Semi - Newbie With A New Tank

[manofish123]

Just a quick hello and enjoying this hobbie again after a lenghthy absence. Just bought the Fluval Edge 6. Going fishless until I get the tank settled in. Using gravel, 4 or 5 real small plants and a few rocks. Cleaned and washed everything before introducing to the tank. Have the filter on high volume and the therm on 78. Introduced NutriFin Aqua Plus for chlorine and Nutrafin Cycle (I know its a debated subject) at the 3 day recommended dosages.
Water was crystal clear for the first 15 hours or so. Started to turn milky white and cloudy and after 24 hours is starting to clear but still milky. This is my third day and the tests read :

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 5+
Nitrate 5-10
Ph 7.6 +

I'm in no hurry to add fish until I get this water right and I know its cycled properly. Would appreciate any comments or
help in monitoring tests and what if anything I need to do other than let it cook.

Thanks in advance and good to be back in the hobbie.

 

[cambojnr]

Just a quick hello and enjoying this hobbie again after a lenghthy absence. Just bought the Fluval Edge 6. Going fishless until I get the tank settled in. Using gravel, 4 or 5 real small plants and a few rocks. Cleaned and washed everything before introducing to the tank. Have the filter on high volume and the therm on 78. Introduced NutriFin Aqua Plus for chlorine and Nutrafin Cycle (I know its a debated subject) at the 3 day recommended dosages.
Water was crystal clear for the first 15 hours or so. Started to turn milky white and cloudy and after 24 hours is starting to clear but still milky. This is my third day and the tests read :

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 5+
Nitrate 5-10
Ph 7.6 +

I'm in no hurry to add fish until I get this water right and I know its cycled properly. Would appreciate any comments or
help in monitoring tests and what if anything I need to do other than let it cook.

Thanks in advance and good to be back in the hobbie.

Am new here aswell and have I think the milky ness is just a bacterial bloom and will clear eventually. pearsonally I have never had this happen so cant be sure.

 

[fluttermoth]

OP; for a proper fishless cycle you need to be adding a source of ammonia for the bacteria you want to feed on. You can't just leave the tank to 'cook', nothing will happen to make the tank ready to support fish unless ammonia is added.

 

[manofish123]

OP; for a proper fishless cycle you need to be adding a source of ammonia for the bacteria you want to feed on. You can't just leave the tank to 'cook', nothing will happen to make the tank ready to support fish unless ammonia is added.

Iv read where you can get the pure ammonia at Ace. Have you heard this and how much and how frequently do I add it ? Thanks

 

[fluttermoth]

Yes, Ace hardware carry 'pure' ammonia (it's really an ammonia/water solution). There's a cacluator tab up at the top of the page that you can click on with a section for you to input the volume of your tank and the strength of you ammonia; that'll tell you how much you need to add

You wait until it's gone to zero, or very nearly, and then redose.

 

[manofish123]

Yes, Ace hardware carry 'pure' ammonia (it's really an ammonia/water solution). There's a cacluator tab up at the top of the page that you can click on with a section for you to input the volume of your tank and the strength of you ammonia; that'll tell you how much you need to add

You wait until it's gone to zero, or very nearly, and then redose.

Sure appreciate your help. Id a sat here for weeks probably not knowing that. How many redoses should I do and should I be testing the trites and trates too ? Thanks again - off to Ace

 

[cambojnr]

Yes, Ace hardware carry 'pure' ammonia (it's really an ammonia/water solution). There's a cacluator tab up at the top of the page that you can click on with a section for you to input the volume of your tank and the strength of you ammonia; that'll tell you how much you need to add

You wait until it's gone to zero, or very nearly, and then redose.

Sure appreciate your help. Id a sat here for weeks probably not knowing that. How many redoses should I do and should I be testing the trites and trates too ? Thanks again - off to Ace

I read that you dose it with ammonia then 12 hours later test it and rinse and repeat every 12 hours until you have the correct readings

 

[fluttermoth]

Add the enough ammonia to give you a reading of between 4 and 5ppm. Then you wait until that drops and add more.

Once the ammonia is starting to disappear, you can start testing for nitrite. Once that is also disappearing you dose and test until you've done a week of adding ammonia and getting zero on your tests for both ammonia and nitrite, then your cycle will be done.

There are more complete instructions in the 'fishless cycling' article in the beginner's resource centre (link is in my sig).

 

[manofish123]

very cool. i'm doing this when we get our next tank. thanks for the info!

Added just shy of 2ml of ammonia and tested the water about 4 hours later. Ph was high - Ammonia was 4.0 - and surprisingly the Nitrite was between 2 to 5. Guess the plan now is to monitor the ammonia and when it gets near 0 put in another dose ? The tank is still cloudy.

 

[manofish123]

Yes, Ace hardware carry 'pure' ammonia (it's really an ammonia/water solution). There's a cacluator tab up at the top of the page that you can click on with a section for you to input the volume of your tank and the strength of you ammonia; that'll tell you how much you need to add

You wait until it's gone to zero, or very nearly, and then redose.

Sure appreciate your help. Id a sat here for weeks probably not knowing that. How many redoses should I do and should I be testing the trites and trates too ? Thanks again - off to Ace

I read that you dose it with ammonia then 12 hours later test it and rinse and repeat every 12 hours until you have the correct readings

Added just shy of 2ml of ammonia and tested the water about 4 hours later. Ph was high - Ammonia was 4.0 - and surprisingly the Nitrite was between 2 to 5. Guess the plan now is to monitor the ammonia and when it gets near 0 put in another dose ? The tank is still cloudy. Sorry bout the repost - just learning here.

 

[cambojnr]

Yes, Ace hardware carry 'pure' ammonia (it's really an ammonia/water solution). There's a cacluator tab up at the top of the page that you can click on with a section for you to input the volume of your tank and the strength of you ammonia; that'll tell you how much you need to add

You wait until it's gone to zero, or very nearly, and then redose.

Sure appreciate your help. Id a sat here for weeks probably not knowing that. How many redoses should I do and should I be testing the trites and trates too ? Thanks again - off to Ace

I read that you dose it with ammonia then 12 hours later test it and rinse and repeat every 12 hours until you have the correct readings

Added just shy of 2ml of ammonia and tested the water about 4 hours later. Ph was high - Ammonia was 4.0 - and surprisingly the Nitrite was between 2 to 5. Guess the plan now is to monitor the ammonia and when it gets near 0 put in another dose ? The tank is still cloudy. Sorry bout the repost - just learning here.

Yeah Just retest every 12 hours exactly as in try to do every 12 hours everyday until all results are zero and add more athe same amount of ammonia when it hits 0 and I think it means you tank is cycled when after 12 hours and the ammonia is 0 and it is 0 after 12 hours consecutivly for the next week it is cycled not 100% sure but someoe on here will correct if am wrong

 

[Smells a bit fishy]

Yes test every 24 hours until both ammonia and nitrites hit 0. then add 5ppm of ammonia every 24 hours. once both ammonia and nitrite are 0 after 12 hours for a week after redosing ammonia then your tank will be cycled.

 

[manofish123]

Yes test every 24 hours until both ammonia and nitrites hit 0. then add 5ppm of ammonia every 24 hours. once both ammonia and nitrite are 0 after 12 hours for a week after redosing ammonia then your tank will be cycled.

Thanks for your input. Having only a 6 gallon tank, after the tank cycles I'd like to get a Betta and several small colorful fish that are compatible. Any ideas or suggestions would be appreciated ...