Second Stage Cycle Started Today Help

[lana]

day 7 fishless day 45 all together

7 am readings

ammonia 0
nitrites 5
nitrates 40 to 80
kh 3 drop
ph 7.4


temp 30C

added ammonia 10 mls

 

[waterdrop]

 

[lana]

ummm
very very weird was retested to make sure ammonia was good and found this problemmmmmm

what would cause nitrates to drop to ZERO in a few hours

no real plants,



ammonia droping from 3ppm to 0 in little over 24 hours

nitrites 5 +

ph 7.4

temp 30

this morning nirates were 40 to 80 now 0 to 10 and i rested this 4 times to make sure i was doing it right

 

[lana]

day 8 fishless day 46 all together

7 30 am reading

ammonia 0.25
nitrites 2 to 5
nitrates ? says 10 again
ph 7.4
temp 30C
kh 3 drops

do i wait to add ammonia til tommorrow morning?

 

[waterdrop]

Yup, wait till next time since it didn't go all the way to zero. This will have the positive effect of processing some nitrite down without as much new nitrite being added.

Nitrates (as well as nitrites) will just show weird thing sometimes and we've all had to get used to that and just say, hold your actions steady and things will eventually sort out.

You have to remember that sometimes a water change will take out much more nitrate than other times. I also sometimes suspect nitrate in particular of having some way of clinging down in gravel and filters and you've got new filters that are now going through very initial stages of biofilm creation, compared to your one old one. It could be that nitrates get attracted in and used in some way that's different during a certain little sub-stage, who knows? Its another case where we are dealing with biology and not chemistry and our tendency to think about it as chemistry makes us want to look for a "leak!" when we se a quantity go down like that.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[lana]

OK WILL DO

i was gonna go buy new nitrate test bottles thinking some how mine went bad

i'll wait and see what happens next first

thanks

 

[lana]

so i was thinking (i know never a good thing)

i was talking to friend she said she would KEEP what fish i gave her and the reasoning behind that is in reading up on stock i was thinking ANGEL fish might be better in my tank

but how many could i put and what could i put with them for bottom guys

 

[waterdrop]

Repeat the "MW Mantra" after me... "dodgy", "dodgy", "dodgy" nitrates...

 

[lana]

Repeat the "MW Mantra" after me... "dodgy", "dodgy", "dodgy" nitrates...

lmao

 

[lana]

630 pm readings

ammonia ZERO
nitrites 2 to 5
nitrates who knows lol 10 to 20
ph 7.4
kh 3 drops
temp 30C

 

[lana]

so i was thinking (i know never a good thing)

i was talking to friend she said she would KEEP what fish i gave her and the reasoning behind that is in reading up on stock i was thinking ANGEL fish might be better in my tank

but how many could i put and what could i put with them for bottom guys

just in case you don't scroll up to read

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, was my first thought from the time of your very first picture of that tank.. "Its an Angelfish tank." MADE for angels.

Well, its not that its really any better for them, its just that it would show them off so nicely. One thing you will always have to remember about your tank is that it can't be thought of in quite the same way as the large gallonage would have you think, since it has a small relative surface area. My own thought about that (completely uncscientific) is that the thing of going over "one inch per US gallon" guideline, say up to 1.5" or 2" later on with overfiltration, mature filters and good maintenance, should not be done with this tank. My feeling is that it just would not have enough oxygen due to the small surface area.

So as long as you stuck to the "one inch" guideline, and I vaguely remember angelfish as counting as 4 inches of fish body when mature, then you could work out a number. Personally, I like the idea of the "small" cory catfish as a bottom population. There are three types and two of the three will hang out at the bottom, while the third type will go mid tank. Either of the bottom types would be great with angelfish and they need to be in a little shoal of 5 or 6, but I think they only count as an inch or even less each. MW & OM47 are familiar with the types, but I'm sure they're listed with the cories, I'm just too lazy to look.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[lana]

day 9 fishless day 47 all together

630 am readings

ammonia zero
nitrites 2 to 5
nitrates ? 10 but i think higher
ph 7.4
kh 3 drop
temp 30C

added 12ml ammonia

Yes, was my first thought from the time of your very first picture of that tank.. "Its an Angelfish tank." MADE for angels.

Well, its not that its really any better for them, its just that it would show them off so nicely. One thing you will always have to remember about your tank is that it can't be thought of in quite the same way as the large gallonage would have you think, since it has a small relative surface area. My own thought about that (completely uncscientific) is that the thing of going over "one inch per US gallon" guideline, say up to 1.5" or 2" later on with overfiltration, mature filters and good maintenance, should not be done with this tank. My feeling is that it just would not have enough oxygen due to the small surface area.

So as long as you stuck to the "one inch" guideline, and I vaguely remember angelfish as counting as 4 inches of fish body when mature, then you could work out a number. Personally, I like the idea of the "small" cory catfish as a bottom population. There are three types and two of the three will hang out at the bottom, while the third type will go mid tank. Either of the bottom types would be great with angelfish and they need to be in a little shoal of 5 or 6, but I think they only count as an inch or even less each. MW & OM47 are familiar with the types, but I'm sure they're listed with the cories, I'm just too lazy to look.

~~waterdrop~~

sounds good i will look and see what angels i like later this week

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yeah, i don't believe the nitrate readings, i seem to remember andywg once tested the same sample of water and got 0ppm and then 80ppm or something ludicrous like that.

remember nitrate is the least important of all the levels and readings should be taken as indicative at best.

I agree with WD's thoughts on stocking, while you've a lovely big tank you need to be careful not to push it too much because of the low surface area and comparitvley small amount of floor space for the volume of the tank. remember any territorial/agressive fish even if they are nowhere near the bottom of the tank will regard the area of floor space that they stay above as their territory and obviously depending on the agression levels of the fish they will defend this considerably.

I struggle to visualise your tank which I need to do to make some sensible stocking suggestions, can you remind me of the dimensions.

Personally I think none of the angels are as striking as the wild coloured 'silver banded' angels and would recommend those to you, but between the different colour morphs there's really nothing to choose in terms of temprement etc so it's just a case of whichever ones you prefer the look of.

Angels will prey on small fish, they're diet in the wild is mostly neon tetras, while they will sometimes coexist happily in the aquarium it's a risky combination. Any small tetras will be at risk if the angel turns out agressive, but i'd suggest looking at one of the slightly larger schooling fish to complement the angels. Harlequin rasboras work well and they're a beautiful community fish because their body is that bit taller than something like a neon angels won't go for them. Any of the cories will work as well, perhaps with the exception of the pgymy species. Then you can put a few other bits and bobs in like maybe some dwarf cichlids, bristlenose plec, small loaches, ottos etc etc, there's lots of choices anyway, when you give me the dimensions of the tank we'll have a bit more of a think about it.

 

[waterdrop]

You think angels will eat pygmy cories MW??? gee, I hope not! I was hoping for this combo myself, but would probably get the pygmys first and then let young angels grow up with them, hoping that pygmys and even neons would then be seen by the angels as.. not food.. hopefully (besides, -my- angels are going to have good personalities )

Lana, a bit of housekeeping to help my lazy failing memory here...

When you say "6:30 am readings", like you did this morning...

Could you instead report something like "6:30 am, 12 hours after adding to 4ppm"

(no doubt just me forgetting that you once said it will "always be added at such and so time"!)

Things looking good!

~~waterdrop~~