Need Help With Cycling

[Anthony_19]

ok,im new to the fish keeping hobbie so know very little about the cycle process,ive read up on it a little.but i need a little advice just incase im going the wrong way.

I bought a juwel rio 125 with stand which cost £199 which i thought was good,i brought it home on sunday and got it all setup.

I let it run then i added 4 tetras tothe tank on tuesday,now i dont know if ive added them to early or is it ok ?

I bought a api test kit also. i tested it on tuesday evening and everything seems ok. the gh and kh were actually quite high and the ph was just a little hi.

I then tested it today(wednesday) and both gh and kh have dropped to the middle which i think is ok?
0 nitrite 0 nitrate and 0 amnenia.

so what should i do now and when can i add more fish?

ps im thinking of adding few plants at the weekend also.

Thanks

 

[cowboy507]

You are now in a fish in cycle. first step..DO NOT ADD ANYMORE FISH.

Read up on fish-in cycling, look at my signature. I dont know too much about gh of kh, someone else will...and whats high pH? Really anything is fine as long as it isnt below 6. You fish will get accustomed. Plants can be added, but most like to wait until after the cycling process is over.

Things to be aware of..
-daily water changes will most likely be necessary, usually 50% is recommended
-you want to keep the ammonia below .25 ppm
-nitrAte and nitrIte you will not have to worry about until a little later in the cycling process
-make sure that you use de chlorinator every time you do a water change
---you can either add the amount that you are changing or the dosage for your entire tank. Usually adding more is better at the beginning of the cycle process


Any more questions dont hesitate to ask!

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome to the forum Anthony.

Dechlorinator, do not use more than a double dose, it will slow your cycle if you use too much. Up to a double dose won't hurt anything.
KH and GH are not part of a standard API test kit. Did you get the API paper strips instead? There is no "middle" to KH and GH. What are the readings?
pH has no high, what is the number?
You can't go adding more fish for the next month so don't even start thinking about it.
A few plants will help you control your chemistry if they are growing well but can complicate your life if they are not.

 

[Anthony_19]

ok so no 2 more fish.the gh is 120 i think and the kh is around 80.its the paper strips btw.the ph is 7.5.so if i did a 30 -50% water change how much declorinater do i add to a 125 litre tank? Il mayb add plants a weekend then.would natural plants be ok in just gravel or do i need other substrate? Is it advisible to change any filters while in cycle? Thanks 4 help so far guys

 

[glolite]

Hi and welcome to the forums.

Don't worry about pH gH etc at the moment. The most important things to watch for are water quality and the condition of your fish.

The best things to purchase are the api liquid kits for ammonia and nitrIte (not nitrAte at this stage).

Ammonia will appear first as a result of fish waste and excess food. This can be kept at bay by doing daily water changes of 30 to 50%. Your filter will then gradually build up enough good bacteria to process ammonia and nitrites and protect the fish. This process can take up to 6-8 weeks, sometimes longer.

If you can get hold of some mature media (sponges/floss) from an established tank this will speed up the cycling process considerably. There is a list of members willing to donate mature media in the "New to the hobby" section. They are pinned articles at the top of the forum.

If you are doing 30 to 50% water changes then calculate how much dechlorinator by reading on the bottle how many drops/mls per litre. So if your tank is 125l and you change 50% then it's around 70l to make things easy. If the dechlor is added at for instance, 2ml per litre then it's 20ml per 10l etc.

Don't change any filters while cycling as this slows the process down.

Yes most plants will root in gravel just ask at the lfs.

Hope this helps.

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, hi and welcome from me too.

Definately no more fish, as OM47 said. You've already missed the ideal way to start a tank properly and are now going to be in the business of trying to save the 4 fishes lives or health because they were added prior to having a filter going. So don't add more fish until we help you get the filter working.

The strips (unfortunately, since you went out and got them and were trying to do the right thing!) aren't going to "cut it." They are worse than bad, they are misleading and can cause you to make wrong decisions. You need to find a good liquid-reagent based master test kit with little bottles and test tubes. Until you've got that you're just going to have to assume the worst and change a lot of water (I'd say 50% a day to be safe.)

Your pH of 7.5 is good and now that you've reported it you can stop worrying about it or GH or KH, none of those is likely to be a problem for you for a long while now, but eventually these will be good things to know. Right now the numbers that need to dominate your attention are the parts per million (ppm) values as reported by that good liquid test kit your going to get... for ammonia and nitrite(NO2). These two things are very damaging to gills and nerves and they're going to build up fast potentially!

You're going to need to read the instructions on the conditioner (the remover of chlorine or chloramine) and put about 1.5x the dose it says (not more than 2x the dose) for the amount of water you add in your buckets. If you hose water directly in to the tank (which you can do if you temperature match with mixing faucets) then the dosing needs to be for the whole tank volume, not the "add" volume. Good technique during these first few months is to always use conditioner and to roughly temperature match.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Anthony_19]

Ok thanks a million guys,so my next steps are.

50% water changes daily,add few plants,no fish and get liquid api test for amonia and nitrite.

Are they the right steps ? thanks

 

[OldMan47]

That sounds right to me Anthony.

 

[Anthony_19]

ok,btw when im doing a water change,the water is going to go below the pump.is it ok to turn the pump off or what should i do ?
is it ok to add water straight from the tap into the tank then add dechlorinator? thanks

 

[waterdrop]

Hopefully you turned it off. You don't ever want to run a water pump head without water in it.

When I refill my tank directly from a hose hooked to a mixing tap I usually put half my intended conditioner dosing into the tank first (directly) and then near or after the end of the fill I toss in the other half. I use Prime, which is very concentrated, so a half dosing means less than a capful until you get to the larger tanks.

Changing 50% a day is fine in that it should keep you down near zeros on the toxins, but now that you have a liquid-based test kit (if I'm remembering correctly) you can use that to see if that amount and frequency is really the right match for your tank size and 4-fish load. The goal is just to not have it exceed 0.25ppm, so you might find that their waste is not approaching that in a day and you can get by every other day (just as an example.)

~~waterdrop~~