4 PPM
AMMONIA 8.0 PPM
NITRITE 0.0 PPM
NITRATE 3.0 PPM

Dont know how accurate these Api master test kits.

 

[welshviking]

Well i have just done another ammonia test and it was at least 8.0ppm (very dark green) so i have just completed a 75% water change and as requested on another forum i have added Tetra aqua safe (for the water) and Tetra safe start (bottled bacteria). I will let the temparture rise slightly before i put the heater on and i will do a complete test in a while...Fingers crossed......Cheers Colin

The result of my tests after the 75% water change and adding the Tetra safe start are

PH 6.8 PPM
AMMONIA 2.0 PPM
NITRITE 0.0 PPM
NITRATE 10 PPM

 

[the_lock_man]

Well i have just done another ammonia test and it was at least 8.0ppm (very dark green) so i have just completed a 75% water change and as requested on another forum i have added Tetra aqua safe (for the water) and Tetra safe start (bottled bacteria). I will let the temparture rise slightly before i put the heater on and i will do a complete test in a while...Fingers crossed......Cheers Colin

The result of my tests after the 75% water change and adding the Tetra safe start are

PH 6.8 PPM
AMMONIA 2.0 PPM
NITRITE 0.0 PPM
NITRATE 10 PPM

What temperature have you got the water at? It needs to be fairly warm, IIRC, around 80F.

Also, you could add a little sodium bicarbonate, to raise the pH up to about 8.0-8.2ish - the bacteria seem to like it alkaline.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Keep logging your results... the SafeStart product is getting a lot of discussion right now. Keep an eye on things and post it for us all to see... preferably in the first post so it is easy to find.

 

[gforce17]

Ok 64L tank has been full of water for 48 hours, heated up nicely and now constant at 26 degrees. I added Interpet fresh start to the water when i filled it and i added interpet filter start on the 1st night. The tank water is now very cloudy and i added my 1st helping of ammonia (2.5ml) about 2 hours ago. I cannot take a tank reading yet as Royal fail are being nightmares and i have still not had my api master test kit but as soon as it arrives i will start putting readings on here. Just one last question is 2.5ml of ammonia enough and should i carry on putting the same amount in each day....Cheers Colin

Can I ask you where you buy the ammonia to help cycle your tank? I'm in the UK midlands.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Boots I believe should be able to help you.

 

[the_lock_man]

Ok 64L tank has been full of water for 48 hours, heated up nicely and now constant at 26 degrees. I added Interpet fresh start to the water when i filled it and i added interpet filter start on the 1st night. The tank water is now very cloudy and i added my 1st helping of ammonia (2.5ml) about 2 hours ago. I cannot take a tank reading yet as Royal fail are being nightmares and i have still not had my api master test kit but as soon as it arrives i will start putting readings on here. Just one last question is 2.5ml of ammonia enough and should i carry on putting the same amount in each day....Cheers Colin

Can I ask you where you buy the ammonia to help cycle your tank? I'm in the UK midlands.

I bought mine in Homebase. You can also buy Jeyes Kleenoff via Amazon.co.uk.

Boots I believe should be able to help you.

Boots sell it online, you can have it delivered free to pick up in a shop.