Fish-In Cycle Log - Please Guide!

[beginner_fish]

Hi,

Didn't get any response by adding to my earlier thread so starting a new specifc one. I got my API test kit and seachem free ammonia, total ammonia test kit so wanted to share the scores, request guidance and had some specific questions too. This a fish-in cycling 10 Gallon tank with 1 Long fin gold Danio (I moved out 2 Serpae Tetras a week back) using Prime on the tap water changes:


Aquarium water
day number since cycling and time; api scores - ph, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate; seachem scores free ammonia, total ammonia; any changes done after test

day 13 10 PM; 8, 0.5, 0,0; 0.1, 0.5; changed 8 ltr water treated with prime, fed
day 14 11 AM ; 8, 0.5, 0,0; 0.15, 1; none
day 14 9 PM; 8, 0.5, 0, 0; 0.15, 1; fed
day 15 7 PM; 8, 0.5, 0, 0; 0.1, 1; fed

Tap water before prime api score ammonia 0.5; seachem scores free ammonia, total ammonia 0.15 to 0.2 , 0.5 to 1

Tap water after prime api score ammonia 0.5; seachem scores free ammonia, total ammonia 0.1 , 0.5


1. Since my free ammonia is below 0.25 (0.1, 0.15, 0.2 range ) I should not do partial water change more than once weekly for 10-15% unless it exceeds 0.25 or
does the total ammonia need to be kept in check too with water changes - then to how much max?
In the last week I was doing daily changes of 12 L almost 30-40% as I was waiting on my test kits. I guess this is slowing my cycling so didn't do any on Day 14.

2a. Do I need to add prime as then I can't rely on salicylate based ammonia test kit like API test and need to depend on Seachem's test for free ammonia (which is not salicylate or Nessler based). The problem I see in Seachem is their color card is a big box with changing shades - not clear separate boxes of different color so I find reading it accurately difficult perhaps just because I am a beginner. If my free ammonia is almost same in tap water, prime treated and aquarium water with the seachem test - I can just use just a regular decholrinator which would not effect ammonia reading and thus go by api tests?

2b.Is it Ok to then switch from prime to a non ammonia effecting decholrinator to make measuring ammonia easier or I need to continue treating the ammonia in tap water by prime etc?

2c. Why is API showing 0.5 ammonia on tap water (free and ionized). This is direct from tap not kept overnight etc. Given this Prime or a similar product would be necessary to use my tap water?

3. If I go by "TFF FAQ Topics, > Tropical Chit Chat % Of Toxic Ammonia Charts On the Ammonia-Ammonium Equilibrium" at 26 degrees C, ph of 8, % toxic ammonia 1.1069, "Multiply your ammonia content by the looked up percentage" so 0.15 * 1.1069 = 0.166035, "If this number is over 0.02 ppm, then immediate action needs to be taken"! Should I decrease the heater to a very low temp considering my ph is high or need to do something on ph? I am open to doing whats necessary but want to have long-term stable solution too.

4. Why does my ammonia even not seem to increase? I am not reading correctly? I have even compared simultaneously with tap water test just to be sure.

5. Any suggestions, advice in general for my cycling situation.

Thanks.

 

[waterdrop]

Hi there, was about to comment on your older thread when I saw this one.

It just sounds like you've go ammonia in your tap water. Pretty common. It's great that you've picked up good equipment and have studied you testing techniques! I feel however that we can reassure you that you are a bit overly worried and can relax some. With one tiny danio in a 10g it's no surprise that ammonia is not going anywhere yet!

In fact, since you only have one danio and you have ammonia in the tap water (and possibly fairly strong chloramine dosing contributing to the ammonia when the dechloramination breaks it apart) you might really be a good candidate to see if your LFS would be nice and take that danio back to sell again! You have the perfect situation to benefit from a fishless cycle, where the biofilter would be readied with the two specific species of bacteria to a size where they would quickly clear the ammonia shortly after it comes in to the tank from the tap.

[Note that we also sometimes see cases where beginners are reading a bit more ammonia into their color matchings because of fluorescent light making things look more green or various things like that, so it would be nice to eliminate that angle.]

In general, we rarely worry much at all about the NH3/NH4+ thing and most of us live by Prime as the absolute best at that task.

Anyway, my best advice would be to work it out to fishless cycle but if you must keep the danio I'd probably consider that your extra seachem test has been useful in confirming that he will probably be ok in there and that you might even want to go with an added second one, but keep up the water changes so that you stay as close to the .5 total nh3 as possible.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[beginner_fish]

Thanks Waterdrop for the quick response
I don't want to send the fish back and go for fishless now that I have started a fish-in - have a preschooler son - it would be a heartbreak for him and truthfully speaking for me too.
I am ready to do all the water changes and testing and any other steps necessary though.

sorry the smiley became something else - just wanted to put a simple smiley

 

[waterdrop]

I'd probably get a match then and you can search my name for other threads where I've talked about Fish-In Cycling to read most of the boilerplate. You can dose the Prime at 1.5x to 2x what it tells you (which would be good in your case) but try not to go over 2x as that can slow down the N-Bac growth. The name of the game will be gravel-clean-water-changes.

~~waterdrop~~