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I boiled our bogwood a couple of times, and soaked it in a bucket for 2 weeks. It still leaches tannins into the water. Hey-ho.

You should be just fine with that level of ammonia.

Hot drinking water NEVER circulates through the rads. In a conventional system, the boiler (indirectly) heats the water stored in a copper cylinder, which is used for drinking / bathing (much like your glass lined one). This is done by pumping the heated water from the boiler through a coiled...

Great thanks Ruby! Tanks is stable & the fishes all look so happy in there! Makes that long wait worthwhile eh! :good:

Can you post up the stats of your tank water? Apologies, I didn't notice that post was from 2004!! :rolleyes: :blush:

It depends. One of our males died (old age) over the weekend, so we replaced him. The new male was trying to get it on the same day he was introduced, despite most of the female ones being heavily pregnant! They can spawn roughly every 4-6 weeks. First time round, we had about 10 fry. After...

How are things shaping up Ruby?

Sexing them is easy, you need to look at their anal fins. Female ones have 2 distinct fins either side, whereas a male doesn't. He has a 'gonopodium', which looks sort of tubish. Male: Female: When pregnant, they get quite fat, and are almost 'boxy' in appearance when seen from the front.

Try PlecsRus: http://shop.ebay.co.uk/merchant/plecs--r--...QQ_fromZQQ_mdoZ

Well, after 7 days of steady readings, we are now 'fish-in'! :yahoo: They all look so much happier now, if a little lost in the larger space! :lol: So thank you all for your advice along the way, it has been a fun, if frustrating at times, experience!

Cool, you should see that magical 12 hour marker in no time now! :good: Final throws of qualifying now, tank stats are stable, should be good to go mid-week! :hyper: Stocking from our smaller tanks as we usually have a good turnover of fry! Nothing particularly interesting, mostly...

How's it shaping up Ruby? :unsure:

Agree with that, as mine spiked today, so still not fish-ready yet. Ruby, purely out of interest, what size is your tank?

It will go, mine was clearing the 5ppm ammonia to 0ppm in 12 hours for about 7-8 days before the Nitrite caught it up. Nitrite test was always that nice purple shade until then, it kinda caught me by suprise!

How's it going now Ruby? At the 12 hour marker mine changed rapidly for the better. One day it was 1ppm 12 hours on, the next, 0ppm! Hopefully yours is there too now?

Thanks Thommo. It's dead easy to do if you have a Google account, and a bit more interesting to look at than a stack of fiqures! ;)

WooHoo!! Now we are rolling!! :yahoo: Ammonia clearing fully from 5ppm to 0ppm in under 12 hours, and absolutely no trace of Nitrite at t he 12 hour mark either!! I make that time to start qualifying! :good:

Thanks for keeping tabs on this Rabbut, much appreciated! :good:

Mine is doing similar to your Ruby. http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=p3a...Og1sOn0Ae0EAVdA Ammo is always added at 8-9pm. Ammonia fully processes in 12 hours. Nitrite is still present at 12 hours (although not as high as yours), but fully clears at the 24 hour mark. I wondered the same...

Almost there. ^_^ Ammo & Nitrite consistently clearing down to 0ppm in 24 hours. Did a 12 hour spot check this morning: From last night's 5ppm, Ammo is down to 0ppm. Nitrite at 1ppm. So although it's fine in 24 hours, there's still too much at the 12 hour stage. I think that i'll start...

Yep, an upgrade. Was going to close down the old tank as it is badly scratched & doesn't look particularly nice. I could move the media across in a net bag, as it's currently an in-hood filter system. Then again, I could just move leave the cats in & use it as a fry tank for a while! That...

Good feeling when it all starts to kick off eh! ;)

^_^ I'm itching to get the fish moved over, so am keeping fingers crossed! Being rehomed will be: 4 x Mollies 2 x Platies 2 x Glass Catfish 2 x Penguin Tetra 1 x Albino BN Plec Any ideas as to wether I can (after a period of settling down) increase the stock? If so, what would be good...

Really flying now, which seems so odd after such an extended period of nothingness! Yesterday evenings 5ppm ammonia fully processed by tonight. (Actually, I tested it this morning out of interest, 12 hours on, and it was virtually clear). Nitrite didn't even register on tonight's test, so...

Yeah, you can say that again!! And it now seems to be moving at a pace!! :blink: Topped up the ammonia to 5ppm last night, tested tonight, and it's gone!! 0ppm!! Nitrite up too, and Nitrate is climbing! After the crap week I have had, you don't know how good that makes me feel!! :blush...

And so, the cycle takes another turn! I intended on draining & starting again this weekend. Think the tank heard me! From a near flatline, processing 1ppm ammonia in a fortnight, to dropping 3ppm in 24 hours with a decent Nitrite climb to boot! On day 25, when I noticed ammonia was down to...

Typical, one of our Mollies chooses this moment to release another batch of fry! :rolleyes: That's going to make our other two 10 gal tanks a bit cosy! :lol:

Probably just a bacterial bloom, it will clear. How long had the tank been up & running before you put the fish in?

Ordered some different ammonia today (the Jeyes one) as I have lost faith in the stuff i'm using now, the tank has definately flat-lined! Couldn't source the boots one nor anything else locally, ammonia seems hard to come by! Tried scrounging some media from 2 lfs's at the weekend, but all they...

Yep, 2-8 weeks.

Another day, another static set of results. :crazy: Don't know what to do, apart from suspect that the ammonia isn't all that. I pulled the sponges out today just to look at them, and they are virtually as they were when I set the tank up 3 weeks ago!! Something must be stoping the bacteria...

Righto, thanks matey. Guess this is just going to be an ultra-stubborn one to get off the ground! :crazy: :rolleyes:

Nope, no foam, bubbles a little obviously, but that clears very quick. Ingredients are <10 Ammonia. It lists nothing else. Never used it before. What is the popular brand of choice? Although we already have 2 small well established tanks, they were cycled 'fish-in', before I knew about the...

Kilroc pure household ammonia. <10%. I was really hoping for much more than this by now. :( Other tanks are due their weekly water change tomorrow. Seriously tempted to dump the water from this one & refill it. -_-

:hyper: Sounds like you are on the home straight!! :good:

You'll get plenty more next time!! We regularly get between 20-30 fry each time (that I can save). Some get eaten, and others turn up dead in the filter. I always find more appearing 2-3 days after the initial batch, often lurking under things. LFS always ends up with a good steady stream of...

Was hoping that the mature media would have really started things moving a bit quicker by now, but this cycle feels like it's going to be ultra stubborn! :sad: :lol:

I got mine from Robert Dyas, it's called 'Pure Household Ammonia' made by Kilroc. Only a couple of pound for the bottle.

I'm no means an expert on all this, but personally i'd stick to using ammonia rather than Cycle. It'll get you a much more stable bacteria colony established in your filter. And it seems that it's not unusual for pH to rise during the cycle, mine has gone from 7.6 to 8 after a couple of weeks.

Aaaah, understood!! :good: Thanks!!