Aquaone 980

[waterdrop]

I would wait a few days to see if the spike is holding, maybe 3 days.

 

[pjandnoo]

Day 0
Added 5ml ammonia
Day 1
4ppm Ammonia
Day 2
4ppm Ammonia
Day 3
2ppm Ammonia
Day 4
1ppm Ammonia
Day 5
0.25 Ammonia - 0.25 Nitrite
Day 6
0.00 Ammonia - 0.50 Nitrite - added another 5ml ammonia
Day 7
4ppm Ammonia - 0.50 Nitrite
Day 8
0.25 Ammonia - 1ppm Nitrite
Day 9
0.00 Ammonia - 0.25 Nitrite - 5ppm Nitrate - added another 5ml ammonia
Day 10
2ppm Ammonia - 1.00 Nitrite - 10ppm Nitrate PH of the water is 7.6
Day 11
0ppm Ammonia - 1.00 Nitrite - 10ppm Nitrate - added Ammonia
Day 12
0.25 Ammonia - Drops went purple when they hit the bottom!! Spike?? Nitrate 40ppm.
Day 13
0.00 Ammonia - 5+ppm Nitrite and Nitrate 20ppm.

 

[pjandnoo]

Day 0
Added 5ml ammonia
Day 1
4ppm Ammonia
Day 2
4ppm Ammonia
Day 3
2ppm Ammonia
Day 4
1ppm Ammonia
Day 5
0.25 Ammonia - 0.25 Nitrite
Day 6
0.00 Ammonia - 0.50 Nitrite - added another 5ml ammonia
Day 7
4ppm Ammonia - 0.50 Nitrite
Day 8
0.25 Ammonia - 1ppm Nitrite
Day 9
0.00 Ammonia - 0.25 Nitrite - 5ppm Nitrate - added another 5ml ammonia
Day 10
2ppm Ammonia - 1.00 Nitrite - 10ppm Nitrate PH of the water is 7.6
Day 11
0ppm Ammonia - 1.00 Nitrite - 10ppm Nitrate - added Ammonia
Day 12
0.25 Ammonia - Drops went purple when they hit the bottom!! Spike?? Nitrate 40ppm.
Day 13
0.00 Ammonia - 5+ppm Nitrite and Nitrate 20ppm.
Day 14
0.00 Ammonia - 0.00 Nitrite (lightblue API test) and Nitrate 20ppm, so I added about 3ml of ammonia. I thought this was odd and retested later in the evening and not sure what had happened but the Nitrite had gone purple again.
Day 15
0.00 Ammonia - 5+ppm Nitrite and 20ppm Nitrate.

 

[OldMan47]

Now you are in the hardest part Pjandnoo, you can no longer see anything changing in the chemistry. It can easily stay that way for well over a week so patience becomes a necessity.

 

[pjandnoo]

Thanks, will stop playing with the water and test kit.

 

[pjandnoo]

Day 0
Added 5ml ammonia
Day 1
4ppm Ammonia
Day 2
4ppm Ammonia
Day 3
2ppm Ammonia
Day 4
1ppm Ammonia
Day 5
0.25 Ammonia - 0.25 Nitrite
Day 6
0.00 Ammonia - 0.50 Nitrite - added another 5ml ammonia
Day 7
4ppm Ammonia - 0.50 Nitrite
Day 8
0.25 Ammonia - 1ppm Nitrite
Day 9
0.00 Ammonia - 0.25 Nitrite - 5ppm Nitrate - added another 5ml ammonia
Day 10
2ppm Ammonia - 1.00 Nitrite - 10ppm Nitrate PH of the water is 7.6
Day 11
0ppm Ammonia - 1.00 Nitrite - 10ppm Nitrate - added Ammonia
Day 12
0.25 Ammonia - Drops went purple when they hit the bottom!! Spike?? Nitrate 40ppm.
Day 13
0.00 Ammonia - 5+ppm Nitrite and Nitrate 20ppm.
Day 14
0.00 Ammonia - 0.00 Nitrite (lightblue API test) and Nitrate 20ppm, so I added about 3ml of ammonia. I thought this was odd and retested later in the evening and not sure what had happened but the Nitrite had gone purple again.
Day 15
0.00 Ammonia - 5+ppm Nitrite and 20ppm Nitrate.
Day 16
0.00 Ammonia - 5+ppm Nitrite added ammonia
Day 17
0.00 Ammonia - 5+ppm Nitrite added ammonia

 

[OldMan47]

Have you tried checking the ammonia at 12 hours yet? My bet is that you are getting to zero that quickly by now. It won't change what you are doing in terms of dosing, but it is just interesting to know the ammonia processing bacteria have been making more progress while you wait for the nitrite bacteria to catch up.

 

[pjandnoo]

Have you tried checking the ammonia at 12 hours yet? My bet is that you are getting to zero that quickly by now. It won't change what you are doing in terms of dosing, but it is just interesting to know the ammonia processing bacteria have been making more progress while you wait for the nitrite bacteria to catch up.

I will start doing that as of today, at least we'll know that things in Ammonia world are coming along nicely!

Thanks OM

 

[waterdrop]

The nitrite spike has held for 3 days so it would be fine now to ease back to 3ppm as the dosing amount (rather than 5ppm) so that you'll be adding less overall nitrogen. This lower dosing is only for the nitrite spike phase and shortly thereafter. After the nitrite spike is over, there will be a third phase where you are waiting for nitrite(NO2) to be cleared in 12 hours or less (instead of the near 24 hours that it will take right after the nitrite spike is over.) During that 3rd phase of fishless cycling you'll want to ease the dosing back up to 5ppm and make sure its definately that high at the end of fishless cycling and during the qualifying week at the very end. The 5ppm concentration ensures that your colonies are large enough and robust enough that you could even fully stock the tank at once and the the colonies would still be "above" that capacity and would drop back to match whatever bioload you introduced. Does that make sense?

~~waterdrop~~

 

[pjandnoo]

Day 0
Added 5ml ammonia
Day 1
4ppm Ammonia
Day 2
4ppm Ammonia
Day 3
2ppm Ammonia
Day 4
1ppm Ammonia
Day 5
0.25 Ammonia - 0.25 Nitrite
Day 6
0.00 Ammonia - 0.50 Nitrite - added another 5ml ammonia
Day 7
4ppm Ammonia - 0.50 Nitrite
Day 8
0.25 Ammonia - 1ppm Nitrite
Day 9
0.00 Ammonia - 0.25 Nitrite - 5ppm Nitrate - added another 5ml ammonia
Day 10
2ppm Ammonia - 1.00 Nitrite - 10ppm Nitrate PH of the water is 7.6
Day 11
0ppm Ammonia - 1.00 Nitrite - 10ppm Nitrate - added Ammonia
Day 12
0.25 Ammonia - Drops went purple when they hit the bottom!! Spike?? Nitrate 40ppm.
Day 13
0.00 Ammonia - 5+ppm Nitrite and Nitrate 20ppm.
Day 14
0.00 Ammonia - 0.00 Nitrite (lightblue API test) and Nitrate 20ppm, so I added about 3ml of ammonia. I thought this was odd and retested later in the evening and not sure what had happened but the Nitrite had gone purple again.
Day 15
0.00 Ammonia - 5+ppm Nitrite and 20ppm Nitrate.
Day 16
0.00 Ammonia - 5+ppm Nitrite added ammonia
Day 17
0.00 Ammonia - 5+ppm Nitrite added ammonia
Day 18
0.00 Ammonia - 5+ppm Nitrite added ammonia
Day 18 1/2 (12hrs later)
Tested again and the ammonia was gone and nitrite still 5+

 

[pjandnoo]

The nitrite spike has held for 3 days so it would be fine now to ease back to 3ppm as the dosing amount (rather than 5ppm) so that you'll be adding less overall nitrogen. This lower dosing is only for the nitrite spike phase and shortly thereafter. After the nitrite spike is over, there will be a third phase where you are waiting for nitrite(NO2) to be cleared in 12 hours or less (instead of the near 24 hours that it will take right after the nitrite spike is over.) During that 3rd phase of fishless cycling you'll want to ease the dosing back up to 5ppm and make sure its definately that high at the end of fishless cycling and during the qualifying week at the very end. The 5ppm concentration ensures that your colonies are large enough and robust enough that you could even fully stock the tank at once and the the colonies would still be "above" that capacity and would drop back to match whatever bioload you introduced. Does that make sense?

~~waterdrop~~

Hi WD,

Yes that makes sense, I have started testing at the 12hr mark as OM47 has mentioned and the tank is munching through ammonia in that time now so I will reduce the ammonia I put in till the spike subsides.
Would be nice to stock the tank from day 1 if this is the case, deciding on what fish is going to be a problem, we have a few ideas so far and we are lucky to have 4 lfs in our local area so the choice is pretty good. Im definately going to have a few peppered corys and I think we have decided on some minnows and penguin tetras, so still got some room for a few others and still plenty of time to decide on the rest. I did go through a phase of wanting a pleco but after seeing the size these guys can grow to has kind of put us off till we are more experienced in fish keeping

Thanks WD

 

[razer121]

you know there is small plecos however there very messy! im pretty intrested in seeing you tank fully stocked

 

[pjandnoo]

After I posted that, I did have a look at the pleco section on these forums and I quite like the look of clown plecos and if I read correctly they only grow to 5 inches?? Is that inc the tail? Any other recommendations?? Also just wondered do corys and plecos live together ok? Once the tank is stocked up I will post some pics

 

[KittyKat]

Ancistrus triradiatus (or most other Ancistrus for that matter) and Panaque albomaculatus have both thrived in my 980s.

 

[pjandnoo]

Day 0
Added 5ml ammonia
Day 1
4ppm Ammonia
Day 2
4ppm Ammonia
Day 3
2ppm Ammonia
Day 4
1ppm Ammonia
Day 5
0.25 Ammonia - 0.25 Nitrite
Day 6
0.00 Ammonia - 0.50 Nitrite - added another 5ml ammonia
Day 7
4ppm Ammonia - 0.50 Nitrite
Day 8
0.25 Ammonia - 1ppm Nitrite
Day 9
0.00 Ammonia - 0.25 Nitrite - 5ppm Nitrate - added another 5ml ammonia
Day 10
2ppm Ammonia - 1.00 Nitrite - 10ppm Nitrate PH of the water is 7.6
Day 11
0ppm Ammonia - 1.00 Nitrite - 10ppm Nitrate - added Ammonia
Day 12
0.25 Ammonia - Drops went purple when they hit the bottom!! Spike?? Nitrate 40ppm.
Day 13
0.00 Ammonia - 5+ppm Nitrite and Nitrate 20ppm.
Day 14
0.00 Ammonia - 0.00 Nitrite (lightblue API test) and Nitrate 20ppm, so I added about 3ml of ammonia. I thought this was odd and retested later in the evening and not sure what had happened but the Nitrite had gone purple again.
Day 15
0.00 Ammonia - 5+ppm Nitrite and 20ppm Nitrate.
Day 16
0.00 Ammonia - 5+ppm Nitrite added ammonia
Day 17
0.00 Ammonia - 5+ppm Nitrite added ammonia
Day 18
0.00 Ammonia - 5+ppm Nitrite added ammonia
Day 19 (12hrs later)
Tested again and the ammonia was gone and nitrite still 5+
Day 19 1/2
Same reading as above added about 3ml ammonia. PH still 7.6ish
Day 20
Still the same readings.