Im Sick Of This...

[keenonfish]

What is your waters PH? If it is fluctuating that could explain why things are taking so long, but at the same time progressing - bacteria starts to go dormant at 6.5 or below so at least rule this out first?

 

[shelaghfishface]

aww geoff, i know it was getting a lot for you.

rehome the fish by all means, but then add ammonia daily, within days i reckon you will be cycled, u are literally steps awat=y from it finishing, but i admire your concern for the fish

 

[Geoff1991]

managed to get on my iphone at work so bare with me...

So i should use the add daily method dosing it up to 5ppm a day?

 

[Amunet]

I think they meant add daily if needed to get it back up to 4 or 5ppm.
Add and wait method is the way to go imo.

Also make sure that the ammonia you get is only ammonia (may list water as well which is ok)
If it has anything else in it, don't buy it. No dyes, no scents, no surfacants.

 

[waterdrop]

Agree, Add&Wait is the way to go. Agree, no need to hoover. Agree, be careful you get the right ammonia and test carefully the first few times, don't trust the calculator only. Bacteria seem weird about changes, it may be that you will find it almost seems already cycled, you may be that close.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Geoff1991]

Alright, will do that tomorrow.

 

[Geoff1991]

Oh, since im making big changes in my tank... Im considering adding a 1cm layer of sand as i plan to keep corys...

I hear a lot about argos play sand. How do i wash it?

 

[waterdrop]

bucket in yard with sand, hose in sand, figure out a low churn and leave it to overflow for a while

 

[Geoff1991]

Cheers waterdrop. Question, when ive done my fishless cycle and ill add 6 harlequin rasbora. Im planning to leave it at that for about 6 months before i add some corys and tetras and stock up to about 2" per gallon.

A. Would my filter be up to it? (fluval 2+)
B. Wouldnt i get a big spike as surely some of the bacteria would have died off by then?

 

[waterdrop]

I tend to think of 2" per gallon as something that's done by very experienced fishkeepers who own several huge external cannisters and perhaps a gasoline-powered electricity generator for power outages. Once you get up around 1.5" per gallon you are very vulnerable to power outages. If you're below that you can hope the outage won't last too many days and put in some extreme efforts to manually put water in the filter periodically and make it through. Obviously, peoples vulnerability to power outages varies greatly though.

One of the benefits of the good fishless cycling we do here in the beginners section is that it hopefully gets the colonies up to very robust levels. What this means is that they are getting to that mature stage where they have the ability to "double in 24 hours theoretically." Its understood that the colonies will drop down after the typical first stocking that is not at a full level, but the maturity and robustness of the colonies/biofilms is what's important. When you add stock, you want to do it in subgroupings. Let's say you decide 6 is a nice number for your cories (and yes, it typically is!), well, you bring home 3 and work them in and then a week or two later you bring the other 3 and do it again. In your idea you've laid out, it might be nice to introduce the cory shoal at around 4 months and the neon/cardinal shoal out at 6 months.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Geoff1991]

Thanks.

Just done all the hard work, i now have sand as a substrate and a very cloudy tank

Got my ammonia from homebase it just says

"CONTAINS: Ammonia solution, 9.5%"

Sound good?

Edit:

I think i will go for

6 Harlequin rasboras
6 Sterbai corys

If ive worked that out right ill be at about 1.5" per gallon.

 

[waterdrop]

yeah, sounds like it might be this stuff?

http/img.photobucket.com/albums/v22/pick...e/ammonia-1.jpg

which I remember UK folks saying would work well...

sounding good...

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Geoff1991]

Thats the one. I recognised the bottle and thought it must be right. Horrible stuff though.

My API master test kit is out of the ammonia test and the re-fills are like £10 but i found a whole new test kit for £15. So ill wait until that gets here before i start dosing ammonia. Put the ammonia in, will test tomorrow...

Edit:

Think adding my old stingray filter full of filter floss would help the water clear quicker?

 

[backtotropical]

Hi Geoff,

A filter full of floss would certainly help to clear the tank, but if its cloudy from the sand, it will clear in a couple of days any way.

Just to confirm what Waterdrop said, the ammonia you got is the right stuff.

Good choice going for the fishless cycle, mate. The fish will appreciate it.

BTT

 

[Geoff1991]

i went back into the shop that i have them to like 3 hours after and the mollys looked really happy there... So thats alright.

Cheers, if id have known id have gone fishless anyway. I hate animals suffering.

I may put the stingray in... im undecided.

Just an update, dosed the ammonia so it SHOULD be 5ppm or thereabouts. Hopefully my API master test kit will be here tomorrow (ive run out of ammonia test fluid). I went to pets at home earlier to see if they had any refills jsut out of interest. And they were 10 quid, so £15 quid for the master kit (its about £30 in the shops) is good.

They also offered me a pack of ammonia test strips for £12... brilliant.

Oh and also, i remember reading somewhere that rasing the tempreture a bit speeds up bacteria growth. I think it was about 30-35*c? that right?