Si's Fishless Cycle

[PDSimon]

pH is 7... I didn't realise bogwood could affect it so quickly...waterchanges until I get fish..(so hopefully non and I get fish tomorrow) I'd prefer a lower pH it will suit the rams and kuhlis

 

[JoshuaA]

pH is 7... I didn't realise bogwood could affect it so quickly...waterchanges until I get fish..(so hopefully non and I get fish tomorrow) I'd prefer a lower pH it will suit the rams and kuhlis

Is Bi-Carb usable with fish in? I bought some bogwood but if it kills the pH that fast... oh dear I might have to not use it!

Also the golden ratio is awesome, I think trying to give it a "Natural look" yet having crystal clear water and glass sides doesn't really work Also having fish from around the world mixed in one tank doesn't make sense either but I'm really picking its with a pair of tweezers here.

Get some Java ferns though!

 

[PDSimon]

bicarb isn't meant for fish in no, sodium bicarbonate.. sodium is salt? so... bad idea.

Don't get me wrong, I like the golden ratio (I'm a product designer and use it in my designs sometimes..) but I can't be bothered faffing around with that stuff... I just want a decent looking tank and happy fish.. a balance between them really.

Quite like sterba's corydoras...If it turns out there aren't any kuhlis left I'm going to get some of those...

 

[JoshuaA]

bicarb isn't meant for fish in no, sodium bicarbonate.. sodium is salt? so... bad idea.

Don't get me wrong, I like the golden ratio (I'm a product designer and use it in my designs sometimes..) but I can't be bothered faffing around with that stuff... I just want a decent looking tank and happy fish.. a balance between them really.

Quite like sterba's corydoras...If it turns out there aren't any kuhlis left I'm going to get some of those...

Interesting... so really we would want to scrub out tanks clean to make sure it isn't in the fresh water for the fish after the 100% water change. Sodium is a metal, salts are something to do with a product of neutralisation or something close to/along those lines.

I didn't really want to play chemists so it was a good thing really, I know our pH will probably end up being around 6.8/7 so hmm.

Oh I got told by a P@H worker today that a large quantity of our friendly bacteria is in the water and that doing water changes can be really bad. I said to her it was a fishless cycle and that it's completed and I'm just feeding the bacteria until we get fish. She instantly said
"Unfortunately we have a policy which means we can sell fish to people who have had their tanks set up for more than 7 days." I just smacked my forehead and said
"You blatantly didn't listen to a word I said." I need a thermometer, some bogwood and a background for my new tank setup and well the only place with all 3 which would definitely have them was there lol.

 

[PDSimon]

When WD spoke about it, he didn't say SCRUB IT CLEAN!!! it was just... be careful and do a 100% water change, traces of it will remain but they will not harm the fish and over time will go. I almost put the filter back in without cleaning the top of it which had bicarb over it...whoops I gave the inside a clean and scrubbed it down only like I would normally... I think thats more than enough tbh.

I want my pH to be like 6-6.5 but doubt it will happen

You should stop talking to people at your LFS 100% water changes had no notible effect whenever I've done them... I don't know how you could even work in a fish shop and not know that!

 

[JoshuaA]

When WD spoke about it, he didn't say SCRUB IT CLEAN!!! it was just... be careful and do a 100% water change, traces of it will remain but they will not harm the fish and over time will go. I almost put the filter back in without cleaning the top of it which had bicarb over it...whoops I gave the inside a clean and scrubbed it down only like I would normally... I think thats more than enough tbh.

I want my pH to be like 6-6.5 but doubt it will happen

You should stop talking to people at your LFS 100% water changes had no notible effect whenever I've done them... I don't know how you could even work in a fish shop and not know that!

Lol, seemingly it is possible to work in a fish store and not knowing anything. My opening question was "Do you know anything about Tank cycling". She said "I know quite a lot, yes". It went downhill from there lol. Simon... with our soft water I can imagine you will get it there quite easily!

Also Java fern it up when you can! We only added Bicarb once and the fish tank has stayed pH of 8 throughout since. We did a few 100% water changes as the pH was dropping so fast in a matter of days. We did have the idea of placing a few shells in the tank and then just letting them dissolve over a period of years haha .

Edit: I wouldn't mind going to Waterworld and spending money there but since I imagine the owner hates me with a passion after walking out the job mid day I don't think he'd want my money haha.

 

[PDSimon]

I think i'll get the fern... You wouldn't believe how many plants are in some of those pots... the vallis had about 20 plants in! difformis had ~5... parvula had ~10...

So happy this is finally getting somewhere!! hopefully my 12 hour test will be atleast below 0.5 tomorrow...wouldn't surprise me if it stalled though.

Screw the manager... if there are fish there you want just get them! My bro rates them highly i've never bought anything from there though

 

[JoshuaA]

I think i'll get the fern... You wouldn't believe how many plants are in some of those pots... the vallis had about 20 plants in! difformis had ~5... parvula had ~10...

So happy this is finally getting somewhere!! hopefully my 12 hour test will be atleast below 0.5 tomorrow...wouldn't surprise me if it stalled though.

Screw the manager... if there are fish there you want just get them! My bro rates them highly i've never bought anything from there though

Yeh those vallis needs separating out to make them look good I think. I had intentions to make a small forest out of them but my water is too soft and they will just wither within weeks. See I know what the manager is like and I feel like if I went there he would literally just tell me to my face to get out lol, he was actually a nice guy though outside of work great talker and joker though he just got stressed and took it out on me one too many times. His two sons help him run the business, both of them are great guys and generally all of the people who were working at the time were fantastic bar one. Who seemed to believe it was her right to tell the boss a bunch of lies about me, put her opinion into something where she had no experience and well generally ticked me off but sweet talked everyone else lol.

Also my Betta tank is showing Nitrite this afternoon but is now back to 0ppm.

 

[PDSimon]

Sounds a bit mad. either way... I'd still go for it. I was at the grosvenor garden centre the other day by chester, it has its own fish shop and all they ever do is tand around talking, when a lot of the tanks have dead fish in and loads of algae. They have so many tanks but whats the point if they're in a bad state

Tropica says 4+ GH for vallis... i'm cutting it close with 6 but if it does start growing it should do really well. Do you know your GH?

Glad to hear of the 0's

I need to buy a net don't I...

 

[JoshuaA]

Sounds a bit mad. either way... I'd still go for it. I was at the grosvenor garden centre the other day by chester, it has its own fish shop and all they ever do is tand around talking, when a lot of the tanks have dead fish in and loads of algae. They have so many tanks but whats the point if they're in a bad state

Tropica says 4+ GH for vallis... i'm cutting it close with 6 but if it does start growing it should do really well. Do you know your GH?

Glad to hear of the 0's

I need to buy a net don't I...

A net will help you pick up the dead plant leaves as well of anything you drop on the substrate, you won't be having dead fish so you need'nt worry about them but yeh a net is good.

My friend offered a GH KH test kit but unfortunately I havent got around to picking it up! Did you by any chance suffer any algae during your cycle? I've noticed non what so ever!

Edit: A net will be like 99p onwards maybe £2.19 for the biggest.

 

[PDSimon]

Very small amount of algae... By small I mean you could just about see translucent...things growing on the glass... that was it really. You had to look really carefully to see it.

Trying to learn how to sex bolivian rams, not easy.

 

[JoshuaA]

Very small amount of algae... By small I mean you could just about see translucent...things growing on the glass... that was it really. You had to look really carefully to see it.

Trying to learn how to sex bolivian rams, not easy.

The shape of their dorsal fin right? Or something along those lines, are you after a couple? or a pair of males/females?

We haven't seen any aglae, but to our amazement there is a snail we see regularly!!! It hasn't had plants in that tank for about 25 days! lol.

 

[JoshuaA]

Maybe the snail is why we haven't seen any Algae! The other day he was lurking around the heater, today he was on the front of the glass saying hello. We're going to let him live in our tank and call him "Ambitious" although I can see one of our fish eating him tomorrow haha.

 

[PDSimon]

After a couple... Its quite difficult for even the experienced apparently...

How is there a snail in there! You'd have thought it would've died.

You can't let him be eaten.

You're getting fish tomorrow now?

 

[JoshuaA]

After a couple... Its quite difficult for even the experienced apparently...

How is there a snail in there! You'd have thought it would've died.

You can't let him be eaten.

You're getting fish tomorrow now?

Should be that has been the plan , we were going to go ahead with it even though we were getting between 0-0.25 nitrite in on the 12 hour mark as we're planting heavily. Although for the past ~5 days we've been getting double zeros so its a bonus haha.

Yeh I know that snail has gone through pH fluctuations of crazyness, going from 6.6 to 8.4 in the space of 10 minutes (water changes and redosing ammonia) He has sat in a Nitrite concentration of 54ppm (roughly calculated) and sat through all this will little to no food. If he can survive that I could always put him in my cycling tank and give him a lettuce every now and then haha. Plus with the chance we have some copper in our water, I'd say thats a pretty hardy snail!