Hi All (Newbie)

[john28uk]

Hi all

im new to fishkeeping so will need as much advice as possible, took delivery of a juwel rio 240 2 weeks ago. Was going to do a fishless cycle, but lfs advised me to cycle with neon tetras, wish i had gone with my original plan after reading more info on cycling. Anyway im 8 days in and all fish are still fine,(15 neons) i am testing daily using API master kit and have done 15% water change today. stats as follows, ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 0, ph 7.2, temp 26celcius. Should i not be getting ammonia readings yet? is my test kit faulty? Confused.

 

[chrisbassist]

sounds like the tests could be faulty!

either that or you're not using the liquids properly... (but i'm sure ou'll have done it right, it's not hard)

thing is, a lot of people have nitrate in their water already, so to get a 0 reading is pretty odd. 8 days in and no ammonia? that also sounds pretty odd.

having said that, it is a fairly large tank, so I guess it's possible that you're getting no readings... would just be pretty rare.

maybe you could take a water sample to your LFS to see what readings they get, might be different, and if it's way off what you're gett then that'd be a hint at something wrong with your tests

 

[john28uk]

Thanks Chris

Ill try adding some ammonia (jeyes Kleen off) to a 10 litre bucket of tap water and do test again tomorrow, see if i get any results then.

 

[chrisbassist]

you never know, you might be one of the lucky ones, who doesn't get any visible ammonia or nitrite readings in the cycle, but I'd stay safe.

 

[john28uk]

if i was one of the lucky ones wouldnt i be still getting nitrite or nitrate readings? I do have 5 plants in the tank aswell, could these be removing the ammonia/nitrite and nitrate?

 

[chrisbassist]

yes, plants could be feeding on stuff, could be helping you

 

[john28uk]

just tested using 4 drops of jeyes Kleen off in 10 litres of water and got a reading of above 4ppm, so test kit is working. how will i know if my tank is cycling, do i just follow the info given on cycling and wait for nitrates to show.

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome to the forum John.
The 15 neons in a tank that size is a very small biological load if you don't overfeed them. Healthy growing plants will also remove nitrogen. Where that leaves you is that you may be going through a "silent cycle" where you never do see any traces of nitrogen in your water. Where does that leave you? Until you have significant time on the tank, I would not try to increase your stock levels. After about 2 months, if things have stayed undetectable, you could chance increasing toward your ultimate fish goal while testing daily, just in case you are not cycled by then. The biggest trouble with a silent cycle is that you really never know where you are in terms of bacteria.

 

[john28uk]

Thanks Oldman47

as all people i want to stock my tank to the levels i have planned, i dont mind waiting at all, but if i am having a silent cycle (something i havent come across in my research) as you say i will not have a clue about my bacteria levels and could be at risk adding fish even in 2 months time. Other than that should i continue as i have been doing, with daily test and a weekly 15% water change

 

[OldMan47]

You need to continue to test but your own testing has already shown that you will not have rapid chemistry excursions. You could easily go to every other day with not much danger. The practical thing to do would be to continue bringing along your filter as you have been and then go ahead and begin slowly, over many weeks, bringing the stocking levels up. The first addition at about 2 months would be something that you expect to have the biological load of maybe 4 or 5 neons. Monitor for a week to make sure nothing untoward is happening and then you could add a similar load the next week. If you take a cautious approach like that, nothing should get far out of hand before you catch it.

 

[chrisbassist]

yeah, if your test is working then the plants are clearing your tank for you. if you want to read up on the silent cycle head on over to the planted section. put simply, plants will feed on nitrogen in most forms (but prefer certain forms more than others) so if you have a planted tank, the plants will take the ammonia before it becomes an issue. it applies mainly to heavily planted tanks, but with a light bioload like yours, a few plants could do the job. the problem with it as far as I can see, is that having the plants do the work will really slow down the bacteria forming due to a lack of food.

I'd take the advice of OldMan47, experience like that can't be bettered by the likes of me

 

[john28uk]

thanks again
tested again today, ammonia and nitrite still 0 though nitrates appear to be between 0 and 5 ppm.

 

[chrisbassist]

nice,

so the nitrates are slowly going up then?

which means things are being processed by filter. at least some is anyway. take things nice and slow and theres no reason you should get any nasty spikes. you do have to take it slow though.

 

[john28uk]

Test results same again today, but 15 have become 14 without any trace.

 

[chrisbassist]

i think that sometimes with my neons, but a few hours later, i recount and they're all there. so don't panic yet.

if it doesn't turn up soon, get a better look for a body while doing a water change/gravel vac. since a decaying fish will make the whole situation worse.