My Water Stats = Cycling?

[OTIS]

Thanks

-OTIS

 

[OTIS]

The ammonia reading this morning was a little darker then .25ppm so here goes today's 50% WC. Will post readings later.

Still no Nitrites.

-OTIS

 

[OTIS]

The ammonia reading this morning was a little darker then .25ppm so here goes today's 50% WC. Will post readings later.

Still no Nitrites.

-OTIS

So the ammonia reading today after the WC is just faintly green but is still green, not yellow. So I have it under control and am now waiting for the nitrites to show, just have to keep this 50% WC daily up for a good bit, lol, Oscar is worth it.

Yeah, I named her Oscar(I think it is a her, the vents are spaced apart and different sizes as opposed to being tightly spaced and the same size, I might have it mixed up but that it all I could find about sexing)

-OTIS

 

[OTIS]

Well today's WC was successful and there is now an ammonia reading of 0ppm.

-OTIS

 

[Aqua Tom]

Just to put your mind at rest. 7ppm Nitrate out of the tap is not high.

Mine is 40ppm straight out of the tap & causes me no end of grief.

 

[waterdrop]

Very good that you are back to substrate cleaning. It is not all about visible debris. There is indeed a tendency for all the substances we want to be reducing to hang more in the substrate and we certainly can not see these, so you are learning a habit that's important for beginners to learn for both cycling and for tank maintenance thereafter.

Also very good that you are learning to use your kit to test and to use that to help base your decsions on. While it's always important to closely observe the behavior of your fish, some of the types of damage they can sustain during cycling will not show symptoms, making numerical test results an important extension of your fish observations.

About the absence of nitrite observations: it can take quite a while for enough A-Bacs to multiply such that their nitrite output overloads the small number of N-Bacs that are also beginning to multiply, so one thing is that seeing excess nitrite takes time (days, weeks...) The other thing is that a well done fish-in cycle that keeps the fish safe from damage also happens to make it more difficult to see the nitrite traces because you are changing so much water and changing it so often. There's nothing you can do about this as the priority must always be for the fish's welfare, not for you to "see" the cycle progress. In the old days we didn't use to know this but over time the ichthyologists have done studies that make it clear that the tissue damage starts right away, at even trace levels, so the appropriate response is to protect our fish.

The fish-in cycle, even though it will be hard to tell progress, will indeed be progressing and once you begin getting multiple days where you get no traces of either poison but aren't changing any water either, will be nearing it's end. To repeat, you want it to be at least about a month or more to fully trust it (assuming no mature media seeding, which can shorten it.)

~~waterdrop~~
edit: said fishless when I meant fish-in in one of the paragraphs

 

[Rynofasho]

Keep up the good work. FYI, I did a fish in cycle and I changed about 25 - 30% of the water per day to stay safe (my bioload was less though, so if 50% changes work for you then keep it up). It is a pain in the butt, but in the end when you are cycled it feels mighty fine.

Also not sure what you use for dechlor, but check out Seachem Prime if you don't have it as it will give you some margin of error (detoxifies ammonia and nitrites).

Also, just a random thought, you may as well stop testing for nitrAtes for now. That test sucks the worst and nitrates aren't particularly harmful until the concentration gets very high (80ppm+). You won't really see those levels until ever if you keep up the changes, and you certainly wouldn't see them until the very end of the cycle.

 

[Aqua Tom]

<>
Also, just a random thought, you may as well stop testing for nitrAtes for now. That test sucks the worst and nitrates aren't particularly harmful until the concentration gets very high (80ppm+). You won't really see those levels until ever if you keep up the changes, and you certainly wouldn't see them until the very end of the cycle.

Unless your tapwater is 40ppm already

 

[OTIS]

Thank you all for your help, today's morning readings were 0ppm ammonia 0 ppm nitrites, so tomorrow I will do a 30% WC to keep it at bay.

Lol Aqua Tom.

-OTIS

 

[Harlequins]

Doing good OTIS

 

[OTIS]

Doing good OTIS

Thank you for all the help.

-OTIS

 

[OTIS]

Well, I did a 50% WC yesterday with my new chems, got SeaChem Prime and Stability.

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0

So....does this mean my tank is cycled? I don't get it, these Nitrites are just hiding I guess.

Will continue to check stats.

-OTIS

 

[Harlequins]

Keep doing what you're doing

You're keeping it under control atm with the good w/c's. In theory a tank is cycled when you get at least 7 days of zero readings for ammonia & nitrite wihout doing a w/c in them 7 days.When you can do this then you know your filter is cycled

 

[OTIS]

Awesome, sounds good.

I actually just started a 10 gallon that is going to be strictly planted, hopefully matted, with only a few cardinals.

Right now its super cloudy just because I aggressively poured the water in and I figured when it settles, it will be good and settled. I'm also in no rush to start seeing as I need money for the plants, but the substrate and filter are running with a heater so once I get around $40 I'm going to get ALOT of plants and around 5 cardinals and try the planted fish-in cycle. Who knows, guys in the planted section say it works great.

Thanks for stickin' with this.

-OTIS

 

[Rynofasho]

Awesome, sounds good.

I actually just started a 10 gallon that is going to be strictly planted, hopefully matted, with only a few cardinals.

Right now its super cloudy just because I aggressively poured the water in and I figured when it settles, it will be good and settled. I'm also in no rush to start seeing as I need money for the plants, but the substrate and filter are running with a heater so once I get around $40 I'm going to get ALOT of plants and around 5 cardinals and try the planted fish-in cycle. Who knows, guys in the planted section say it works great.

Thanks for stickin' with this.

-OTIS

I hate to be a negative nancy, but you won't have much luck cycling with Cardinal Tetras. Many tetras in general are very sensitive to water quality, and Cardinals are more sensitive than even Neons. Definitely not a hardy species at all (and prefers acidic water for what it's worth). Since the tank is only 10 gallons and you don't have the $$ to do plants at this moment, there really is no reason to NOT do a fishless cycle with ammonia. That way the tank will already be cycled before you even get the plants in and you won't lose fish.