Recycling Tank/tap Results/24 Hr Tank Results/next?

[nut4clife]

Hi All,
I'm new and have gotten some suggestions on starting my new tank. I have 40 gal tank filter installed, heater, and added API Stress Coat de-chlorinator. The Ammonia Volume calculator calls for 5ppm for my 29 gal tank or 1.53 ml of ammonia solution to be added.

I'm freshwater cycling and here is the tap results with the tank results 24 hrs later:
Tap 7.6ppm; Ammonia 1.0ppm; Nitrite 0ppm; Nitrate 5.0ppm

Tank Results 24 Hrs later:
PH 7.8ppm; Ammonia 1.0ppm; Nitrite 0ppm; Nitrate 0ppm

I'm still in search of pure ammonia, supermarkets don't have it, Lowes doesn't, but will check Ace Hardware tomorrow. Other than the ammonia are there any suggestions/recommendations?

Thanks Almost Awesome for your responses and still look forward to them as they have been very on point!

 

[tmoney7]

Yeah i got my ammonia today from ace hardware, the stuff you will most likely find there is this stuff 
 

 
Mine just literally said 10% ammonium hydroxide and there was no ingredients list which just means it ammonium hydroxide and water, its the stuff you want!!

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Do not dose to 5 ppm. Click the link at the top of the page for cycling a tank.
 
There should be 0 ammonia in both your tap and your tank. Something is fishy there. You should not have nitrate in your tap either. But if you do, unless you have live plants in the tank you cannot  have 5 ppm out of the tap and 0 in the tank as posted. And if you have live plants that drop the nitratem they would drop the ammonia some too.
 
I would suggest you consider using a different dechlor as well. I won't put put aloe vera in my tanks.

 

[Ch4rlie]

Sorry for jumping in here, TwoTank - why won't you use dechlorinator with aloe vera? Is there any side affects with aloe vera to your tank or fish or plants etc?
 
Just interesting for me to find out any tips for my own do and don't list.....

 

[TwoTankAmin]

It can deplete oxygen for one. I see no research which shows it does anything to help fish in aquariums. So in the absence of any science showing that it helps, and in the presence of evidence it can cause problems under certain conditions combined with the basic idea that I don't add anything I don't need and understand how it works; no aloe vera in my tanks. I would likely be disinclined to use Prime if i needed a dechlor, but I have a private well. I do not want slime coat helpers in my tanks. I do have Amquel on hand for road trips and which I add in small amounts to bag water when I ship fish. I also use it if I have to remove things from tamks to bleach, I dechlor as a precaution then. I also keep a Bottle of Amquel Plus on hand but seem to use it more to counteract bleach than its intended emergency value.
 
I do not use Melafix either. The difference is I see no harm from Melafix, I just do not believe in the benefits that much. I do, however use rooibos and rooibos tea in tanks. Mostly where I want stained water, but also instead of Melafix. Rooibos does stain the water but that can be removed like any tannins can be.
 

 
I would advise that you read the Wikipedia version of Aspalathus linearis on http/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rooibos. You will see that they write:

"Rooibos is becoming more popular in Western countries, particularly among health-conscious consumers, due to its high level of antioxidants such as aspalathin and nothofagin, its lack of caffeine, and its low tannin levels compared to fully oxidized black tea or unoxidized green tea leaves. Rooibos also contains a number of phenolic compounds, including flavanols, flavones, flavanones, and dihydrochalcones."

This is the important part in that for fishkeeping we are interested in the plant phenolic compounds which act as antioxidants, and at the same time that act as antibacterial components. We have had a lot of discussions in the past about the benefits of humic acids on altum keeping and humic acids are the same as plant phenolics, so this is what everyone has been using already. Oak leaves contain a lot of the plant phenolic called quercetin (derived from the Latin name for the oak tree, Quercus robur) and rooibos also contains some quercetin and the compound aspalathin, which is closely related to quercetin.

Other benefits that are coming from research conducted by colleagues of mine in the Biochemistry Department at the University of Xxxxxxxxx, that I work in, are that rooibos has natural stress relieving properties and we all know that altums are exposed to significant stress during transport and during initial adaptation to aquariums. I can inform you from my knowledge in the immunology field that stress inhibits the ability of the immune system to fight disease, so if you can reduce stress, then that would have major advantages for the immune system thereby fighting disease.

No credit, as its another forum and one at which one must be a member to read the forums. The author is a Ph.D. Professor of Biochemistry, if that helps. (Univerity name was removed by me.)

 

[Ch4rlie]

Just the fact that aloe vera reduces oxygen alone does it for me!
So won't get anything that contains Aloe Vera if I can help it.
 
Hmm, interesting facts about using rooibos, it does have some benefits as antioxidants and antibacterial components and benefits plants which sounds pretty good. Presumably this would not  harm your bacterial colony in your filter as this may be of a different strain/type of bacteria? Only drawback, I don't really want any stained water, although have never seen this nor know what this benefits, so cannot really comment about that side of things.
 
Seachem Prime - I do have a bottle of this as it was widely recommended by others on this forum, I have not yet used it as am using a different bottle at the moment, when that runs out I will start using Prime. 
 
The only thing is, this bottle does not list any ingredients, just basically blurbs about how benficial Prime is and dosage information, but interestingly enough, no certain ingredients such as aloe vera, that being a good example. Pretty expensive for this stuff that does list any contents.
 
I have not yet bought any medications as I believe a lot of tropical fish medication are not good for inverts (I have Red Cherry Shrimps) and was planning on researching this, just to have a bottle of general antibiotics I suppose they're called, handy and to have a quarantine tank with equipment put aside in garage just in case.
 
Hmm.........
 
Thank you TwoTank, most interesting and certainly is food for thought.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

The rooibos is typically used in places where one might add Indian almond leaves or, alder cones, peat etc. What is different for the rooibos tea is that is will not lower pH.
 
I normally use it for tanks where stained acid water is needed. But recently I was having some issues in a breeder tanks with plants. I had lost some fish and had a problem with the plants gettingtons  holes in their leaves. This was affecting the ferns and anubias I chalked this up to some form of bacteria or other pathogen I could not identify. I decided to try a couple of weeks of adding the rooibos. So far, so good.

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

Plus it's nice to drink!

 

[Ch4rlie]

Plus it's nice to drink!

Lol
 
Ah yeah, have heard of these Indian Almond leaves, i actually was thinking about buying some of these in the future as heard they do have some benefits in form of compounds such as tannins and trace minerals etc to the aquarium but really no hard scientific evidence as of yet.
 
But as mentioned before, am not too keen on having stained waters as think may be a bit unsightly IMO and also not entirely sure if this would benefit my Threadfin Rainbowfish and RCS. 
 
But certainly does merit some more research into these.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

The benefits are real. The gentleman who I quote is a Ph.D. biochemist. his colleagues study the rooibos as part of their research. He is well aware of catappas. We are using the rooibos to get the same benefit but without the rotting leaves nor the pH lowering effects.
 
If you do not want stained water, these things are of no use to you on a regular basis. My point was I had recently used the rooibos in place of where one might use Melafix. It wont remain in the water more than a couple of weeks.

 

[Ch4rlie]

Thats a good point if you just use Rooibos in place of Melafix and won't remain in the water for more than a few weeks.
 
I can certainly live with stained waters due to Rooibos if my fish needed some meds like Melafix but since I have RCS there are a lot of meds I cannot use as they will affect the RCS, sometimes with fatal results.
 
Therefore this is why am interested in these alternative remedies that will not effect RCS if need something for my Threadfins.
(touch wood I won't need to but got to be realistic really and need to have a plan in mind if this happens)
 
So Rooibos sounds very good indeed for these instances.
 
Much appreciated for these points and your clear explanations.