Cycling With Fish Food

[Colin_T]

you're becoming very technical there waterdrop

get yourself a hobby and stop reading scientific literature

 

[VanillaShake112]

YES! My ammonia is at 1 ppm!

My mom will get some shrimp the next time she is at the store. It will be about a week so I will have to use the fish food until then.

 

[waterdrop]

YES! My ammonia is at 1 ppm!

My mom will get some shrimp the next time she is at the store. It will be about a week so I will have to use the fish food until then.

That's great vanilla! You're on your way!

 

[waterdrop]

you're becoming very technical there waterdrop

get yourself a hobby and stop reading scientific literature

Serves me right, Colin!

That "too technical" post actually sat in the editing window on my computer, partially written, the whole time we were toweling up water from the broken fish tank, ha!

Needless to say I am back to the nitty-gritty of the hobby and no more scientific reading.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Colin_T]

LOL

 

[VanillaShake112]

I have been adding shrimp often and it has been in there for days. But the ammonia just will not go up, it is at 0ppm and stuck. And the Nitrite is at 5ppm and stuck. What should I do?

 

[FishWishDish]

If your ammonia is 0 and your nitrItes are at 5, that means there WAS ammonia and it's being processed. Check for nitrAtes today or in the next few days, as these should start to rise once the nitrIte-eating bacteria is established.

Ultimately you'll have to do a large water change once the fishless cycle's complete to get the nitrates down below 20 or possibly lower depending on how sensitive the fish who will live there are to them (read up on this -- a lot of books/online sources say 40 or more are acceptable for most fish but I lost a catfish and all I can surmise as to a possible envrionmental cause is that 40 was too high for him Basically keep them as low as you can. Buy a No-spill-clean-n-fill Python if you haven't already, it's a God-send.

Once you have amm 0 and nitrites 0, your nitrates will of course continue to rise between water changes. Keep the ammonia source in there until you put the fish in (then take it out) -- without it the whole cycle will collapse, as the bacteria need to keep eating at all times

Sounds like you're about halfway there!

 

[VanillaShake112]

Great! So them almost there then!

But is the ammonia supposed to be at 0ppm?

And when my fish are in there, how much nitrate should be in there to be at a safe range?

 

[waterdrop]

You're coming along great Vanilla

Don't worry too much about nitrates - you will get into a pattern with your weekly water changes. Nitrates might build up 20ppm above whatever your tap water is or some amount like that and then after the water change they will be back down. You just have to get into it to see what your numbers are.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[VanillaShake112]

Ammonia is at 0ppm

Nitrate is at 20ppm

Nitrite is at about 1 or 2 ppm


About how much longer will it take before I'm done? I REALLY want to get my fish! ...patience, LOL!

 

[waterdrop]

vanilla, patience is really, really hard when you are young

you are doing great! really great in my opinion

just think how 1.0 nitrites would make a fish choke and not get oxygen, that helps you remember you are doing the right thing!