Fishless Cycle First Week Results

[Miss Wiggle]

sounds good

 

[Jazee B]

my nitrite has had a bit of a blip, i tested it after 12 hours of putting in my 5ppm of ammonia in (last night) and it was at 0.3. Do you think I'm still ok to go tomorrow if it cycles in 12 hours overnight??

 

[waterdrop]

yes, still sounds good to me too - once you do your big water change and put a moderate stock of fish in, I'd be surprised if you have any problems, your biofilter should now have the capacity and probably will even drop back a bit because the fish will probably not put out nearly as much ammonia as you've been putting in.

After the fish are in you will just keep doing your same am and pm tests and if any ammonia or nitrite blips want to go above 0.25 then do a 30% water change or so and test again.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Jazee B]

thanks waterdrop, I'm really pleased you said go ahead I don't think I could of waited another week!! I'm going to do my big water change in a minute then I'll be off to pick my fishy friends. Thanks to everyone for all of your help getting me this far will post some pics later when my fella shows me how to do it! becky

 

[Miss Wiggle]

i agree with WD

 

[Jazee B]

I've been out and picked up my fish. I don't know whether I've done the right thing.

I had my mind made up (the list a few posts back) but when I got to the shop it all went to pot. I fell in love with the red honey gourami and they had no rummy nose tetras and I decided I didn't like the cardinals as much anymore!! SO I ended up with 6 prestilla Tetras and 3 red honey gouramis. Because I hadn't researched these ones I didn't want to buy anymore incase it was too many. I have another LFS just up the road so I can pop tomorrow and pick more up if necessary I don't want my ammonia bacs to die off it took them long enough to form! The advised me to wait a couple of months before buying my bristlenose because he said they need a mature tank.

I would appreciate everyones opinion I just hope I've not stuffed it up.

Becky

 

[Miss Wiggle]

ok dwarf gourami's are generally fairly weak fish, have a browse round pictures on the internet and try and work out exactly which species of dwarf gouramis you have, there's a few of them and shops tend to use whichever common name they fancy.

if they are 'true' honey gourami's then they are the hardiest of the lot so touch wood that's what you've got.

few tips on picking out fish.....

1 - a decent fish shop should carry a reference copy of a good fish book such as the beansch aquarium series, any decent shop will happily show you the book and let you look up the fish themselves which will obviously help you.

2 - if you haven't a shop with a good book then buy one yourself, take it with you!!

3 - a lot of people have internet phones, get yourself on google and look up whatever you fancy.



here's some info on dwarf gouramis http/www.fishforums.net/content/Gouramis...ami-Mini-F-A-Q/

 

[Jazee B]

I've just done a search on google images and there are definatley red honey gourami's. I got 1 male and 2 females they are whizzing round like mad!

What do you think about the amount of fish? Is it safe to get my BN? I thought I'd got it all sussed but I'm more confused now that before i started it all!

 

[Miss Wiggle]

what sort of size are the BN's that they have? very young ones can be weak but as sub adult or adults they should be fairly hardy.

tbh though, you've a decent amount of fish in there, i'd be tempted to just leave it a few months and finish off your stocking when the tank is mature.

 

[Jazee B]

Well, my little fishy friends seem to be quite happy. My gouramis are just constantly eating and my tetras have having fun playing in the bubbles from the venturer pipe! Bless them they are soooo funny. I really feel like that the process has been worth it.

When i was at wharf I picked up another coarse blue filter sponge on the recommendation of rabbut and replaced the carbon filter with it. When will it be safe to put in some plant food?

Becky

 

[rabbut]

Right away

 

[Jazee B]

Right away

Cheers Rabbut will pop some in now. I've just tested all my water levels and everything is at 0!! pH is steady at 7.5 so I'm really happy with it all. I think I'll test everything everyday just for this first week whilst I'm getting used to it all. After that do you I just test once a week or every other day? Cheers, Becky

 

[Miss Wiggle]

brilliant, glad it's all steady.

daily testing for maybe 2/3 weeks, if everythings fine then drop it down to once a week, then maybe 6 months in you can relax it and just test when you think there is a problem

 

[waterdrop]

Sounds like a fun tank

Do your Pristella tetras have a black spot behind the gill? Seems like some do and some don't.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Jazee B]

Sounds like a fun tank

Do your Pristella tetras have a black spot behind the gill? Seems like some do and some don't.

~~waterdrop~~

Hi Waterdrop, all of my tetras have a black spot behind the gill they are still loving the bubbles!

I've just done my daily tests Ph 7.5, ammonia and nitrite are 0, Nitrate is about 5mg/l is that all ok?