I've been cycling a 10gal tank since the 19th (about 7 days), and reading the forum and testing the tank obsessively even before I located an ammonia source.
What an agonizing wait, the closer it gets to being cycled, the more impatient I become.
First, the obsessive testing.
Good grief, I'm a bit of a nerd to begin with, to take up a hobby that employs all these kits and colors and levels and drops totally suits me. After my NitrItes spiked (it only took two days, for me), I began to test every 8-12 hours, maintaining my ammonia at 4.00+ ppm. It's only been a few days, and the bacteria has gotten large enough to take me from 4.00 ppm to 0.00 ppm ammnia inside 8 hours, but my nitrItes have yet to fall. I am showing nitrAtes already. Close, but no cigar, you know?
I'm using the "alternate method" of cycling, where you add enough ammonia to read 4-6 ppm, and then wait, and then maintain until it theoretically levels out. I have the filter going, I have an airstone going, I have the light on, I have a heater on, I plunked a "good bacteria seed" in there (in the form of plants and substrate). It's at once going faster and slower than I thought it would.
In the mean time, I obsessively read, as I have been since Janurary of last year.
A few issues!
First, since the forum has certian restrictions on the number of letters per search, it's very hard to search for something as simple as "10g" (a hint to newbies: a search for '10gal' as one word, works), or even have a search which includes a word which is less than or equal to three characters (no search can use 'ph', because it's too short). I've found that a good way to circumvent that little handicap, is to use a Google Advance Search, and confine it to the forum's url. http
/www.google.com/advanced_search?hl=en -- enter whatever you want in the search field, and then enter fishforums.net in the domain field.
Second, there are sooo many threads on the forum with titles like, "Question!" and "newbie!" and "help me stock!", I find myself wishing over and over for more descriptive titles, so that I can waste less time opening and closing threads where the main focus winds up being a 55 gallon tropical paradise.
Ah, it's the wait, the wait that kills you.
The wait and the arsenic.
...
Probably the arsenic.
What an agonizing wait, the closer it gets to being cycled, the more impatient I become.First, the obsessive testing.
Good grief, I'm a bit of a nerd to begin with, to take up a hobby that employs all these kits and colors and levels and drops totally suits me. After my NitrItes spiked (it only took two days, for me), I began to test every 8-12 hours, maintaining my ammonia at 4.00+ ppm. It's only been a few days, and the bacteria has gotten large enough to take me from 4.00 ppm to 0.00 ppm ammnia inside 8 hours, but my nitrItes have yet to fall. I am showing nitrAtes already. Close, but no cigar, you know?I'm using the "alternate method" of cycling, where you add enough ammonia to read 4-6 ppm, and then wait, and then maintain until it theoretically levels out. I have the filter going, I have an airstone going, I have the light on, I have a heater on, I plunked a "good bacteria seed" in there (in the form of plants and substrate). It's at once going faster and slower than I thought it would.
In the mean time, I obsessively read, as I have been since Janurary of last year.
A few issues!
First, since the forum has certian restrictions on the number of letters per search, it's very hard to search for something as simple as "10g" (a hint to newbies: a search for '10gal' as one word, works), or even have a search which includes a word which is less than or equal to three characters (no search can use 'ph', because it's too short). I've found that a good way to circumvent that little handicap, is to use a Google Advance Search, and confine it to the forum's url. http
/www.google.com/advanced_search?hl=en -- enter whatever you want in the search field, and then enter fishforums.net in the domain field.Second, there are sooo many threads on the forum with titles like, "Question!" and "newbie!" and "help me stock!", I find myself wishing over and over for more descriptive titles, so that I can waste less time opening and closing threads where the main focus winds up being a 55 gallon tropical paradise.
Ah, it's the wait, the wait that kills you.
The wait and the arsenic.
...
Probably the arsenic.
which makes it worth the wait.
