My Fish-in Cycle Log

[Lampshade444]

My Name is Sean, I have a 95L Tank which i made the mistake of stockinig before i Cycled it! In my tank i currently have;

3 Guppies
2 mollys
2 Platys
1 Sailfin molly
2 neon tetras
1 female fighter
1 Albino catfish

I will be keeping a log of my daily API tests as well as water changes! Please feel free to comment, all advice is appreciated!

Sean, Ireland

 

[Lampshade444]

I Have had my tank since the 5th of august, i have been doing 30% water changes every second day but not testing my water untill i purchased a Kit on the 15th


15 August 09

30% water change

pH - 7.6
Ammonia - 1.0
Nitrite - 0.25
Nitrate - 5.0

 

[Lampshade444]

16 august 09

30% Water change


pH - 7.5
Ammonia - 0.5
Nitrite - 0.25
Nitrate - 5.0



50% water change

The water changes were done within 5 hours of each other.

 

[waterdrop]

Now that you have the kit you can adjust your water changes to better meet the requirements of the fish. It looks like you will need larger water changes or more frequent ones to acheive the needed limit of not going higher than 0.25ppm ammonia or nitrite(NO2) before you can get back to the house and change water again.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Marve99]

I agree with waterdrop, larger water changes are required. During my recent fish in cycle, I occasionaly did consecutive water changes of 30% when Ammonia or Nitrites were greater than 0.5 to get it below 0.25 asap

 

[Truck]

you want it as close to 0 as possible...you cant really put a figure on whats acceptable as they PH influences the toxicity of ammonia and nitrite...ammonia is more toxic in a higher PH but on the flip side nitrite is more toxic in a lower PH environment.

 

[waterdrop]

you want it as close to 0 as possible...you cant really put a figure on whats acceptable as they PH influences the toxicity of ammonia and nitrite...ammonia is more toxic in a higher PH but on the flip side nitrite is more toxic in a lower PH environment.

Right. Agree. It would of course get very technical if one wanted to try to figure in toxicity due to pH level, figure in the specific fish species (the amounts of gill damage due to ammonia or brain damage due to nitrite vary by species.. for example, there are probably some catfish that could handle quite high amounts of one toxin or the other and other delicate tropical species that would be having their lives shortened by extremely small amounts.. very unlikely there'd be any published science that would get very specific for our tropical species.)

And so that's why we often quote such small numbers here in the beginners section in my experience (like 0.25ppm for people with API kits and 0.30ppm for people with Nutrafin kits.) The idea is just like truck says, you want the water change to get you down to the tests reading zero or barely above it, so that once 12 hours (or whatever) goes by before you can get back from your day out of the house or your night of sleep, you can test and see how you're doing relative to this first little stage of trace toxin detection by the typical liquid-based kit. This gives you a feedback clue as to whether to alter the percentage and/or frequency of the water changes.

Having tropical fish in a non-biofiltered situation is of course potentially life/death for them and no amount of ammonia and/or nitrite(NO2) is desirable for them, biologically, but having a practical guideline to shoot for helps the beginner get organized to take actions and to understand what numbers/actions are reasonable.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Lampshade444]

17 August

9pm - Water Change 60%

No tests!

18 August

9pm -
Ammonia - 0.25
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 5.0

9:30pm - Water change 30%



So everything seems to be going ok anyway! I stil havent gotten used to the whole thing so i dont know how to determine how big or often my water changes should be! Its all a little daunting! Thanks for all the replies, they really do help!

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, you sound like you're doing fine! As long as the return water has been conditioned (treated with full dose or even 1.5x recommended dose of a product that does dechlorination/dechloramination) and roughly temperature matched (your hand is good enough for this) then changing water is your friend. Changing too much is not a problem, changing too little is. This is because in a tank that is not fully cycled, the toxic nature of ammonia and nitrite(NO2) is much more deadly to the fish than would be any stress caused by the effects of large water changes.

So hopefully you can get into the rhythm of water changes and not feel too stressed about it yourself. The guidelines I mentioned about using the 0.25ppm mark to help you get a feel for how to know if you're doing enough.. a way to realize when you're over-working. With the stocking you have, its true you will probably continue to need to change a significant amount of water over the next month or so, but luckily a 95L is not such a terribly large burden in terms of time it takes for the hose to raise the water level back up after the drain-out.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Lampshade444]

I've yet to rig up a hose so at the moment i'm filling by the bucket load!

19 August

Ammonia - 0.25
Nitrite - 0.25
Nitrate - 5.0

I dont like the fact that they are at 0.25 so i'm gussing i should have done a higher water change yesterday! I did a 70% Water change shortly after testing so that should do it!

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, I see you caught my attempt at a subtle hose hint. With that fish load in that size tank, a fish-in cycle will be a tough chore and the sooner you can rig a Python or DIY hose system, the better off you'll be. A hose fill will make very quick work of a 70+% refill in a 95L tank. Toss in half the conditioner at the beginning of the fill, half near the end and you're good (assuming you can adjust the tap temp near enough.)

~~waterdrop~~

 

[OldMan47]

Don't forget that if you are using a hose, the hose must be clean or freshly flushed and the dechlorinator is for the entire tank volume, not the change that you are making with the hose.