My Cycle Update

[martyn413]

Hey guys and gals,

On Tuesday 10th June, my tank will be in its 5th week of cycling. My stats are:
Ammonia 2 - 4ppm
Nitrite is 1ppm (yesterday 7th it was 0.50)

While I’ve been waiting for the tank to cycle I've added plants (fake ones). I cannot decide on what fish to keep. I don't want to get a fish then realise two months later that it's not compatible with others that I might see.

I would love to have a small angel fish (I wish there were dwarf ones).

I'm debating on the following:

Gold gourami
Pearl gourami
Purple emperor tetras
Corys
Ram (either Bolivian or German) - had rams in a small tank but they started to fight. My previous tank was 60l now my current tank is 180l.

Comments and suggestions are welcome

Thx

Martyn

 

[geo7x]

All the fish you listed would be compatible in that tank once the cycle has finished . Your tank is also big enough for angels, incase you had any doubt about that.

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, I agree with geo, a pair of angles would look great in a tank like that!

~~waterdrop~~

 

[martyn413]

Thx for your comments.
I cannot wait until the tank is cycled. It's difficult planning my social life when i'm required to add ammonia every 12 hours.

Thx,

Martyn

 

[waterdrop]

Note that you don't add every 12 hours. You add once a day only. Even if you have progressed pretty far in the process and say ammonia is going down to zero in 10 hours and nitrite is still taking 19 hours to get down to zero, you still wait for the next morning (at least most people add in the morning but of course its up to you.) The ammonia add is at most once a day with RDD's add and wait method.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[martyn413]

I've read so much information.

Correct me if i'm wrong - i thought that once the ammonia goes from 5ppm to 0 in 12 hours you then have to add more?

thx

Martyn

 

[waterdrop]

I've read so much information.

Correct me if i'm wrong - i thought that once the ammonia goes from 5ppm to 0 in 12 hours you then have to add more?

thx

Martyn

No, getting the 5ppm of ammonia and the nitrite it produces to drop in 12 hours or under is the goal, so we are always mentioning it here. But to achieve that goal, you need to not overload the bacteria with nitrites. The ammonia oxidizing bacteria will convert 1ppm of ammonia into some multiple of nitrite, say, 2.7ppm of nitrite. So when you put 5ppm in, this eventually leaves 13.5ppm of nitrite to be processed by the still-developing nitrite oxidizing bacteria species. Until the end of the fishless cycling process, not all of this nitrite is getting processed into nitrate, so it keeps building up. There is some evidence that this overload of nitrites will slow the development of the nitrite oxidizing bacteria population.

So, while you typically want to test and record your test results at the 12 hour point or thereabouts, you don't want to add more ammonia until the next morning, or about 24 hours after the last time you did. Some people worry that they will starve their bacteria if ammonia has dropped to zero and they don't add more, but that is not the case. It takes longer than that for even a tiny number of those bacteria to become inactive - it will speed the overall process, not slow it down.

Does this make sense?
~~waterdrop~~

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yup WD is quite right, just add your 5ppm of ammonia once a day, you may find that adding double this has slowed things down with nitrite consumption so do yourself a massive big water change (like 90%) and then start adding your 5ppm once a day and see what happens.

how big is the tank?

 

[martyn413]

I think i've confused people.

When i cycled my last tank i would put more ammonia after 12 hours thats if the ammonia was 0ppm. So now i'm cycling my new tank you're saying only 5ppm for 24 hours?

Sorry if i'm confusing

Thx

Martyn

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yes just add ammonia once in 24hrs. so you add 5ppm, after 12 hrs it'll be reading 0, then 12 hrs after that you top it back up to 5ppm

 

[martyn413]

Thx everyone. Thats a lot better.

No wonder my last tank took ages.

I have another problems - when testing the water, the ammonia and nitrite colour chart is difficult to read. The ammonia looks like anything from 1ppm to 8 and the nitrite looks anything from 2 - 5. It would be nice if there was a digital tester.

Martyn

 

[waterdrop]

Hold the test tube in front of the white part of the chart. Put a floor or table lamp between you and where you are holding it so that the light shines just on the tube and chart. Look at the middle part of the rounded test tube. You can even blur your focus somewhat, but what you want is the overall -quality- of the color shade to match more or less. This is just one way to do it but it helps me. It can help to get another person to look also.

Except for pH, digital instruments for these tests would not be affordable.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[martyn413]

thx everyone for your comments.

I tested the water this morning and nitrites are off the chart. Ammonia is 2ppm

 

[martyn413]

cycle update.

ammonia 1ppm
nitrite 5 (off the chart)

Can't wait to get some fish.

Martyn

 

[geo7x]

getting there