Tstone's Cycle Log

[eaglesaquarium]

You need to add dechlorinator ANYtime you add water to your tank, with or without fish. The biggest issue with the chlorine is the danger is poses to the bacteria. An established colony might be able to handle it without a significant issue, but new set-ups cannot.

 

[Tstone]

So I should go home and add the right amount of dechlorinator for my tank? It's 110 gallons.. anyone care to do the math or tell me how to do it?

& when I do water changes, I never really know the exact amount of water I remove so how will I know how much dechlorinator to add?

 

[eaglesaquarium]

It depends which dechlorinator you are using how much you need to use. Its on the bottle. Just dose whatever it says. You can dose up to 2x the amount safely.

 

[Tstone]

It says 1mL for 10 US gallons.. so 11 mL of dechlorinator?

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Yes, Up to 22ml. If you have chloramines, it might be higher.

 

[Tstone]

Could not having dechlorinator slow down my cycle?

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Yup.

 

[Tizer]

there will be no chlorine in your cycling tank, it disappears after 24 hours, like magic. however, fresh tap water contains it, hence the requirement to use dechlorinator.

You dont HAVE to use dechlorinator, it simply depends how much chlorine your water board put in the water. i very often do a 20% water change and dont bother with dechlorinator and i even half dose when i do a 50% change. Purely because my water is pretty chlorine free. It pays to be safe, and just do what it says on the bottle, until you are klever enuf around fish and keeping fish, innit. brap.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

If his water has chloramines, it won't gas off.

 

[Tstone]

& when I do water changes after all my cycling is done and I have my fish and everything.. should I take my media out and let it sit in my water while I change the water? Or will my media be fine in my filter (that's not running) for aabout 10 minutes?

 

[eaglesaquarium]

It will be fine for several hours. Its when the hours go long and you start to get into 12+ hours that you might run into a problem. Normal routine water changes are no reason to worry about the bacteria. Just pull the media out about once every month or two and give it a swish in a bucket of old tank water (NEVER TAP!) and get some of the excess mulm off so that water flow is not restricted. Then replace and turn the filter back on. Be sure to prime the pump if necessary.


Never take the filter media out and sit it into the tank! It will put all the gross stuff it has been pulling out back into the tank. Not a good thing. Rinse it in a bucket of old water. (Doing this just once will show why you don't want to put it into your tank, even without the swishing around part, the bucket water will go very murky, very quickly.)

 

[Tstone]

Like one time when I do a water change.. put a little water that's coming FROM the tank into a bucket, and swish the media around around in it? and then put it back in?

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Yup. Then discard the old tank water.

 

[Tstone]

This is terrrrrrrible

 

[Tstone]

Ammonia dropped to .5 .. nitrite and nitrate are both at zeroooooooooooooooooooooooooo