My Water Stats = Cycling?

[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

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.

Gotcha, well thanks, will work on that. Do you think some Zebra danios would be hardy enough or should I grab some molloes.

-OTIS

 

[Rynofasho]

Danios are tough, I cycled with them! I can't say with 100% certainty that the Cardinals would die, but they are not the hardiest of fish and I think most here would advise against using them for the purpose of cycling. Like I said, you could cycle that tank with ammonia in almost no time since it is so small.

 

[Aqua Tom]

Cardinals are tougher than neons, but not tough enough to fish in cycle with.

 

[OTIS]

Going to look into the ammonia, just because everyone says its easier, and if I can get it cycled before the 55 is done, I can get that going even faster.

-OTIS

 

[OTIS]

Still doing 30% WC daily, with tested/treated water.

Still no Nitrite. Oh well.

Still testing daily.

-OTIS

 

[Aqua Tom]

How did you make that stand otis? Looks rather nice

 

[SensesFail]

Still doing 30% WC daily, with tested/treated water.

Still no Nitrite. Oh well.

Still testing daily.

-OTIS

It will get their then you hve the best part going to the LFS to get fish

 

[OTIS]

How did you make that stand otis? Looks rather nice

It's actually made in accordance to framing standards, lol, I'm an architecture student so it's kinda over built. It is most definitely stronger then the floors it sits on, lol.

And the whole thing cost $67 to make(the stand that is)

-OTIS

 

[SensesFail]

How did you make that stand otis? Looks rather nice

It's actually made in accordance to framing standards, lol, I'm an architecture student so it's kinda over built. It is most definitely stronger then the floors it sits on, lol.

And the whole thing cost $67 to make(the stand that is)

-OTIS

architecture so wish I had done that at Uni instead of building services engineering! Liked the architecture part of year one! Drawing and such like (I know that's not just what you do)

 

[OldMan47]

I am going to step outside the advice you have been getting on a fish in cycle. Almost any fish can be used for a fish-in cycle if you are willing to do the work that it takes. Being a basically lazy person, I will always choose a fishless cycle, but that has more to do with me than it does with success. Any cycle that is followed with appropriate testing can be done successfully. The heavily planted tank can indeed result in a silent cycle as planted section people are likely to tell you. A heavily planted tank is not planted with a few wimpy looking plants though. It will tend to look more like this tank of mine.

It will not look like this lightly planted tank, also one of mine.

The first tank never has a build up of nitrogen, in any form, because the plants soak it all up as fertilizer. The second tank looks well planted to many people but simply cannot absorb all of the nitrogen waste from the fish it holds. The difference is dramatic in how I must manage each of those tanks. I do a water change on the first one every 6 months or so to replenish the trace elements the plants need to thrive. I do frequent water changes on the second tank, just as a typical un-planted tank person would do.

 

[OTIS]

Thanks for the input oldman, that tank is just awesome.

I was planning on spending around $40 on just plants to stock the planted tank, and hopefully with that amount they will take off and fill the tank.

Have still been doing 30% WC with treated water. Hopefully this will take soon.

-OTIS

 

[OTIS]

Got me some Ace Ammonia, 10% mix, No Phosphates, lol idk if that matters but it's on the bottle so its there for a reason. It does not foam and the bubbles that form dissipate quickly/immediately.

I have added 40 drops which SHOULD be around 1.8ish mL of solution. I turned an extra API pH testing bottle my ammonia bottle and judged how many to add my looking at the vile given, that's 5ml (I need 1.89 according to the calculator), and found halfway, then just guesstimated where the 1.89 is and that happened to be around the even 40 drops.

Will check to see what it is at in around an hour to see if I need to add more.

55 gallon is @ < .25ppm Ammonia after today's WC.

-OTIS

 

[OTIS]

Yup, I'm darker then the 4ppm and lighter then the 8ppm so will be checking to see when that goes down.

-OTIS

 

[waterdrop]

You want to be closer to the 4ppm color than the 8. Just change a little water if in doubt. Being right on 4 is fine. WD

 

[SensesFail]

You want to be closer to the 4ppm color than the 8. Just change a little water if in doubt. Being right on 4 is fine. WD

+1 if in doubt water change to 4ppm better to be 4 than 8! Much much better!