My New Tank - Pics

[michellebradford]

how long to cycle b4 adding fish?

im hoping to add puffers at the end of the month

 

[ab420]

The tank looks great man, very nice! What do you mean by "cycling?" Are you doing a fishless cycle, or do you mean how long should you run it to filter the water and aerate it?

 

[michellebradford]

there is no fish in there the filter is new but is half new media and half used media from my other filter,

 

[ab420]

there is no fish in there the filter is new but is half new media and half used media from my other filter,

Do you know what the levels are?

For:
ammonia
nitrite
nitrate
pH
temperature

 

[millym]

to cycle your tank you need to monitor ammonia,nitrite levels whilst adding something to build up the levels to make it cycle(if that makes sense) look at the pinned section on doing a fishless cycle to give you more info,
i may be wrong but im not convinced your tank has actually cycled at all. did you get an ammonia spike???
you can use pure ammonia to do the cycling process (can get from robert dyas hardware shops - ask its kept hidden)

 

[juicebox]

hi michellebradford,

the cycle of your tank ends when ammonia and nitrite levels are at 0. here is an article on fishless cycling. this process will benefit your fish in the end and will be much easier if you have used filter media, though i do hope the bacteria haven't died off by now.

also, i noticed you have plants but from looks it seems you don't have any sort of substrate other than a thin layer of sand. have you read some of the pinned articles in the plants and planted tanks section?

 

[michellebradford]

temp 29oc
ph 8.0
ammonia 0
nitrite 0.1
nitrate 10

i know i have a problem with nitrate im trying to sort this.

im hoping to put puffers in it at end of aug

 

[scubadoo]

have you been adding ammonia to keep the bacteria in your filter alive ?

 

[Fillet 'O' Fish]

I dont think your Nitrate level at 10 is a problem so long as you can stabilise the Nitrite and Ammonia at 0.

Your substrate looks to be very thin ?

 

[michellebradford]

i was going to add some of my platties until its ready for the puffers

 

[scubadoo]

OK - but I'd make sure that the filter gets a continuous supply of ammonia (either by adding the ammonia direct or by adding fish) or the bacteria will die off pretty quickly.