New Aquarium

[fishdummy]

hi folks im new to this and would appreciate some help, i have a new 125 litre fluval aquarium. substrate is gravel, and have the correct heater and filters installed, i have lots of live plants and 2 decor items. im trying to cycle with food but cant seem to get any ammonia readings and its been on for 6 days. the thing is my nitrate is at 5 and my nitrite is at 0.1 pH is 7.5 and temp is 26 C. any ideas whats going on?

 

[Ian H]

its possible the plants are taking in the ammonia and the nitrate is just from your tap water? You should be doing a fishless cycle without plants really

Good on you for trying to do it properly though and not just buying any old fish on day one

 

[fishdummy]

its possible the plants are taking in the ammonia and the nitrate is just from your tap water? You should be doing a fishless cycle without plants really

Good on you for trying to do it properly though and not just buying any old fish on day one

if plants need/use ammonia and bacteria need ammonia maybe its pointless cycling or pointless having real plants? there is no nitrate or nitrite in my fresh tap water. i added some of the bottled stuff to get the cycle started,

 

[Ian H]

there is a need to cycle. The plants are just taking it in because thats all thats available for them. When you add fish the bioload will be more and the plants wont just be taking in the ammonia (plus there will be alot more)

Are you sure theres no nitrate in your tap water? doesnt sound right to me.

What bottled stuff? what was it called?

 

[fishdummy]

there is a need to cycle. The plants are just taking it in because thats all thats available for them. When you add fish the bioload will be more and the plants wont just be taking in the ammonia (plus there will be alot more)

Are you sure theres no nitrate in your tap water? doesnt sound right to me.

What bottled stuff? what was it called?

its nutrafin cycle

 

[Ian H]

thought so, sorry to say but it wont do anything.

you can either:

Take the plants out and do a fishless cycle like that

Leave the plants in and up the ammount of ammonia by adding more fish food (or buy ammonia so you know how much is going in)

Leave the plants to die (which they will with no fish because theres nothing for them to feed on but the tank will need to be cycled before you put fish in) and they will create ammonia.

Personally i would up the amount of ammonia in the tank and keep an eye on it from there. How many/what plants have you got? theres a pretty high chance that some of them are non aquatic if you bought them from a fish store and they will rot anyways

 

[Truck]

Add fish and do a fish in cycle, that is the way to do it with plants, you probably won't get any readable ammonia anyway. if you do a fishless cycle with plants they will be overcome with algae and will no doubt die.

 

[fishdummy]

i have a mix of plants, wisteria, amazon sword, spiral vallis and java fern, i was just putting in a few flakes per day but 2 days ago i put in a whole bunch in some tights. maybe the food just hasnt broken down enough yet.

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, welcome to TFF fishdummy,

Agree with the other posters, the bottled bacteria product will just be like adding more fishfood as it is just dead organic material and will take days to be converted to ammonia by the heterotrophic bacteria you probably don't have many of yet. Eventually it will convert though and you'll start the slow process of growing the autotrophic bacteria in the filter.

This is why you see so many threads (the majority here) of people doing fishless cycles with household ammonia. It gives you much more control and you can see better what's going on. With ammonia you could probably dose enough to feed the plants and still see a level in the tank that would make some sense.

Regardless of approach, fishless cycling takes usually 2 months and will try your patience, but its the right way to go. We can help you find the right household ammonia.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Ian H]

Add fish and do a fish in cycle, that is the way to do it with plants, you probably won't get any readable ammonia anyway. if you do a fishless cycle with plants they will be overcome with algae and will no doubt die.

I feel ashamed of forgetting about algae

 

[fishdummy]

Yes, welcome to TFF fishdummy,

Agree with the other posters, the bottled bacteria product will just be like adding more fishfood as it is just dead organic material and will take days to be converted to ammonia by the heterotrophic bacteria you probably don't have many of yet. Eventually it will convert though and you'll start the slow process of growing the autotrophic bacteria in the filter.

This is why you see so many threads (the majority here) of people doing fishless cycles with household ammonia. It gives you much more control and you can see better what's going on. With ammonia you could probably dose enough to feed the plants and still see a level in the tank that would make some sense.

Regardless of approach, fishless cycling takes usually 2 months and will try your patience, but its the right way to go. We can help you find the right household ammonia.

~~waterdrop~~

i forgot to say, my mother has a small tank its been running for about 3 weeks, i took the sponge out and gave it a good squeeze into my tank, would this be of any benefit?

 

[waterdrop]

Well, if her little tank has only been cycling for 3 weeks it won't have many autotrophic bacteria to donate yet but it can't have hurt. Cleaning out a big dirty filter from a mature tank is in fact a really good way to jumpstart a fishless cycle.

~~waterdrop~~