Fresh (Re)Start On My Tropical Fish Experience

[ReMz]

The fact that you are already upping the ammonia seems interesting...... could be an interesting first hand test of this product working. If you in fact have nitrate, I would be astounded.

Keep us updated.

 

[rcampbel04]

Day 5 - 1/29/14.
 
Once again, there hasn't been too much of a change. Only real difference is that my pH dropped down from 8.1 to 7.6 Did my tests and here are the readings:
pH:7.6
Ammonia: 4 ppm ( Didn't add any ammonia today)
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 2-5 ppm. Once again i am not sure if the test is just being inaccurate or if there are actually nitrates present. It is hard to say, but the results are DEFINITELY not at 0. Not sure why, but i made sure to follow the test procedure exactly and even had a second set of eyes confirm the color for me. 
 
Side note: still don't have a top for the aquarium. Have to add water today because it is evaporating really quickly. I think it has dropped between 2.5 to 5 gallons in 5 days 

 gotta find a top!

 

[ReMz]

Day 5 - 1/29/14.
 
Once again, there hasn't been too much of a change. Only real difference is that my pH dropped down from 8.1 to 7.6 Did my tests and here are the readings:
pH:7.6
Ammonia: 4 ppm ( Didn't add any ammonia today)
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 2-5 ppm. Once again i am not sure if the test is just being inaccurate or if there are actually nitrates present. It is hard to say, but the results are DEFINITELY not at 0. Not sure why, but i made sure to follow the test procedure exactly and even had a second set of eyes confirm the color for me. 
 
Side note: still don't have a top for the aquarium. Have to add water today because it is evaporating really quickly. I think it has dropped between 2.5 to 5 gallons in 5 days 

 gotta find a top!

zero nitrite with no change in ammonia is showing you don't have a natural cycle going.
 
gotta wonder if the stuff you dosed has some odd bacteria and chems...

 

[rcampbel04]

Day 6 - 1/3-/14
 
Nothing. I think it is safe to say that the quick start stuff didn't work

. Not that my hopes were too high for it anyways. SO, that being said, i went out last night and bought some more artificial plants and also was able to locate an appropriate glass top for my tank. The evaporation rate before i got the top was crazy, about a gallon a day! Anyways, i've attached some more pictures so you guys have something to look at besides test results that haven't changed. One big thing i noticed, however, was that my pH level dropped from 7.6 yesterday to about 6.2 today. Maybe its because of the newly added plants and also adding some more water? I'm not sure but here are the results:
pH: 6.2
Ammonia: 4 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 0 ppm
 
Here are a few pics of the tank how it is today.

 

[ReMz]

So awesome you are doing this the right way. Giving you a chance to play around with the tank instead of being completely new and having fish in there on a thin line of dying or surviving. In hindsight you must be happy there
 
Now what would be really fun is some live plants

 
I like what you have going so far. The tank setup is half the fun of keeping fish.
 
I'm not surprised the API quick start didn't work. Was a bust for me as many other people as well. I'm curious how products like these can sell with false claims.... other than maybe helping to foster bacteria.
 
What are you using for dechlor?
 
Also... I'm wondering if your new substrate is releasing some things into the water messing with PH and readings. Did you thoroughly rinse the gravel before putting it in? either way, it is far from an established tank and I would expect some crazy swings in readings. That is certainly a big PH change though.
 
Plants (fake) shouldn't have touched PH at all.
 
BTW, crank down your heater with the lid on. If you haven't that tank is going to roast.

 

[rcampbel04]

So awesome you are doing this the right way. Giving you a chance to play around with the tank instead of being completely new and having fish in there on a thin line of dying or surviving. In hindsight you must be happy there

 
Now what would be really fun is some live plants

 
I like what you have going so far. The tank setup is half the fun of keeping fish.
 
I'm not surprised the API quick start didn't work. Was a bust for me as many other people as well. I'm curious how products like these can sell with false claims.... other than maybe helping to foster bacteria.
 
What are you using for dechlor?
 
Also... I'm wondering if your new substrate is releasing some things into the water messing with PH and readings. Did you thoroughly rinse the gravel before putting it in? either way, it is far from an established tank and I would expect some crazy swings in readings. That is certainly a big PH change though.
 
Plants (fake) shouldn't have touched PH at all.
 
BTW, crank down your heater with the lid on. If you haven't that tank is going to roast.

Thanks for the response! The dechlorinator im using is aquasafe plus by tetra. And i did make sure to rinse the gravel i put in, i think i did a pretty thorough job but i could have missed a bit. I also realized that since i put the lid on the temp went WAY up, probably almost 8 degrees so i turned it down to about 76-77. Hopefully that will help things! Thanks for the advice appreciate any help i can get

 

[rcampbel04]

Day 7 - 1/31/14
 
Nothing new to talk about. Really no updates except that i dropped the temp to about 79 degrees, so heres the parameters;
Temp: 79 degrees
pH: 8.1
Ammonia: 4 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 0 ppm
 
Hopefully nitrites show up sometime soon! i want fish already!!! 

 

[ReMz]

Cool. Wanted to make sure you weren't using a dechlor that would mess with the cycle.
 
How high did the temp get? That's why I cautioned. There is a chance the cycle got set back a bit if the temps got really high (say 90).
 
A thought.... do you think anyone at the LFS has a cycled filter they could take some media off of to get you cycling faster?
 
I've cycled 2 tanks in the last two weeks almost instantly by taking a knife and scraping the gunk off of my 75g HOB filter into the filter cartridges of my smaller tanks.
 
Going to be great when you see a blip in the nitrite reading!

 

[rcampbel04]

Day 9 - 2/2/14
 
 
Nothing has changed yet! hoping for some results soon. if not i might make a trip to the local LFS and try to get some media from them.
pH: 8.0
Ammonia: 4
Nitrite and nitrate: 0

 

[Ninjouzata]

Stay patient!
My ammonia didn't drop til day 19. Varies for everyone though I think.

 

[rcampbel04]

Day 13 - 2/6/14
 
Nitrites have arrived! Finally!!! 

 I haven't been updating lately just because ive been busy and also there hasnt been any change in the tank. BUT today that changed. Here are the readings:
pH: 7.9
temp: 79
Ammonia: 3-4ppm
Nitrite: 0.25 - 0.5ppm
Nitrate: 0 ppm
 
Hoping for nitrates soon! gonna keep an eye on the aquarium from now on to wait for the nitrates to appear and ammonia to drop. Now i gotta start really looking into what fish i want!

 

[ReMz]

Wooohoooooo!!!! awesome dude!

 

[rcampbel04]

Day 14 - 2/7/14
 
pH: 7.8
Ammonia: 3 ppm
Nitrite: 0.25 ppm
Nitrate: 0-5ppm

 

[rcampbel04]

3/10/14
 
Sorry i haven't updated in so long!! Anyways, ive had an interesting time with my tank. For a while, my nitrites and nitrates were very steady and very high. I believe maybe i had too much ammonia in there. I also left the lights on too long and my entire tank turned cloudy and algae was everywhere. This was maybe a week or two ago. Since then, i have done two 60-80 percent water changes to get my levels back down to acceptable ranges! Way too much nitrites and nitrates! I found that i had no nitrite or ammonia yesterday, so i added a bit. It was gone when i tested it today, so i believe my cycle is complete. Going to pick up a few plecos today!

 

[ericNH]

I really like the way you posted your readings and indicating the day.  Very demonstrative, and it conveys real-time, practical application of a fishless tank cycling.  Thanks for sharing!  Well done.