LondonguyJ
Fish Crazy
- Joined
- Apr 13, 2010
- Messages
- 274
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Perhaps it's from spending some much time testing my aquarium that I can now predict and detect changes in it's ecology at a glance. Or perhaps yesterday I was just lucky. But for some reason yesterday I figured my ph had collapsed and tested it (at just after 5am) and indeed the PH had dropped to below 6.0
I was up at that time because my department had a seminar/conference thing outside of London and some of us had planned to travel together. It didn't work that way and those of us that did get to the station on time where scattered amongst the carriages because available seats were scarce. So I ended up sitting on my own reading through the broad sheet and a useless tabloid before my thoughts turned to my fishless cycle and just when my n-bacs were going to process in under 12 hours. As 10ml of ammonia a day in 125L the window in which they can achieve this is limited before my nitrates go off the chart and my ph collapse.
Then I remembered how puzzled I was recently whilst reading someone else's log because although their aquarium has double the liter capacity of mine they were only dosing 2ml more than me(12ml.) At the time, although I did make a comment in the thread I didn't pay much attention and simply clicked on to the next thread, which in hindsight was a mistake.
So I sat there trying to work out from memory when, where, and under what circumstances the concentration of a liquid isn't reduced by the volume of water it's placed in and also how a particular concentration (obviously in this case 5ppm) remains consistent in different volumes of water.
And then it hit me...
The calculator and rrd's cycle are based on a completely different test kit to the one I use and from memory, remembered that he mentioned *api* in his how to guide.
So when I got home I performed a 100% water change and this morning filled 4 test tubes with roughly 7ml (7ml to allow for spillage) stuck them in my over sized hot chocolate mug with tissue for padding and drove to my lfs.
Arrived when they were opening so had a look round before preforming the test.
Api nitrite 0
I was so astonished that I asked him to test it again and he did with the exact same result
I wanted to ask for another test but at the same time didn't want to abuse the free service so donated £5 to the charity box and asked for another nitrite test but this time with a different brand (sailfert liquid test.) Which turned out to be 0 also.
My bewilderment sparked up another conversation in which I explained that the 3rd test we had just completed is a full hour and 23 minutes before my 12 hour slot (nutrafin.) And that I was dosing 10ml of ammonia for sometime but didn't think I could stock because my nitrite was processing in 13 instead of twelve hours (according to nutrafin) and had been for a while. His recommendation was that unless I change my liquid test kit my only other option was to buy a larger external filter as I wouldn't get 10ml processed in my ehiem 2215 in 12 hours? using nutrafin.
To be fair, he didn't know about adding pure ammonia. His method of cycling was dead shrimp - spike - double zeros - stock. But he seemed pretty impressed that I could turn 10ml of ammonia to 0 in 8 hours and the resulting nitrite to 0 in 13hours, so much so that he told each of his colleagues.
I'm not sure if the above is confusing? I'm at work trying to cram this all in before I actually get on with work so please excuse all grammatical mistakes. In truth, I don't quite understand it myself but after leaving the lfs I have decided to do a qualifying week still using my nutrafin kit. However, in light of the api and sailfert results I wont be testing every 12 hours but instead every 13 to compensate for the level of ammonia and my nutrafin kit
J
I was up at that time because my department had a seminar/conference thing outside of London and some of us had planned to travel together. It didn't work that way and those of us that did get to the station on time where scattered amongst the carriages because available seats were scarce. So I ended up sitting on my own reading through the broad sheet and a useless tabloid before my thoughts turned to my fishless cycle and just when my n-bacs were going to process in under 12 hours. As 10ml of ammonia a day in 125L the window in which they can achieve this is limited before my nitrates go off the chart and my ph collapse.
Then I remembered how puzzled I was recently whilst reading someone else's log because although their aquarium has double the liter capacity of mine they were only dosing 2ml more than me(12ml.) At the time, although I did make a comment in the thread I didn't pay much attention and simply clicked on to the next thread, which in hindsight was a mistake.
So I sat there trying to work out from memory when, where, and under what circumstances the concentration of a liquid isn't reduced by the volume of water it's placed in and also how a particular concentration (obviously in this case 5ppm) remains consistent in different volumes of water.
And then it hit me...
The calculator and rrd's cycle are based on a completely different test kit to the one I use and from memory, remembered that he mentioned *api* in his how to guide.
So when I got home I performed a 100% water change and this morning filled 4 test tubes with roughly 7ml (7ml to allow for spillage) stuck them in my over sized hot chocolate mug with tissue for padding and drove to my lfs.
Arrived when they were opening so had a look round before preforming the test.
Api nitrite 0
I was so astonished that I asked him to test it again and he did with the exact same result
I wanted to ask for another test but at the same time didn't want to abuse the free service so donated £5 to the charity box and asked for another nitrite test but this time with a different brand (sailfert liquid test.) Which turned out to be 0 also.My bewilderment sparked up another conversation in which I explained that the 3rd test we had just completed is a full hour and 23 minutes before my 12 hour slot (nutrafin.) And that I was dosing 10ml of ammonia for sometime but didn't think I could stock because my nitrite was processing in 13 instead of twelve hours (according to nutrafin) and had been for a while. His recommendation was that unless I change my liquid test kit my only other option was to buy a larger external filter as I wouldn't get 10ml processed in my ehiem 2215 in 12 hours? using nutrafin.
To be fair, he didn't know about adding pure ammonia. His method of cycling was dead shrimp - spike - double zeros - stock. But he seemed pretty impressed that I could turn 10ml of ammonia to 0 in 8 hours and the resulting nitrite to 0 in 13hours, so much so that he told each of his colleagues.
I'm not sure if the above is confusing? I'm at work trying to cram this all in before I actually get on with work
so please excuse all grammatical mistakes. In truth, I don't quite understand it myself but after leaving the lfs I have decided to do a qualifying week still using my nutrafin kit. However, in light of the api and sailfert results I wont be testing every 12 hours but instead every 13 to compensate for the level of ammonia and my nutrafin kit J
