Water Cycle..?

[ryan2170]

alrite, ive set up my tank (well emptied it and started all over again with old tank filter and heater) and done a water test and it reads:

• ammonia 0.25ppm
  high range ph 8.2
  nitrite (no2) 0ppm
  freshwater ph 7.6
  nitrate (no3) 10ppm

looking at this how long untill my tank will be ready for fish to be added?

 

[Bullrock74]

alrite, ive set up my tank (well emptied it and started all over again with old tank filter and heater) and done a water test and it reads:

• ammonia 0.25ppm
  high range ph 8.2
  nitrite (no2) 0ppm
  freshwater ph 7.6
  nitrate (no3) 10ppm

looking at this how long untill my tank will be ready for fish to be added?

If you don't have a constant source of ammonia for the beneficial bacteria in your old tank filter, then the bacteria will die off. I recommend you research the nitrogen cycle and also fishless cycling. After doing this, you will understand that you shouldn't leave a filter that once had a colony of beneficial bacteria to run in an empty tank.

 

[ryan2170]

so what do you suggest i do then?
why do i want ammonia in the tank, i though that this was bad for fish?

 

[littlest]

ammonia is bad for fish but if you are doing a fishless cycle (which is recommended) you need to add ammonia as a food source for bacteria. The bacteria then multiply and process the ammonia into nitrite then a different set of bacteria will be colonised, converting the nitrite to nitrate.

I am assuming from your post you don't have fish in the tank at the moment? (i'ts a little unclear). If you do have fish definately don't add ammonia. If you don't have fish do a fishless cycle.

you can read all about it here

 

[rdd1952]

Do you have ammonia in your tap water? I would assume so or there wouldn't be any in the tank unless you had added ammonia. As mentioned, ammonia is bad but if you do a fishless cycle, you have to add ammonia to feed and build the bacteria colony to handle the waste of the fish later on. If you don't plan to do a fihsless cycle, you can add fish straight away (only 2 or 3 hardy ones) and then do water changes as needed to keep ammonia and nitrite below .25ppm.

There are a couple things you really need to keep in mind though if you decide to cycle with fish. First, if your tank has ammonia, doing water changes won't help much in keeping the ammonia below .25ppm since it appears you have that much in your tap water. You will need a product like Ammo-Lock or Prime (also a dechlorinator) to convert the ammonia into ammonium (non-toxic). Second, ammonia becomes more toxic at higher pH levels so since you pH is over 8 (is there something in your tank raising it that high or is it high out of the tap), even .25ppm of ammonia is extremely toxic. With your combination of high pH and ammonia in the tap water, I would strongly recommend a fishless cycle.