22 gallon Small river based aquarium journal.

[itiwhetu]

nice, sounds good! Ill research how to look after them!

I'm not allowed to suggest methods of cycling your tank. Please just take your time and it will all work out fine.

 

[DoubleDutch]

I added 2 full doses and 3 snack doses. The nitrites did go down in about 15-24 hours on the last dose. I'm 90% sure I got to 3ppm at the last full dose. Have I done anything wrong :^) and ok, instead of all the tetras and corys in the 1st week ill just add the corys, then the neons, then the goumaris.

Full doses and snack doses of what

 

[Obsessed with fish]

Full doses and snack doses of what

fish food and poop, and lots of it.

 

[Obsessed with fish]

I'm not allowed to suggest methods of cycling your tank. Please just take your time and it will all work out fine.

Are you saying i cant add my fish, or add my fish small bits at a time or something else

 

[itiwhetu]

Are you saying i cant add my fish, or add my fish small bits at a time

Just take your time, and take the advice of the other members of this forum.

 

[Essjay]

ok, i have an answer, some websites are saying 2 weeks minimum, some are saying 4 weeks, but most are saying about 3-7 weeks

There are ways to cycle a tank quickly.
Using media from a mature tank.
Using a bacterial starter that works
Having a lot of fast growing plants in the tank (just a couple aren't enough)

But without these it can take weeks. And weeks of adding 3 ppm ammonia not food and poop.

 

[Obsessed with fish]

There are ways to cycle a tank quickly.
Using media from a mature tank.
Using a bacterial starter that works
Having a lot of fast growing plants in the tank (just a couple aren't enough)

But without these it can take weeks. And weeks of adding 3 ppm ammonia not food and poop.

I had a beneficial bacteria starter that works.

 

[Obsessed with fish]

ok, i just have 1 single question, should i buy the corys tomorrow

 

[Essjay]

No. The tank is unlikely to be ready yet.

I had a beneficial bacteria starter that works.

Which brand did you use?

 

[Obsessed with fish]

No. The tank is unlikely to be ready yet.



Which brand did you use?

The brand: Aquatopia.

And if its not cycled now when do i know that its cycled? Sorry if it appears im arguing, but im not. I just have some question

 

[Essjay]

The way to know if a tank is cycled is to add 3 ppm ammonia and if there is zero ammonia and zero nitrite next day, it is cycled.

The other way is to get a lot more plants, particularly floating plants, and to wait until you see lots of new growth. Then add fish a few at a time, testing every day to make sure ammonia and nitrite stay at zero.

 

[Obsessed with fish]

The way to know if a tank is cycled is to add 3 ppm ammonia and if there is zero ammonia and zero nitrite next day, it is cycled.

The other way is to get a lot more plants, particularly floating plants, and to wait until you see lots of new growth. Then add fish a few at a time, testing every day to make sure ammonia and nitrite stay at zero.

Well, what im about to say will probably spark an argument...but ammonia isn't an option for me, sorry. Im simply not allowed ammonia I really hate saying "lets see what happens" when there are life's involved, but im saying it. I have seen many threads of 1st time cyclers like me saying "cycled tank unexpected fish deaths" or "Fish dying in cycled tank" Ect etc, its probably one of the most common threads on this forum, after that the people who know what there doing like you tell them why they cycled there tank incorrectly, then the fish die, then they learn a valuable lesson and do it right next time, thats why i like the forum.

You see, cycling is the most 'unexpected' process ever, it may be successful, it may not be. It may take 3 weeks, it may take 3 months, ya just never know. Defiantly not the kind of thing you should be guessing about either. So, lets see what happens. I hate saying that with living things, but lets see what happens. There's obesely no way of knowing when the tank is fully cycled if food is used, so the hated: 'lets see what happens' will happen.

*I didn't mean that in a mean way, just wanted to clarify, also didnt mean it in an argumentive way.

 

[FishHobby99]

Hi, my nitrates have exelled drastically and my ammonia and nitrites are at 0 ppm. I will add the following fish:

2 dwarf goumaris (1 male and 1 female)

5 cory catfish (3 banded corys)

8 neon tetras.

I will add the tetras and corys tomorrow and the goumaris next week. My water parameters:

Ph: 7.3

Nitrites: 0ppm

Ammonia: 0 ppm

Nitrates: 8ppm

Temperature: 28 degrees celcius.

This is a photo of my tank now:

I'll send pics of the tank with fish tomorrow and I'll give updates regularly.

View attachment 145978

What kind of plants are those? They look so terrestrial! I like them

 

[Essjay]

In that case, put a lot of fish food into a small container of water and wait until it starts to rot. Test it with your ammonia tester and if it reaches the highest level on the chart, use that water to add to the tank. Let the tnak run half an hour to let it all mix together, then test the tank water for ammonia to see what level it is. Then test again 24 hours later.

The plants in the tank look like 3 anubias. These are slow growing plants which will not take up much ammonia. If you can get some more plants, they would also help. One which is useful is Egeria densa, this is sold in the UK as elodea and in the USA as anacharis, but I don't know what it's called in Australia. This is a stem plant which can either be grown with the end of the stem in the substrate or left to float on the surface. If you get a lot of that then wait till you see new growth at the end of every stem, then you can get a few fish. But take two photos, one of the tank when you first get the new plants, then another to show the new growth and post them both on here so we can see if there's enough new growth.

 

[Obsessed with fish]

What kind of plants are those? They look so terrestrial! I like them

terrestrial, there anibius.