Cycling My Tank :0

[waterdrop]

Well you have a choice here coco. I remember saying the two of you were fishkeepers for many years but wanted to try out the fishless cycling thing to learn about it and understand it. One of the big advantages of fishless cycling (besides the main one of fully preparing the filter without hurting any fish!) is that you can plan and introduce a pretty large group of fish in your "initial stocking introduction." In fact, technically, you can fully stock the tank.. but in practice almost nobody does that because of various reasons like wanting delicate fish like neon tetras or panda corys or various other fish that like the tank to be aged more or because they can't find the fish they want. So most people put in a lot fewer than a full stocking, but then you have to go back to adding only 2 or 3 fish when you add them and then waiting a week or two before you add another 2 or 3 fish, depending on fish sizes.

Now, there's nothing wrong with just putting some guppies in (I'm assuming just a few) but then your bacterial colonies will die back down to meet the small number/small size and you'll make many smaller addtions of fish to get up to full stocking. OR, since its now second nature to add some ammonia more or less daily, you could just keep adding ammonia for another week or two or however long it takes you to decide on a little bigger shopping trip and larger initial stocking of the tank. Either way will work but making the effort to do a larger initial stocking preserves this extra bonus benefit from the work you've been doing.

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[Harlequins]

Well done coca*butter!!

 

[coco*butter]

Day 49
12 hour checked
Amonnia= 0pm
N02= 0.0 - {Nitrite}
N03= 20 {Nitrate}
PH= 76
GH=5
KH=15


Thank you yall! I think am going to wait and keep adding ammonia then, until am ready. Is it still 1" per gallon for a good stock? Now hubby want to add plant too. Since he not doing the work LOL. I need to get a new Compant Florecent square pin bulb since mines is way old and add the CO2 I have also. Here I go more reading on that now. I told him ya but no red plants this time.
Oh before I forget, when I do the 90% WC do I have to prepare the waer first then add to tank or could I just add water and add the stress Coat since there are no fish? Thank you

 

[coco*butter]

Day 50
12 hour checked
Amonnia= 0pm
N02= 0.0 - {Nitrite}
N03= 20 {Nitrate}
PH= 76
GH=5
KH=14

 

[waterdrop]

Day 49
12 hour checked
Amonnia= 0pm
N02= 0.0 - {Nitrite}
N03= 20 {Nitrate}
PH= 76
GH=5
KH=15


Thank you yall! I think am going to wait and keep adding ammonia then, until am ready. Is it still 1" per gallon for a good stock? Now hubby want to add plant too. Since he not doing the work LOL. I need to get a new Compant Florecent square pin bulb since mines is way old and add the CO2 I have also. Here I go more reading on that now. I told him ya but no red plants this time.
Oh before I forget, when I do the 90% WC do I have to prepare the waer first then add to tank or could I just add water and add the stress Coat since there are no fish? Thank you

The day of the big water change needs to planned. Its a big day but not too hard as long as you don't get excited and forget things. First of all remember that you don't really want your hard won bacteria to go for more than about 24 hours or 2 days at the most without ammonia for food! So the day of the big change you will need to acclimate and get the new fish in there to now begin providing ammonia to the bacteria and all this can't happen until after the big water change.

So depending on how far you have to drive to get the fish, you plan when to get them and you also shouldn't just assume the store will have what you want, this needs to be an already known thing so that you won't waste the effort of a 90% water change. Anyway you do the 90% water change with gravel cleaning are re-scaping if things got messed up and of course you scrub off algae right before the water change if needed. The fresh return water should have conditioner to remove any chlorine/chloramine and should be roughly temp matched so you won't need to wait for the heater to get it up to fish temp. Remember that now the temp must be set to your decided level for the stock of fish, not hot anymore like we did to grow the bacteria. And of course you do *not* put in ammonia and you do *not* put in baking soda if you were ever doing any of that. Its just pure conditioned and temp matched source water, and you get the filter running again of course and you run your tests again at some point while your fish bags are acclimating.

Be sure to record all the detail in your aquarium notebook as this will start the clock on many things: a weekend later you will want to do your first official gravel-clean-water-change (probably something like 30-50%) and a month later (assuming you have a decent big filter) you will want to do your first filter clean, squeezing/dunking media in tank water and performing maintenance on your impeller and seals. Each weekend and monthly you will be performing these operations. This will also start your fertilizer shedule assuming you figure that out along with your new lights and co2. The learning about this stuff is pinned in the planted tank section. Your notebook should also note all the fish and that they started that day, so you can see how long they live. Also if you get new fluorescent lights this will mark the beginning of the one year period which is about all they are good for before they need to be replaced to refresh the brightness. I'm sure you are experienced in acclimating fish. I recommend after they are acclimated that you use the method where you get an extra bowl and dump the fish and water -through- a fishnet so the water goes into the bowl and then you release just the fish into the aquarium so that the tank water from the store mostly doesn't get into the tank.

Good luck and I hope everything goes great for you once you've figured out what fish to get. You can discuss your stocking and compatibility here if you like. I'm not great with that part but there are good people here for many different species who will speak up usually.

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[coco*butter]

Hello Everyone, it been long since I posted but I had computer problems. Anyways I still havent stock my tank, so am still adding ammonia and bake soda if needed. Eveything is a ok.

 

[OldMan47]

Right before you stopped posting, it looked like you were getting some nice double zeros. Has that stabilized like that? If so, I would think you could go out and get some stock for your tank.

 

[waterdrop]

I'm interested too. Coco had a plan to go for quite a while in a holding pattern just adding ammonia and keeping parameters in line before the big water change, but I'm sure we'd all like to hear when it happens!

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[coco*butter]

Hello! Just wanted to keep you all posted on my tank. Today I finally stock it with15 Harlequin Rasbora and 15 X-ray tetra and 6 platies. My hubby want me to add 4 of our guppies but am not sure if they need salt and if this will affect the other fish. My hubby was layed off so I couldnt get what I really wanted and plau the LFS made me a deal since I bought large quantity. Everything went smoothly and fish are doing great! I wrote down everything as you recommended. One thing, do I have to start watching more carefuly the N03? Thank you and I will post pic soon.

 

[OldMan47]

With a large new stock you will need to monitor nitrates until you get a feel for how much your weekly water change needs to be to keep nitrates under control. Other than that, your testing should be a much less intense process than during the initial cycling of the tank.

 

[waterdrop]

Fantastic coco! Which do you like better, your harlequins or your pristellas? --wd--