Smudgers First Tank

[smudger123]

Sorry Miss Wiggle just spotted your question - yes my 240 is a 2nd hand beauty. Gloops were a little disturbing to see at first lol, I stood looking at it like this for quite a while!

125:

Day 1 Ammonia Little darker than 4
Day 2 Ammonia 4
Day 3 Ammonia 3.5
Day 4 Ammonia 1.5 Nitrite 0 Nitrate 5
Day 5 Ammonia 0 (4.5 added)
Day 6 Ammonia 0 (5 added) Nitrite 1 Nitrate 10
Day 7 Ammonia 0.25 (forgot to top up) Nitrite 5
Day 8 Ammonia 0 (4.5 added) Nitrite 0
Day 9 (+12hrs) Ammonia 0.25 Nitrite 5
Day 9 (+12hrs) Ammonia 0 Nitrite 0

If ok ill add 3ppm at 10pm tonight so my 12 hour testing doesn't mean such a late bedtime.

It seems ammonia is dropping within around 15hrs and Nitrite is spiking at that time. Once the ammonia has dropped the Nitrite then drops within 12hrs. Arn't the 2nd bacteria supposed to be 'processing' the nitrite as it is formed? Is the spike because it IS processing at the same time but the numbers arn't sufficient yet to handle the rate it needs to process at? That would explain perhaps why my Nitrites have never been 'off the chart'...

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Is the spike because it IS processing at the same time but the numbers arn't sufficient yet to handle the rate it needs to process at?

exactly, you're getting there and clearly have some NBacs, just not enough of them yet!

 

[smudger123]

Day 1 Ammonia Little darker than 4
Day 2 Ammonia 4
Day 3 Ammonia 3.5
Day 4 Ammonia 1.5 Nitrite 0 Nitrate 5
Day 5 Ammonia 0 (4.5 added)
Day 6 Ammonia 0 (5 added) Nitrite 1 Nitrate 10
Day 7 Ammonia 0.25 (forgot to top up) Nitrite 5
Day 8 Ammonia 0 (4.5 added) Nitrite 0
Day 9 (+12hrs) Ammonia 0.25 Nitrite 5
Day 9 (+12hrs) Ammonia 0 (3 added) Nitrite 0
Day 10 (+12hrs) Ammonia 0.15 Nitrite 0.25

I put ammonia at 0.15 as I realised I could be making errors today - the liquid to the eye is yellow and when I see it I've been thinking that means 0. Today I held it up to the card and really looked at it and it seems to be a little greenier than the 0, but really is yellow to the eye. Maybe my ammonia was neevr at 0 but 0.1ish all this time? I find the API cards very very hard to read, I dont think I've ever been 100% satisfied of my readings. Why didnt they go with a spectrum with ranges marked off?!

 

[Miss Wiggle]

it's a common complaint with the api kits

i do recommend them to people as they are the best that's available to us, but they are not without their faults!! You should be holding them against the white card with the light behind you, some people have been caught out by doing the tests in a room painted green and such like so best to do it in a nice bright white environment, if that's not possible (isn't in my house) then stand by a door or window or outside so you've got natural light.

 

[smudger123]

Just going to go with my best guess - reluctant to add over 3ppm ammonia all the time though because once it gets to 3 green and over I cant tell the difference at all!

Day 1 Ammonia Little darker than 4
Day 2 Ammonia 4
Day 3 Ammonia 3.5
Day 4 Ammonia 1.5 Nitrite 0 Nitrate 5
Day 5 Ammonia 0 (4.5 added)
Day 6 Ammonia 0 (5 added) Nitrite 1 Nitrate 10
Day 7 Ammonia 0.25 (forgot to top up) Nitrite 5
Day 8 Ammonia 0 (4.5 added) Nitrite 0
Day 9 (+12hrs) Ammonia 0.25 Nitrite 5
Day 9 (+12hrs) Ammonia 0 (3 added) Nitrite 0
Day 10 (+12hrs) Ammonia 0.15? Nitrite 0.25
Day 10 (+9hrs) Ammonia 0 (3 added) Nitrite 0 Nitrate 10
Dat 11 (+13hrs) Ammonia 0 Nitrite 0.25
Day 11 (+12hrs) Ammonia 0 (added 3) Nitrite 0
Day 12 (+10) Ammonia 0 Nitrite 0.1

Nitrites are being stubborn When 3ppm gives ammonia 0 and nitrite 0 in 12hrs do I raise the ammonia back up to 4-5ppm? If so is that another phase that could take a while - waiting for 12hr processing of the higher ammonia?

Also my tank is at 25.5 degrees - would a hotter tank be better for the Nbacs?

 

[smudger123]

OH NOOOO - spotted 2 pest snails tonight

What do I do??

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yeah a lot of people find the last bit of cycling when nitrite is just not quite dropping in time seems to go on for ages. Just show a little bit of patience and it will happen.

just re-charge the ammmonia once every 24 hrs, test every 12 hrs and see how you go.

 

[Corleone]

OH NOOOO - spotted 2 pest snails tonight

What do I do??

Check this thread and identify them. Some snails are worse than others. If they're pond or tadpole snails, go ahead and crunch them or just pull them out and throw them away. If you can't find them, bait them with some lettuce left in overnight.

Anything else, I've had most of them and never had problems keeping them in check or damage to my plants. Even the pond snails didn't do any damage that I saw, but they bred like wildfire. I eventually started hunting them down with a fork and crunching them. I seem to have wiped them out after a month or so of that.

Really, they're not bad to have around in reasonable numbers. They make a better cleanup crew than any fish.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yes, pretty much everyone has some snails, they will only get out of control if you overfeed, if there's not enough food for them the population won't grow so no need to panic.

 

[smudger123]

Theres actually 5 of them I counted this morning - unsure of ID yet because they are teenie weenie and on the front glass. Very cute though, i'd feel absolutely awful killing them

Had a really good look at the tank this morning whilst counting snails and noticed brown patches on some of my plants. Some patches have 'worn through' and have left holes - crypts worst affected...

My corkscrew vallis isn't doing great, nearly all of them have soft tops like they're dying from the top down. Floating squidgy bits making a mess of tank a bit actually!

Cabomba however is doing very well indeed, perhaps a little too well for my liking lol!....

As you can see, not much luck with thirds effort! I took it apart and ended up with it all in the same place pretty much! Lots of substrate through the sand for my effort too

Todays 12hr readings: Ammonia 0 Nitrite 0.1 (getting there!)

Really thinking about my 240 layout now, low tech plants with more forethought to composition.

 

[waterdrop]

smudger123, I think your aquascape there looks really nice, esp. for one who's not been at it too long (much better than my efforts!)

in the words of JK Rowlings' character Hermione Granger: "Oh Harry, plants are REEAAAALLY hard."

 

[smudger123]

Thank you Waterdrop!

 

[Miss Wiggle]

WD

Yeah I still think the scape looks really nice so don't stress it, you'll undoubtedly tinker loads over the coming months, so plenty of chances to sort it out.

 

[smudger123]

Now I’m really going to moan...

Nitrite this morning at 0.75 – that’s backwards by 0.65.

We are very kindly being taken to a gorgeous lfs around 30 miles away by my partners grandparents this Saturday. The trip was meant as 'a gift' to buy fish for my partners new tank. You can imagine my disappointment with SafeStart and the big backwards step this morning - for a few days there nitrite was getting noticeably lower and lower in the same way the ammonia dropped, 0.1 yesterday and was crossing my fingers for 0 today. Then...0.75 Justifying fishless cycling to them is hard enough (they kept tropicals for 30+ years) I'm dreading telling them the tanks not ready. I'd quite like to just hide this weekend lol!

 

[waterdrop]

I really sympathise with you, very frustrating!

You may be slipping into the minor confusion of equating the cycling process with a smooth, linear chemical reaction. The process is not smooth. The bacteria are individual cells, each of which has a "lag phase," a "growth phase" and each of our two bacterial species have different curves for these and process different amounts of materials. When we come along and take a "crude snapshot" of the situation with our little reagent tests, we tend to project a lot more knowledge on to our tidbit of information about the colonies than we really have.

The final period in the process, where you are waiting for nitrites (NO2) to drop to zero within 12 hours after 5ppm of ammonia was added has repeatedly shown itself to be extremely frustrating and slow (as MW said, a few posts back.)

One way I dealt with the dis-belief of family members was to share my fascination and enthusiasm for the nitrogen cycle process with them. People will often think you a bit of a nut at first but I find that if you know your stuff and can explain it in detail that people of all ages will often come 'round and enjoy hearing lots of details from a good teacher. Perhaps when all are trapped in the car on that 30 mile ride, a good period will come along for this conversation...

~~waterdrop~~