am i doing this right?

[cutecotton]

hi everyone,

i've fianlly came aroudnt o setting up my 10G tank today it took me quite a few hours of scrubbing and cleaning dirty algae off it (been sitting in my basemetn for a quite a few years), and now i got water in it, an air pump and a filter with brand new filtering..stuff in it, also a heater setting the temp at 75.

Anyways, i got a big obttle of ammonia...and i have no clue waht to do next (btw i got gravel at the bottom of the tank). i also got a bottle of melafix just in case nething goes wrong (they do cure fin rot right?)

i checked out the prices for those ammonia/nitrite test kits andt he prices are so hgih i guess ic an't cycle my tank without test kits eh?

the water in the tank right now is straight from the tap, i havent' added any of the declorinator stuff in it, i plan to do that tomrorw after the filter got a chance to run a bit. (its sorta rusty)

anyways, i read the threat on cycling tanks, and i know i'ma upposet to add a bit of ammonia until i get a nitrite spike, and then i assume the nitrite is autmoatically converted to nitrate by some other bacteria?

I really need to get this right. Oh and btw, the ammonia i got just says "AMMONIA: CLEANS AND DEORDORIZES" it was 1.8L for $1.97CDN at walmart. Had no ingredients, but i assumed it was pure ammonia as it was so simple that it probably couldn't have been anything else.

I heard somehwere that pure ammonia will fizz? or something? can't quite remember sorry.

In any case, should i wait until tomrorw, add the declorindator stuff in, and the day after tomrorw (saturday), go buy live plants and plant them in the tank, get the testing kit on teh same day, and saturdya night begin adding my bits of ammonia?

Thanks guys btw, i plan to put 2male bettas in there (seprated by a divider of course).

p.s. the lady gave me a weird look when she saw me buy all those fish stuff and then a huge bottle of ammonia...

 

[Sky042]

if test kits are expensive wait for the rest of the stuff

yeah buy the test kit before you start adding any ammonia. Is the bottle of ammonia wal-mart.great value brand? once you get the ammonia and a source of bacteria just follow the instructions. bring the ammonia up to about 5ppm and go from there based on the article. I just finished a fishless cycle and it does work very well.

 

[cutecotton]

i'm jsut really terrifed that i'm gonan put too much ammonia and it's gonna shoot off the scale, causing way too much nitrite and everything

the walmart ammonia is from a "Goldex" brand...no clue what that means...this, btw was the only bottle of ammonia that my walmart carried. Anyways here's hwat it syas:

Goldex Household Ammonia: cleans and Deodorizes.
For all purpose household cleaning, alundry, wax stripping and stain removal. Then just instructions on how to use it..ntohinga bout ingredients though.

Yes, i'm gonan go pick up the test kit *sigh* i'm only 16 with a litlte part time job that pasy $7.67/hr CDN this is costing me a lot of money i just hope my bettas are hpapy afterwards lol
btw i just opened up the bottle, it's clear liquid?

 

[Sky042]

sounds like you got the right sort of ammonia.

your best bet is to use a measuring spoons and add maybe 1/4tsp of ammonia to the tank then wait a min then test the water to see what level that gave you. add it in VERY small amounts and then record how much it took to get from 0-5-8 depending on how high your test kit goes

 

[cutecotton]

cool (Y) sounds good, so here's the schedule:

tomororw (saturday) - add dechlorinator to remove chlorine and cloramine
saturday night - add prpoper amount of ammonia

...wait for nitrite spike, when i hit the nitriek spike i stop adding ammonia right? i keep adding the same around of ammonia daily until get hte nitrite spike?

is there anything i have to do to get bactiera to convert nitrite to nitrate or does it hapepn automatically?

also, can i put the plants in on saturday before i add in the ammonia? I assume that they're safe (i'm not buying delicate plants)

Another question wtih live plants, do the roots go intot eh gravel? i'm looking for some floating plants for my betta and maybe one or two planted ones too.

 

[Sky042]

cool (Y) sounds good, so here's the schedule:

tomororw (saturday) - add dechlorinator to remove chlorine and cloramine
saturday night - add prpoper amount of ammonia

...wait for nitrite spike, when i hit the nitriek spike i stop adding ammonia right? i keep adding the same around of ammonia daily until get hte nitrite spike?

is there anything i have to do to get bactiera to convert nitrite to nitrate or does it hapepn automatically?

also, can i put the plants in on saturday before i add in the ammonia? I assume that they're safe (i'm not buying delicate plants)

Another question wtih live plants, do the roots go intot eh gravel? i'm looking for some floating plants for my betta and maybe one or two planted ones too.

once you get a nitrite spike you still need to add ammonia daily you just start adding HALF the original dose.