Newbie

[Bojangles]

oh yes following on from the other thread with your water stats (post them up here as well will you for contunity) they're spot on, as you've no ammonia or nitrite in the tap water you don't need to worry about any of that, nitrate is nice and low and a pH of 7.6 is going to give you loads of options for stocking, you'll have to steer away from anythign wanting an especially low pH but the vast majority of community trops will be absolutely fine at this level.

have you had a read through the links we gave you yet? in particular have you read up on fishless cycling and made any decisions on which way to go?

Yeah i had a good read through them also going to print them out so i can always fall back on them when i dont have chance to get online if i get abit stuck doing something only thing i might find hard getting is Ammonia but i will have a good look round at lunch

Fishless cycle is the way forward for me i think was thinking of going with a fish cycle but i dont really want the fish to suffer and die for no reason


My water stats

Tapwater

tap readings are

Ammonia 0 ppm
Nitrste 0 ppm
Nitrite 0 ppm
PH 7.6

Tank Water

Ammonia 0 ppm
Nitrate 5.0
Nitrite 0 ppm
Ph 7.6

 

[Miss Wiggle]

glad to hear it, i suspected that's what you'd choose from the way you'd posted before!

try boots, homebase and wilkinsons for ammonia, you'll find it somehwhere!

if you can't then there are other methods but thet're not as reliable, accurate or easy so try to get ammonia and let us know if you can't.

once you do find something and start the cycle if you keep a daily record something along these lines

day 1

08:00am

ammonia - 0ppm
nitrite - 0ppm
nitrate - 5ppm
pH - 7.6

topped up 5ppm ammonia

08:00pm

ammonia - 5ppm
nitrite - 0ppm
nitrate - 5ppm
pH - 7.6

if you then post this up every couple of days with your readings then we'll let you know if you're on track or if there's anything else you need to do

 

[Bojangles]

Will do

Thanks

 

[Schmill]

Go for Boots 'Household Ammonia'. It is (was?) in a white bottle, red lid, blue writing, (ask at the dsipensing chemist's desk if you can't find it). Also whilst you are in Boots go to the dispensing chemists desk and ask if they have any syringes used to give children medicine. With the smallish amount of Ammonia you need to use in a 60L tank, the syringe makes it a LOT easier to do, and they are often marked off at 1ml divisions, (with smaller sub-divisions). It's what I used and I managed to hit the 5ppm ammonia needed for the cycling spot on each time

 

[waterdrop]

A small addition to MW's results posting template up there would be:

On the line that says Day 1

Have it say something like: Day 1 (fishless cycle, 60L/16G tank)

(with whatever your tank volume actually is of course)

That way, each time a member sees a new results posting from you, they don't have to go way back in the thread to figure out those two essential facts.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Bojangles]

Update

Managed to get some ammonia from local hardware shop

so looks like im ready to start my cycle wish me luck

 

[Miss Wiggle]

wooo good luck

 

[Bojangles]

Update

I just made a mistake while adding ammonia i added a bit to much (kinda stupid doing 2 things at once) aand my levels of ammonia is now 8.0 is this bad?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yes but no need for massive panic. at 8ppm or above bacteria growth will actually be inhibited, just do a 40% water change then test it again.

 

[Bojangles]

yes but no need for massive panic. at 8ppm or above bacteria growth will actually be inhibited, just do a 40% water change then test it again.

Gone back down to 4.0

Cant thank you enough for all the help

 

[Miss Wiggle]

no problems at all, if we didn't want to do it we just wouldn't be here!

 

[Bojangles]

Update

Managed to get some mature media (and a nice filter for my updated tank in a few months) from petertr

Filter was too big to fit in my tank so i cut down 2 bits of media and stuck it in the filter i was cycling so can someone maybe give me a bit advice on what i should do now?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

keep adding ammonia as per the fishless cycle thread, but you can expect it to all be done in something more like 4-6 days rather than 4-6 weeks.