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The Start Orf A New Begining!

The tannins will eventually stop leaching, yes :good:

The leaves on the sward plants that have brown patches on want nipping off or the plant itself will eventually rot and die. Don't worry if there are few, if any, leaves left on it when you are done. Make the roots about an inch long and it will bounce back within weeks :good: Browned moss is a sign often that it wasn't grown submerged, i.e. it was grown in a greehouse-like condition. It will go eventually, but moss is a slow grower, so may take a while :nod:

That is a good scape :nod:

HTH
Rabbut
 
Nice looking tank. You can boil the bogwood before putting it in the tank to try and reduce the tannins, but that piece looks quite big! :p
What moss is that that you have?

Does amazon sword grow tall then? If so I think I'll have to get some for my new tank, I've been looking for something like that :good:
 
Day 22: Fishless Cycle on 16G/60L - 24 Hour test

WD & Rabbut some interesting results! I did do the 12 hour tests twice for Ammonia & Nitrite!! Still got the same!

Last Night @ 21:30 hrs

Temp 29.5C
PH 7.4 :good:
Ammonia 0.00 :good:
Nitrite 0.0 :good: (bearing in mind this was NOW 21-22 hours!!)
Nitrate 20-40 :good:
dKH not tested as will be off the scale with adding bicarb

Added 2.5ml ammonia to raise to 5ppm

Added some more bicarb as it had only raised the PH to 7.4 (another 3 teaspoons)

Tests this morning for 12 hour @ 09:20 hrs

Temp 29.5C
PH 8.0 :good:
Ammonia 0.0 :good: (can understand this!)
Nitrite 0.0 :unsure: (cant get this one round my head!)
Nitrate 40 :good:
dKH not tested as will be off the scale as per above comment

Well how strange!! I can understand the ammonia being processed in 24 hours but not the Nitrite! I will wait till this evening and add the 2.5ml again and see what happens tomorrw for the 12 hour test! I wonder what has happened! WD you were certainly right about this not being linear!

Oh and forgot to add! Thanks for the comments on the tank! I am thinking about getting something red to balance out all the green not sure what yet! and I am thinking about plating near to the filter to try and hide it but the heater will probably burn the leaves of the plants so unsure where I should put the heater!
 
well that sounds like great news on the nitrite, it does come on in fits and starts like this sometimes so fingers crossed your results will be the same over the next few days.
 
Yes, its reasonable to interpret that you are now seeing your N-Bac population "cough" to life, so to speak. Well, really all it means is that the N-Bac population is reaching the steep-growth part of its curve and for the first time munching down such large amounts of nitrite that the amount our "snapshot" nitrite test sees (remember, the moment we test is only a snapshot in the midst of a dynamic environment where N-Bacs are munching the nitrites downward and A-Bacs are non-linearly "peeing" them upwards, lol!) a nitrite level below "spiked" for a change!

~~waterdrop~~
 
Don’t know what happened last night but I think it was either my connection or the site went down for a bit! Here is quite a lengthy update, I HOPE I HAVE BEEN DOING IT CORRECTLY!!!!

Day 23, 24 & 25: Fishless Cycle on 16G/60L - 24 & 12 Hour tests (plus a few little ones to see what going on!)

WD & Rabbut some interesting results! I did do the 12 hour tests and some a few hours after each ammonia solution adding for Ammonia & Nitrite!! Still got the same!

Friday Night @ 18:00 hrs

Temp 29.5C
PH 8.0 :good:
Ammonia 0.00 :good:
Nitrite 0.0 :good:
Nitrate 40 :good: (poss a little more)
dKH not tested as will be off the scale with adding bicarb

Added 2.5ml ammonia

Tested ammonia and Nitrite @ 21:00hrs and 22:00hrs (3 and 4 hours after adding solution!!)

Ammonia 2.00
Nitrite 0.0

Ammonia 1.00 - 2.00
Nitrite 0.0

So v v v v strange!!!

Tests yesterday for 12 hour test @ 05:50 hrs

Temp 29.5C
PH 8.0 :good:
Ammonia 0.0 :good:
Nitrite 0.0 :unsure:
Nitrate 40 :good: (poss a little more)
dKH not tested as will be off the scale as per above comment

last night @ 18:30 hrs 24 hour test for day

Temp 29.5C
PH 8.0 :good:
Ammonia 0.00 :good:
Nitrite 0.0 :good:
Nitrate 40+ :good: (poss a little more)
dKH not tested as will be off the scale with adding bicarb

Added 3.0-4.0ml ammonia

Tested ammonia and Nitrite @ 19:30hrs & 21:30 (1 and 3 hours after adding solution!!)

Ammonia 4.00
Nitrite 0.0

Ammonia 4.00
Nitrite 0.0

Ammonia 2.00
Nitrite 0.0

Tests earlier today for 12 hour test @ 05:50 hrs

Temp 29.5C
PH 8.0 :good:
Ammonia 0.0 :good:
Nitrite 0.0 :unsure:
Nitrate 40+: good: (poss a little more)
dKH not tested as will be off the scale as per above comment

Tonight @ 18:00 hrs

Temp 29.5C
PH 8.0 :good:
Ammonia 0.00 :good:
Nitrite 0.0 :good:
Nitrate 80 :unsure:
dKH not tested as will be off the scale with adding bicarb

Added 5.0ml ammonia added as I don’t think the 2.5 or 3-4 ml took the levels high enough! even though at the beginning 2.5ml was more than enough to raise the ammonia level to at least 4ppm!!

I have also done some hourly tests at 19:30 & 20:30 hrs and got the following:

Ammonia 4.00+
Nitrite 0.0

Ammonia 2.00-4.00
Nitrite 0.0

I hope that I am right in assuming that even though the ammonia is raised to at least 4ppm and then drops, and even though I am showing a 0.00 Nitrite level all the way through this is because my N-Bacs are just munching away at them? (I hope Mother Nature is being kind to me!!!!) I think I will now add 5ml every day to get the colonies up to a really high level.
 
Ammonia must have a lower boiling point than water, as it evaporates away in the bottle quicker than water, hence why you need more ammonia to raise the tank to 5ppm than you did at the start. I often note a "lag" between ammonia vanishing and nitrite rising, but as yet, I don't know why it does...

Things are looking good. At this point, it should only be a day or two at most for the filter to be dropping 5ppm rather than just 2-3ppm :good: Once there, bacteria can multiply very quickly :nod: It's just getting them there in big numbers that takes time ;)

HTH
Rabbut
 
Yeah, its going to start getting very hard to call this filter *not* cycled :lol:

I think once the N-Bac population finally gets big enough, which is where you more or less are, it can just immediately chew through all the nitrite that the A-Bacs can throw at it! I think that's what you are seeing with all those zero nitrite readings and it may just stay that way forever now.

I suspect even if you successfully judge the colors and throw 5ppm at it, its now going to process that much really fast too.

You're just not used to seeing the results that a cycled filter gives you. :lol:

~~waterdrop~~
 
yeah certainly sounds cycled to me, as above pump it up to 5ppm ammonia and when it does what it's doing now with the full 5ppm then you're good to go! :good:

will not be long now.
 
Thanks so much for all the help guys and gal(obviously!!)!!!!

I was thinking about getting some cardinal tetra's? what about them instead of the neons? I am thinking my tank may be too small though! Also how long to keep an eye on the fish before I can be sure that they are ok? a week?
 
Day 26: Fishless Cycle on 16G/60L - 24 & 12 Hour tests (plus a few little ones to see what going on!)

Tests this morning for 12 hour test @ 05:50 hrs

Temp 29.5C
PH 8.0 :good:
Ammonia 0.0 :good:
Nitrite 0.0 :unsure:
Nitrate 80+ :good: (poss a little more)
dKH not tested as will be off the scale as per above comment

Tonight @ 18:00 hrs

Temp 29.5C
PH 8.0 :good:
Ammonia 0.00 :good:
Nitrite 0.0 :good:
Nitrate 80+ :good: (getting close to 160 I would say)
dKH not tested as will be off the scale with adding bicarb

Added 5.5ml ammonia

Tested ammonia and Nitrite @ 19:20hrs and 21:20hrs (1 and a bit and 3 hours and a bit after adding solution!!)

Ammonia 8.00+
Nitrite 0.0

Ammonia 8.00
Nitrite 0.0

Will 12 hour test to see how it goes!
 
By jove, I think you've cracked it :hyper:

Get a large (90-100%) waterchange done, and spend the next week "proving" the filter by feeding liquid ammonia to 5ppm daily and you are ready for fish, assuming ammonia and nitrite remain as they are, currently hitting zero in 12 hours, after a final large waterchange. :good:

Both Cardinal Tetras and Neon Tetras can be flimsy and can be hardy, it all depends on the supplyer. If you were playing it safe, you wouldn't add either untill the tank had been running for 6 months with other fish in, but with good quality stock, both are possible from the outset ;)

All the best
Rabbut
 
I forget what your stocking discussions have been. Unfortunately, both neons and cardinals are usually felt to need a 6-month old matured tank (mature in total time sense, not cycled sense). I think it was D3m I just finished a stocking discussion with at the end of that thread.. you might find that interesting. If you haven't already done so, when you pick out things you like to begin your list, MW is very good with this process of helping work down a wish list towards a working stocking list. Three significant steps are to figure out your real water volume and then apply the "one inch of fish body per 1 US gallon" guideline first, giving you a good beginner upper limit, the secondly to figure out which of your fish is considered "delicate" and shouldn't be introduced until a tank has run for X months, then thirdly to figure out which species you want will or will not get along with each other (eat or be eaten, nip or be nipped, harass or be harassed!)

~~waterdrop~~
 
Day 27: Fishless Cycle on 16G/60L - 12 Hour tests

Tests this morning for 12 hour test @ 07:30 hrs

Temp 29.5C
PH 8.0 :good:
Ammonia 0.0 :good:
Nitrite 0.0 :unsure:
Nitrate 80+ :good: (poss a little more)
dKH not tested as will be off the scale as per above comment

Will test and add later I think with a large post on what I should do prior to leaveing for CUBA!!
 
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