Algea/ammonia/water Change

[BrookeLea]

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Hey guys...it's me again, and I've got more problems I've been doing a fishless cycle on my tank for about a month now. Yesterday the nitrites finally dropped to zero, but the ammonia was at .5 to 1.0. I tested this morning and got the same readings, so I did a 75% water change. Now the readings are:

Ammonia: Barely traceable, less than .5
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 20
pH: 6.2

Now my problems are as follows:
How do I get the ammonia down? Do more large water changes?

I need my pH to be at least 7.5. I have some liquid pH increaser, should I use that? I've heard that it's not wise to use it because the tank will become dependant on it, but how else could I get the pH up?

There was a TON of algea in my tank. The water change helped a lot, but it's still a little green. Should I just go with more water changes to get rid of it? I have some liquid algea remover, but it's not safe to use with the live plants that I have in my tank.

I'd appreciate any help!

 

[SkiFletch]

hummm, I'm not sure why you have ammonia, it could be a faulty test kit honestly... If you've been cycling for a month and your nitrites dropped ammonia shouldnt be present in the tank, ESPECIALLY if you have live plants and algae. Can you have your LFS try testing it to verify your results?

As for your algae problem, what kind of lighting do you use, how long do you have them on, do you add CO2, do you add other fertilizers, and is the tank in direct view of sunlight? Also, what kind of plants do you have? Usually, in healthy tanks, plants will out-compete the algae for nutrients and you'll have very low nitrate readings and no algae... if your plants aren't doing very well, they may be lacking light, micronutrients, phosphate, potassium, or CO2 since you have nitrates in the water.

As for the pH, why do you need it to be 7.5? most community fish, especially amazonian species prefer slightly acidic water and can live just fine at 6.2. pretty much the only fish you would want higher pH's for would be african cichlids, which I'm assuming you're not planning on since you're keeping plants. above all though, do NOT use chemicals for raising pH. if you HAVE to you could buffer with some carbonate, but never use pH increaser or decreaser as you put the fish in great danger doing that. pH swings are BAD, stable pH even if it is a little bit out of the normal range the fish like is way better.

as for getting rid of the algae, you could always think about algae eating fish like ottos, or if your tank is big enough plecos

 

[BrookeLea]

Thanks for the reply!

I've used two different test kits to test the ammonia. Strips and a liquid kit. I really think there's still ammonia in there... I'm going to get my LFS to check my water tomorrow.

As far as the live plants... They've actually been out for about 5 days, and the algea has gotten worse since then. I moved them to my turtle tank and I have new plants coming in the mail today.

I AM planning on getting African Cichlids I did a bunch of research and came up with a list of plants that are less likely to be eaten by Mbuna, and I'm going to try to find a way to anchor them so that they won't get dug up (it probably won't work, though). The plants that I have coming in are Anubias heterphylla, Anubias barteri v angustifolia and some large java fern.

The algea problem started when I had to go out of town for about 2 weeks. I accidentally left the lights on in the tank with the live plants in it. They're just the regular flourescent lights that came with the hood. Generally, the tank lights are on from 8am-11pm, from the time I wake up to the time I go to bed.

I don't add CO2 or fertilizer, and the tank is not in direct view of sunlight. I made sure of it.

As far as algea eating fish, I was planning on putting a bristelnose in with the cichlids.

 

[rdd1952]

As SkiFletch said, you shouldn't have any ammonia after the nitrite drops. I would try adding enough ammonia to raise the level back to about 2 or 3 ppm and then test in 12 hours or so to see what you have. If the tank is cycled, both ammonia and nitrite should be back at 0.

 

[modernhamlet]

Don't overly worry about the algae either. The massive end of cycle water change should clear up the water pretty well.

On what schedule have you been adding ammonia to the tank during the cycle?

 

[SkiFletch]

On what schedule have you been adding ammonia to the tank during the cycle?

thats an excellent question. Yeah, the bristlenose will help with the algae and the plants will keep it at bay for the future so you should be OK. if you're going for a low-light no-CO2 setup (i'm doing this) you have the right species of plant, now all you need to do is get some seachem flourish so you can get the plants some micronutrients. those plants you have wont grow fast with your tank, but they wont perish either, slow and steady . what species of cichlid are you going to get, and how were you planning on anchoring the plants?

 

[BrookeLea]

Hey guys,

I was adding enough ammonia every day to get the reading up to 5.0 for a week, then I had to go out of town, for two weeks, so I dumped in a bunch of flake food. When I got back I only added enough ammonia to get the reading to 2.0-3.0. Then I got frustrated and decided not to add any ammonia and give the ammonia eaters a chance to catch up. Then after a few days I started adding enough to get the reading up to 2.0-3.0 every couple of days. The last time I added ammonia was two days ago when my nitrites dropped to zero. So...my schedule was a bit screwey, to say the least.

As far as the algea... It's not actually stuck to the walls of the tank or on anything in the tank. The water is just green. The huge water change made a difference, but it's still pretty green. I'm going to do another major water change tomorrow and see if it clears up some more.

My plants didn't arrive today. I was disappointed to find out that they won't be here until the end of the week. Seachem flourish, you say? I'll have to loook for some of that.

I'm getting Mbuna Cichlids. Yellow labs and electric blue johanni. After lots of advide and lots of research, that's what I came up with. I'm excited to get them soon, as I've been planning this for over a month now!

I'm not sure how I'm going to anchor the plants. I was thinking of trying to wedge them between some big rocks, but I won't know for sure until they're here and I can experiment. Do you have any suggestions?

 

[SkiFletch]

my only suggestion for anchoring plants might be to try tying them to things via cotton thread or fishing line... the planted or cichlid forum might be where you'll want to look.

As far as your ammonia goes, your bacterial colonies may be a little depleted cause of your erratic schedule. I'd add ammonia daily to raise the level in the tank to 5ppm after you've added ammonia. when the reading drops down to 0 before you add ammonia and your nitrites remain low you should be finished. probably will only take a few days to thicken up your colonies

 

[modernhamlet]

my only suggestion for anchoring plants might be to try tying them to things via cotton thread or fishing line... the planted or cichlid forum might be where you'll want to look.

As far as your ammonia goes, your bacterial colonies may be a little depleted cause of your erratic schedule. I'd add ammonia daily to raise the level in the tank to 5ppm after you've added ammonia. when the reading drops down to 0 before you add ammonia and your nitrites remain low you should be finished. probably will only take a few days to thicken up your colonies

Sounds about right. You really need to keep the colonies fed or they'll die off in a couple of days...

 

[BrookeLea]

Thanks again guys. I'm working on getting the ammonia up to 5ppm right now. I hope it'll be finished cycling by Friday. I really want my tank to be ready for new fish..

And guess what! I've got to go through this all over again in a few weeks with another tank! haha

 

[BrookeLea]

Ok... So it's been another week of adding ammonia to the tank every day, and still NO change. I've been adding enough to get it up to 5ppm. Nitrites are still at zero. II put the live plants in there on Friday. If the ammonia is dropping at all, it's not by very much. I've got no clue what's going on.

Did I maybe restart the cycle when I did the big water change?

What's going on here? It's really driving me mad.

 

[rdd1952]

It's hard to say what might be going on. I assume you are/did use dechlorinator. Are you using any other chemicals besides the ammonia? Did you clean/change the filter when you did your water change? If you currently have the ammonia at 5 ppm, I would leave it a few days without adding anything else. Give it time to see if it will drop back to zero in 24 hrs. It sounds as if your tank definitely has become completely uncycled again (no bacteria at all) and you will have to go through the whole process again.

 

[BrookeLea]

Ah great... That's what I was afraid of. How would it become completely uncycled, though? I didn't do anything but change 75% of the water. Didn't clean the filter or anything, just unplugged it. Did I lose the cycle because I took too much water out?

I did use dechlorinator and I'm not adding any other chemicals besides the ammonia.

This really sucks... I've got no clue what's happening here and it's been well over a month of dealing with this now...

 

[rdd1952]

If you didn't clean the filter, you wouldn't have started the cycle over since you didn't disturb the bacteria that was present. The water change itself should not have any effect on the cycling process since there aren't any bacteria present in the water itself. As someone else had suggested, it may have been the eratic schedule you were on. Maybe the fish food you added while you were gone didn't produce enough ammonia to keep the cycle going. Or possibly it produced too much and overwhelmed the tank killing everything off.

 

[BrookeLea]

Lovely... I guess this just means more waiting. The nitrite didn't drop until about 2 weeks after I added the fish food, though. Would it have taken that long for the fish food to have an affect?

Thanks for your help, by the way.