When to do first tests?

[lionfishlover]

Hi there, just bought a new tank and have started the fishless cycle, i added the ammonia a couple of hours ago, and was just wondering when to do the first ammonia and nitrite tests. I am following the second version of the article which says to put enough ammonia in to get a result of 5mg/l, but obviously have to wait enough time for the ammonia to spread evenly throughout the tanks water. Its a 12 gallon juwel rekord 60.

Cheers guys and gals, Scott

 

[yvez9]

yu can wait maybe an hour
your filter should be able to pull up at least 3 to 5 times your water colume so it will be mixed up pretty good.

 

[lionfishlover]

Hi there, thanks for your quick reply, i just did a test and it came out with 0mg/l ammonia, where as i was expecting about 5mg/l, i put in 18 drops of ammonia, worked out by Chris Cow first used 5 drops/10 gallons of 28% ammonia, my ammonia is 9.5% and i have 12 gallons.

Could you advise me of any possible reason for this?

Cheers Scott

 

[StarOrbs]

Thats odd, I just did my ammonia for the 1st time today and I got a 4-6 reading after 40 minutes.

 

[yvez9]

Maybe your test kit is bad or the ammonia you bought is fluke

 

[StarOrbs]

What do you use to test the ammonia with?

 

[lionfishlover]

Pretty sure the ammonia is fine, can tell by the smell, aurgg! Test kit was only bought today, could it be the dechlorinator? I am using tetra aquasafe, which the guy at my LFS said should be okay.

 

[yvez9]

i think aquasafe neutralizes ammonia =so it won't show up on your tests

i might be wrong here but if that product is what i think it is, it's pure crap.

yup
just checked and it does "remove" ammonia so you'll have to add that all the time and your tank will never cycle

i receommend you do a water change and get something that only removes clorine and chloramines like Hagen Aquaplus

 

[lionfishlover]

okay, well its too late now to do anything about that, is it fesable to keep adding ammonia until it shows on the test kit as the aquasafe must not be able to remove a infinate amount of ammonia, if i add 18 drops of ammonia, wait an hour, do a test, if no ammonia shows add another 18 drops, wait another hour, do another test, and so on until ammonia shows on the test.

Possible way of doing it?

 

[StarOrbs]

I have Aquasafe water conditioner and it only removes chlorine, chloramines, and heavy metals.

 

[lionfishlover]

Is that what you used to dechlorinate the water for your fishless cycle?

 

[StarOrbs]

Yah and it appearently didn't kill the ammonia, perhaps you have a different aquasafe.. Do you have the water conditioner because thats what I have and it worked.

 

[lionfishlover]

Good news, i just did another test and i got a read of about 2mg/l, i am going to leave it another twenty mins and then do another test to see what it comes up with. So this kind of proves aquasafe is good for using when do fishless cycles.

Just as a point of interest how much ammonia did you use, what strength is it and what volume is your tank?

Cheers Scott

 

[StarOrbs]

Mine is a 30 gallon tank, It was a little less than a 100% ammonia because it was diluted. And I did 5ml per 10 gallons of water so I put in 15ml of my ammonia. And I got a 5ppm reading which I belive is good

 

[lionfishlover]

It was a little less than a 100% ammonia because it was diluted.

You have 100% pure ammonia, are you in england? Are you sure? Even if it says 100% ammonia, its usually not, cleaning grade ammonia, the one you buy from hardware stores is usually between 4-10%, the one chris cow used was only 28% ammonia and he got his so strong because of his work (i presume).