Ammonia Again?

[waterdrop]

You don't have to get a whole filter to accomplish your goal. A good rule is to only take a max of 1/3 of the biomedia (sponge, ceramic rings, ceramic pebbles) out of his filter. That way the other 2/3 will stay in and will be just as good as usual for his tank. The 1/3 that you get, which you keep wet during transport of course, should be a large jump-ahead for your cycling process.

If you visit the other tank for this process, you can both see the type of media and work with him to accomplish the above (scissors work well on sponge) and you can also be checking for whitespot etc. which would mean to politely decline or just not put what you get into your tank. It is customary to buy/take new replacement media for him.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[D3m]

It is just a sponge I think, I dont think he read into cycling and fish keeping too much before getting into keeping fish so chances are he has'nt got stars and rings in his filter. So I will go round have a look and take him my spare sponge, if I decide to take his. Everyones a winner

I Hope!!!

 

[waterdrop]

Sounds good. The biggest win for him would probably be if you got him interested enough to join in here and have a place to get ongoing info. Info and skill development are so valuable.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[D3m]

I had to do another water change today as my ph drop to between 5.5 - 6 but the strange thing is there was no ammonia in my tank, so should I assume that up until I noticed the ph drop the bacteria had'nt stalled or it has stalled but only the nitrite bacteria that im trying to build up?

also the filter media I borrowed off him had been in his tank for a few years and his tank seemed really overstocked to me, could that reduce the chances of it helping my cycle along?

Ive also taken everything out of my tank tonight except the bogwood, that might help the ph stay up a bit more.

 

[waterdrop]

Hi D3M, how are things out on the island?

I nice old messy filter like the one of your friend's that you describe sounds perfect! It should have lots of bacteria and give you a good chance.

D3M, it might be time for you to mirror your aquarium logbook with us here on your thread, if you care to do this. You can take a look at the last couple of pages in the beginner threads of Lana or Tuppers to get a feel for the type of entry formats I'm talking about. Then the members could be following along and maybe we'd see something.

So let's see where we think you are in the fishless cycling process: When is your general time within the 24 hours that you make the ammonia add, morning, evening?
When you add, are you pretty confident its bringing your ammonia level up to 4-5ppm, or what ppm is your goal for an add?

And after you've added the ammonia, is ammonia dropping to zero is less than 24 hours? Less than 12 hours?

Have nitrites(NO2) ever tested at the highest test level (say, 5.0ppm +, for instance) for more than a day? If so, how many days?

What is your pH pattern? Your tap water goes in at what pH? It then holds a while and one day you discover you've crashed below pH=6.2?

Sorry for all the questions, we'll eventually get it all sorted out,

~~waterdrop~~

 

[D3m]

Hi Waterdrop I will answer all questions to the best of my ability!

Here goes:

I do all my tests at 7pm every night and as the measurer I use isnt that accurate I try and go for between 3 - 4 ppm of ammonia and im pretty confident that it is bringing it up to round about that level.

The ammonia is again dropping in 12 hours or less.

The Nitrites have been at the highest level since the ammonia has been converting to it and never budged since, for how many days? I would say 5 - 6 weeks.

My tap water ph is 7 and this morning it had dropped down to 5 again, now I havent tested my ph levels that regularly and only did last time when there was Ammonia in the tank after 24 hours but im pretty sure the drop is a new occurence. So now it is holding the ph for approx 4 days before it drops too low for the cycle to continue.

Hope those answers are of use to you Waterdrop, I never actually did a log but have got a pretty good memory of whats happened so far and when there has been a problem ive always posted on here, which will keep my dates in check.

ps The Island is great thanks m8, getting colder and wetter but apart from that I love it here

 

[waterdrop]

And am I remembering that it was going to be difficult for you to get some liquid-based tests so that you would have greater accuracy to know what's really going on? Can't remember the status of that.

You're going to need to start doing pH as a regular part of your tests. In fact, we're going to have to consider whether you could obtain a "KH" test kit for carbonate hardness. I suspect that your KH will prove to be so low that its inevitable that pH will crash repeatedly if it hasn't been already, slowing your cycling process, particularly the N-Bac growth.

I would like some other members to chime in with some more opinions, but I think you sound like a case where KH measuring and baking soda dosing will make a big difference as well as maybe a little plant fertilizer just to get some iron in there for the N-Bac growth.

It would be nice if we could quickly fly you in a little KH test kit on our TFF Lear Jet, would that be ok, is your landing strip long enough there on the island?

~~waterdrop~~

 

[D3m]

I can tell you for a fact that the water over here is so soft you dont have to put softner in when your washing your clothes, im assuming thats what the kh is? that should'nt be a major problem though as there are quiet a few people over here with aquariums. But I will have a look on ebay for a kh test kit.

At the moment I am using a Nurtafin test kit, which unless im mistaken is a liquid based kit (you fill a test tube up and then add the necessary drops to it and watch the water change colour?) Im thinking of getting API test kit though as everyone on here seems to recommend that one in particular.

Also the runway is no where near long enough for a leer jet, have you got something a bit smaller or maybe a helicopter?

Just bought a API kh/gh tester and should have it in a couple of days hopefully!

 

[waterdrop]

No, your Nutrafin kit should be fine, many members use that kit successfully. Great that you've ordered the GH/KH kit and that its a liquid one. GH (general hardness) is interesting but not something we act on. KH (Carbonate Hardness aka Temporary Hardness (so called from long ago to distinguish those things that could be boiled out)) is the one we act on. During a fishless cycle with KH below 4 or so we can add baking soda to the tank and raise the carbonate hardness, thus buffering the water against pH changes and also raising the pH a bit. The beneficial bacteria grow the fastest when pH is up between 8.0 and 8.4, and the baking soda can't really raise it above that.

Baking soda is not something we want to use after its time to get fish. Its just something to optimize our bacterial soup and then it can go out with the big water change and not be put back in when we get fish. Depending on what we want for the fish, we can switch to crushed coral if we feel that KH and pH still would be better raised long term in the tank, but its a decision we like to study and avoid if possible.

Glad you had a good time in Orlando, sounds like some nice tanks you saw. I'm hoping to see the new Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta later this month.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[D3m]

Test 14 hours on this morning:

Ammonia 0.5ppm
Ph 7
Nitrite 5+ppm
Nitrate 110ppm

Im gonna go shopping for some Baking Soday this afternoon.

 

[waterdrop]

make sure Baking Soda, not baking powder

 

[D3m]

Roger That!

 

[D3m]

Tested again tonight

Ammonia 0
Ph 7
Nitrites High

My missus told me we have Bicarbonate of Soda in the house, how much do I want to be putting in the tank to bring the Ph up to 8ish?

 

[waterdrop]

Well I just tried to review all your posts and for the life I me I can't find many stats, can't even find the tank volume (well, forgot to look in your profile, maybe its there?)

From the pictures the tank looks pretty big, but its always hard to tell really.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[D3m]

Sorry m8, I may not of added the volume at anytime. Its a Rena Bow fronted 180L tank.