A Fish Tank For Children, Some Advice Please...

[upsy daisy]

Day 9 pH 7.5, ammonia 0.6, nitrite 0, nitrate 0
Day 10 pH 7.5, ammonia 0.7, nitrite 0, nitrate 0

I guess I'll be adding more ammonia soon. A bit unsure why nitrites and nitrates are at 0 and ammonia still there. I was expecting for ammonia to go down and for nitrites and nitrates to go up. Is this because the tank hasn't "matured" yet?

Just as I was getting some water from the tank I noticed that one of my silicone or squidgy rubber "plants" has strange pale beige spots on it. If it was a real plant I would say it was a disease, but since it's not.. is it some of bacteria or is it something that should not be there?

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, you're right. On the day that ammonia finally tests zero ppm then you add more ammonia to the aquarium in the same amount as you did the first time so that hopefully after you let it mix and test 20 min or so later, it will show about 4ppm ammonia concentration. Its a good habit to pick a time in the morning or evening that you'll try to habitually make your "add-hour."

Unlike chemistry in some respects, where numbers might go up and down in a formula, the nitrogen cycle is biology, where complicated living organisms and large organic molecules are involved... so no, you won't necessarily see nitrite and nitrate go up when ammonia goes down.

New tanks get lots of growths of molds and fungus and biofilms. These things will eventually go away on their own or can be cleaned - no big deal.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[OldMan47]

You are getting some algae growth that is removing ammonia UD. That is the likely source of the "beige spots" that you are seeing. Until you get a corresponding rise in nitrites, you have not established any bacterial processing ability for ammonia. Plants, even the very small algae, use nitrogen for growth and will remove ammonia slowly. 0.3 ppm per day is slow use in my mind. When you get enough bacteria to effectively move ammonia through, you will get over 2.5 ppm of nitrites for each 1 ppm of ammonia that is processed. If I recall correctly it is 2.7 ppm of nitrite for each 1 ppm of ammonia, in a theoretical setup where no other factors like algae are present to impact the ratio.

 

[upsy daisy]

Let's see if this works..

 

[waterdrop]

Looks a little to bumpy and uneven to be the typical biofilms. Looks more like a mold or fungus, either of which you often see in new tanks. I think you said these were plastic plants, which makes it easier than ever to simply wrap a sponge around them and pull it along the stem while holding it under the bathroom faucet or such. WD

 

[upsy daisy]

I am not too concerned, as you said that these things can happen and do go away on their own. I mean, what would you do, if it was your tank? Would you just leave it or try to clean it off?

 

[waterdrop]

Oh I rather enjoy fussing. I would probably pull it out and clean it and put it back in. One beginner trap you can fall in to is thinking of the aquascape and the whole inside and equipment as "fixed." I feel its better to not be afraid to take things out and put them and and do all sorts of cleaning projects frequently. Of course, you know never to clean your filter media in tap water (always have to be careful to say that!) But one thing I like to do is to add a little project to clean something special when I'm doing my normal weekly gravel-clean-water-change. (This will be later after you're cycled of course.) Sometimes I take of the lid and clean it. Sometimes I take out the thermometer and decorations and clean them. Stuff like that.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[upsy daisy]

Well, I tried to wash off the "beige spots" this morning but they were far too stubborn and didn't really want to come off. I became desperate and washed the decoration in a bucketful of hot ammonia water and rinsed it off afterwards. You would not believe the amount of debris that was floating in that bucket! (Actually I still didn't manage to get it completely clean as some spots just refused to be washed off.)

Then, as I was putting the rubbery grass back in the tank I noticed that the filter was clogged. So I took the sponge out and it was full of same slimey beige like mucus I just washed off the rubbery grass. My baby was fussing and in a panic I squeezed the sponge out in the tank Of course that made all the water completely cloudy!
Now, after some filtering, the water looks good, except there is a slimy like mucus reasting on the bottom of the tank and the bottom of the filter seems clogged again. What should I do now? Should I try to do a small water change while trying to clean up slime? Or is that going to set the tank cycle back? If I wanted to clean the sponge of the filter out really good, I should do it in some de-chlorinated water, right? Just want to get rid of the slime which could be fungus-ey.

 

[Curiosity101]

Doing a small water change wouldn't be a bad idea.
Then rinse the filter out in the bucket of water. The slimey stuff probably wont hurt the cycle but you certainly don't want your filter getting all clogged up.

 

[upsy daisy]

Ok, so I added some de-chlorinated water, risned out the filter sponge and scooped off two cups gravel, because I felt I had put too much initially.
Results pm:
day 12
pH 7.5, ammonia 0.25, nitrite 0, nitrate 1

day 13 no test

day 14 pm
pH 7.5, ammonia 0.1, nitrite 0, nitrate 1
I am getting excited, I'll soon get to add more ammonia!

 

[upsy daisy]

Day 15, 10:00pm

Looks like I got all excited too soon, because surprisingly the ammonia reading has gone up on its own accord! It is now 0.4!
I have no idea why it has gone up by itself all of a sudden.
So, today I thought to test the pH with the high range pH bottle, since the pH my tank has falls into both categories. Well, instead of 7.5 I was anticipating the test showed 8.1!
I cannot believe I have been mistaking the reading all this time! But honestly, that's how the test looked, blue but not as blue as 7.6. Have I been making this mistake because of the poor lighting, since I am testing at night?
Anyone else have made a mistake like this?

 

[waterdrop]

I find that the area around the transition between the high and low pH tests is not one where I make practical changes anyway. I wouldn't do anything different for a pH in the high 7's or low 8's. They are both pretty good for the fishless cycle, for one thing.

For day 15 you look pretty normal, no real nitrite spike yet and yet plenty of good activity with the ammonia.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Curiosity101]

Whenever I test the pH of new water I use both test kits just out of habit. Also whenever water tests high on the normal range or low on the high range I do the opposite test just to be sure.

I live in a soft water area so any excuse to use the high range ph tester and I'll use it. lol. As WD said, nothing wrong with that pH anyways.

 

[waterdrop]

HaHa C101, same for me, supersoft water.. hardly -ever- get to use high-range test for anything

 

[upsy daisy]

So, last two weeks I haven't been recording the readings, but I have tested the water. Nitrite keeps on 0 constantly, seems like my aquarium will never have a different nitrite reading ever! Is this good or bad, I don't know!

Nitrate seems to be on 0-1, but I cannot tell for sure, the lamp lighting isn't that great and it's not easy with those swatches. Is it 1 or 0, I really don't know anymore..

And now regarding ammonia.. I don't know whether I have been misreading that, too. Two weeks ago it was at 0.1 and now I cannot tell if it's at 0 or 0.1. Maybe it has been at 0 all along?

(The ammonia is the one next to reddish pH test tube.)


Should I do a little water change and see what happens after that? Any advice? How do you know that you are doing the test reading correctly?