New 47g Tropical Tank Help Cycling

[lana]

HI I GOT A NEW TANK IT IS A 47G I WANT TROPICAL SET UP I HAVE HAD IT SET UP FOR 2 WEEKS NOW JUST ADDED FISH THE PAST WEEK HAD IT SET UP A WEEK FIRST TO MAKE SURE THE TAP WATER WAS COND. FIRST NOW USING HARDY FISH TO CYCLE IT , SO FAR ALL READING ARE GOOD, AMMONIA AT 0, NITRITE AT 0, NITRATE AT 0, PH AT 7.4 TO 7.6, I KNOW A BIT HIGH, GH AT 0 , KH HIGH AT 180 TO 240 BUT THAT IS DUE TO WHERE I LIVE AND GUY AT FISH STORE SAID NOT TO WORRY ABOUT IT, TEMP AT 80 , 2 LIVE PLANTS , ADDED 1 MOLLY FIRST AMMONIA WENT UP TO 0.25 AND DROPED WHEN I DID A 50% WATER CHANGE, WAITED 2 DAYS THEN ADD 3 Zebra DANIO, I SUCKER FISH THEN 3 DAYS LATER ADDED 3 LONG FIN GOLD DANIO, 3 ALBINO CORY, 3 HARLEGUIR RASBORA, BEEN 2 DAYS , NO LOSE FISH AND ALL LEVELS STILL GOOD , WATER A BIT CLOUDY AGAIN LIKE IN FIRST FEW DAYS OF SET UP , SO MY QUESTION IS IS MY TANK CYCLED OR CYCLING . THANKS IN ADVANCE

 

[rabbut]

GH lower than KH. You must be using test strips A GH lower than a KH is not possible, as KH is a measure of carbonate salts. GH is a measure of carbonate salts and magnesium salts in the water.....

If the stats are to be believed, the tank is cycled. Strips are however as accurate as asking your neibour to guess numbers for you though, knowing nothing about your tank or fishkeeping, so they probibly aren't what your kit says they are assuming my guess on the strip-based test kit is correct...

If you use a liquid based kit, it is faulty (or at least the GH test is) as it is giving an impossible reading for GH.

Cloudy water is seen in "new tank symdrome" and often indicates a raised ammonia or nitrite level, or both...

Stocking will also need atention. What species is the "sucker mouth catfish"? Google image search common plec and gibaceppse plec to see if they look anything like it. Many such fish grow massive. Also, the tank is overstocked at this stage IMHO.

Though LFS advise is usualy poor, as your shops cycling advise is, the sales assistant is correct with the KH reading, if it is to be believed. It is high, but nothing to worry about. Think of sales staff as just that, sales staff. They want your cash, not to give best advise possible. We offer free advise because we care, not because we get paid commission for giving sales orentated advise to customers....

Anyhow, rant over.

to TFF

Best regards
Rabbut

 

[lana]

GH lower than KH. You must be using test strips A GH lower than a KH is not possible, as KH is a measure of carbonate salts. GH is a measure of carbonate salts and magnesium salts in the water.....

If the stats are to be believed, the tank is cycled. Strips are however as accurate as asking your neibour to guess numbers for you though, knowing nothing about your tank or fishkeeping, so they probibly aren't what your kit says they are assuming my guess on the strip-based test kit is correct...

If you use a liquid based kit, it is faulty (or at least the GH test is) as it is giving an impossible reading for GH.

Cloudy water is seen in "new tank symdrome" and often indicates a raised ammonia or nitrite level, or both...

Stocking will also need atention. What species is the "sucker mouth catfish"? Google image search common plec and gibaceppse plec to see if they look anything like it. Many such fish grow massive. Also, the tank is overstocked at this stage IMHO.

Though LFS advise is usualy poor, as your shops cycling advise is, the sales assistant is correct with the KH reading, if it is to be believed. It is high, but nothing to worry about. Think of sales staff as just that, sales staff. They want your cash, not to give best advise possible. We offer free advise because we care, not because we get paid commission for giving sales orentated advise to customers....

Anyhow, rant over.

to TFF

Best regards
Rabbut

YES I DO HAVE TEST STRIPS FOR THE GH AND KH, EVERYTHING ELSE IS BOTTLE TESTING ..LOL

THE CLOUDLYNESS I THINK I CAUSED THAT FROM READING ANOTHER POST ABOUT INSIDE OF TANK BEING DIRTY, MINE WAS AND I CLEANED IT BEEN CLOUDLY SINCE MAYBE THAT DID IT , CAUSE THE AMM, N02 AND N03 ATE ALL 0


I DO HAVE THE COMMON PLEC

OH NO TO MANY FISHIES , WHAT COULD HAPPEN IN THIS CAUSE,

 

[rabbut]

Well, coincidentally cloudy water in some cases.....

What filter media are you using. Any chemical media, or mature media from an established tank? I find it hard to believe that it cycled in a such short time. Is nitrate deffinately zero?

The common plec will get too big. 15 inches is a common adult size, but they can grow to anything from 12 upto 18 inches in some cases.

The cloudy water is either a bacterial bloom or an algea bloom. Either way, they are usualy linked to poor water quality, which still leaves me wondering over the test results...

Are you using any ammonia removing products ATM?

All the best
Rabbut

 

[lana]

Well, coincidentally cloudy water in some cases.....

What filter media are you using. Any chemical media, or mature media from an established tank? I find it hard to believe that it cycled in a such short time. Is nitrate deffinately zero?

The common plec will get too big. 15 inches is a common adult size, but they can grow to anything from 12 upto 18 inches in some cases.

The cloudy water is either a bacterial bloom or an algea bloom. Either way, they are usualy linked to poor water quality, which still leaves me wondering over the test results...

Are you using any ammonia removing products ATM?

All the best
Rabbut

hope that worked



yes i have use ammonia removing product once, nitrate is 0 as yellow as can be

not sure i got the aqueon power filter 55 it came with the 2 filters for it

 

[waterdrop]

Another thing to take into consideration about this tank is that any tank that is very tall and narrow will need to understocked compared to what the volume guidelines would suggest. There is simply not enough surface area to support as many fish in a tank like this.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Jim Curtis]

There is no way that is a 47 gallon.

 

[rabbut]

It does not look that full, because all the fish are spread over different levels. That tank after the stocking list would, IMO, be overstocked, even if it is a 47g... As Jim says that is unlikely going by the picture. What are the dimentions of this tank?

What ammonia removing product have you used? Liquid, filter media, other? Brand and product name would be appreciated.

A cycled tank wouldn't have zero nitrate, as it is the by-product of the filter, and you would see either ammonia or nitrite in a cycling tank, or both. Something isn't right here, I suspect. Do your test kits deffinately work?

All the best
Rabbut

 

[Miss Wiggle]

i agree with the above, i would suspect that the ammonia removing product is one of the ones that doesn't convert the ammonia to ammonium but locks it up in some crystals or something like that. That would give a 0 ammonia reading but would prevent the tank from cycling. May sound ideal but it's far from it, it basically means the day that you run out of it and can't get anymore or it becomes saturated or just fails for whatever reason (these things are not perfect) the whole tank will crash, ammonia will shoot up and it'll kill all your fish.

If this is the case then you need to get the tank cycled, you have some unsuitable fish and most likely have too many for the tank anyway so I would strongly suggest that you return the fish to the store and do a fishless cycle on the tank then stock it more sensibly. The alternative is a fish-in cycle which is hard work and potentially very very dangerous to your fish.

have a read of the links in my sig 'whats cycling' and 'fishless cycling' which will explain some more.

 

[waterdrop]

I agree, the timing and symptoms could easily mean the tank hasn't even really started the cycling process. The cloudiness is timed just about right to be a cloud of heterotrophic bloom that is often seen shortly after a new tap water fill.

Unless there is missing information and we're wrong, I agree this is a case where an aggressive push to re-home the fish will be important. Trying to water-change this volume every day for a month is not sustainable.

I also agree that Iana needs to carefully measure the dimensions of the tank for us so we can verify the volume.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[lana]

I agree, the timing and symptoms could easily mean the tank hasn't even really started the cycling process. The cloudiness is timed just about right to be a cloud of heterotrophic bloom that is often seen shortly after a new tap water fill.

Unless there is missing information and we're wrong, I agree this is a case where an aggressive push to re-home the fish will be important. Trying to water-change this volume every day for a month is not sustainable.

I also agree that Iana needs to carefully measure the dimensions of the tank for us so we can verify the volume.

~~waterdrop~~

thank for all the replys

as for as size of tank 31" top to bottom , 20 " side to side , 18 front to back this is in inches

i used once since 50% water changed on friday night jungles ammonia clear tablets (4 of them) ammonia was between 0 and 0.25 thursday when i tested i have a nitite and nitrate clear thing in my filter i was told to add that ( wondering about that now)


yes test kit is working , ph is down today a bit some where between 7.2 and 7.6 it is a light blueish color , nitrite blue, nitrate yellow, ammonia between 0 and 0.25 is my guess more yellow than greenish


please help i want to get this going if i have some how stopped the cycle, i can't fishless cycle can't but ammonia here in canada anywhere, stores don't carry it anymore

 

[lana]

I agree, the timing and symptoms could easily mean the tank hasn't even really started the cycling process. The cloudiness is timed just about right to be a cloud of heterotrophic bloom that is often seen shortly after a new tap water fill.

Unless there is missing information and we're wrong, I agree this is a case where an aggressive push to re-home the fish will be important. Trying to water-change this volume every day for a month is not sustainable.

I also agree that Iana needs to carefully measure the dimensions of the tank for us so we can verify the volume.

~~waterdrop~~

ok here is pic of test just did (using api master test kit )

and of tank it is clearer today

 

[LauraFrog]

Nobody can fault API master tests, they are really good.
I'm getting approximately 47 gal with those dimensions, I don't think it's far off anyway. (I multiplied all the dimensions by 2.5 to get centimetres, mutiplied them together and then divided by 1000 for litres, then divided by 4 for approximate gallons and got 43. There's a large margin of error there so I'd say 47 is about right.)

Are you sure that's a common plec? Young common plecs and young bristlenose are hard to tell apart, but bristlenose only reach 15cm tops and you can keep it in that tank for the rest of its life.

What sort of ammonia removing product did you add? Is it something you put in your filter?

 

[lana]

Nobody can fault API master tests, they are really good.
I'm getting approximately 47 gal with those dimensions, I don't think it's far off anyway. (I multiplied all the dimensions by 2.5 to get centimetres, mutiplied them together and then divided by 1000 for litres, then divided by 4 for approximate gallons and got 43. There's a large margin of error there so I'd say 47 is about right.)

Are you sure that's a common plec? Young common plecs and young bristlenose are hard to tell apart, but bristlenose only reach 15cm tops and you can keep it in that tank for the rest of its life.

What sort of ammonia removing product did you add? Is it something you put in your filter?

i used jungle fish care made easy ammonia clear tablets , and it was called nitrite, nitrate remove something can't remeber it is a little cloth like bag i put in filter behind the second stage filter ( checked reciept just say water treatment)

i used the chart here on top of page says 48 us ga l tank

alll fish are swimming seem happy and active, yes sure it is common plec

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, agree, the calculator says 48 US Gallons. Since you were reporting some ammonia earlier I suggest you report the API test results for ammonia, nitrite and pH to us for the next week or so.

You don't have to snap pictures of the test results (we now see that your reported zeros do indeed look like zero colors in the picture.) Just tell us date, time, X.Xppm ammonia etc. If a test shows ammonia or nitrite above 0.25ppm then report that right away.

~~waterdrop~~