My first tropical freshwater tank! :)

[Neon1977]

Ammo and Nitrite was 0 after the W/C so can only see what it is in the morning after nothing else going in the tank and not feeding them!

 

[Neon1977]

Daily journal entry and it's a happy one!!

Today will be the first day in 8 days that i won't be doing a 50-75% water change!! Thanks to all of you on here that have advised me and been there to answer my 100's of questions! Especially you @Naughts as you were the first ever one to pipe up and tell me how to properly cycle a tank!!

I did my daily water parameter check this morning and these were the results:

Ammo: 0
Nitrite: 0 so tested for nitrates and they were:
Nitrate: between 0-2.5

I am really hoping i am now nearing the end! (going into the 5th week of cycling) But mainly as i said, i'm happy i can have a day off from doing the big water change! lol i will be feeding them tonight before bed so i will then see what the parameters are in the morning after doing so! meanwhile i ordered a cheap small internal filter to pop in the tank alongside my other i already have to not just create more oxygen for the fish and plants but to pop into the plastic tank i have just ordered for quarantine purposes for when i purchase my shrimp hopefully in a couple of weeks if my tank stays stable enough for me not to have to do a water change more than once a week! the tank will come in handy as well if i ever have a sick fish and have to quarantine him/her. Frogbit seems to be doing well and i'll be planting my other plants within the next couple of days! keeping everything crossed for a good reading in the morning after feeding tonight! Wish me luck peeps!

 

[Neon1977]

Daily update!
Hey everyone hope you are all well! don’t know wether to be ok with this mornings results or concerned or whatever! Or maybe I was hoping too much for a 0 Ammo reading!! But happy I at least got a 0 Nitrite reading!! Anyway, I fed the fish last night before bed and these were my water parameters this morning...

Ammo: between 0-0.2 (was 0 yesterday)
Nitrite: 0 (same as yesterday)
Nitrate 5.0 (higher than yesterday)

I’m now on the 30th day of my tank being up and running but I do have to admit that I only started properly cycling 10 days ago! I was hoping for another day off from the water changes today but no luck here!! I won’t feed them again tonight and I’m going to do a 50% water change inamin and il see what the Ammo reads in the morning! I’m starting to think my filter isn’t up to scratch maybe or maybe again I’m being impatient!? Any advice/reassurance would be appreciated!

 

[Essjay]

It's probably somewhere in the thread (which is now 8 pages long and to save me going back through them all!) - what is the filter?

 

[Neon1977]

It's probably somewhere in the thread (which is now 8 pages long and to save me going back through them all!) - what is the filter?

Do apologise for my long journal @essjay haha not sure if iv mentioned it on this thread anyway to be honest but it’s the Ciano cf40 internal filter that came with the tank.

 

[Essjay]

Ah yes, I remember now. It's the one with the sponge at the bottom and the 'brick' shaped cartridges above the sponge. if I remember you just had the sponge and the carbon cartridge despite the instructions implying it also came with a bio cartridge.
Did you add more sponge? As long as there are plenty of places in the tank for the bacteria to live (which means filter media and the substrate etc) the filters should be OK.

I should warn you that when I did a fishless cycle, it took 7 weeks to complete........

 

[Neon1977]

Ah yes, I remember now. It's the one with the sponge at the bottom and the 'brick' shaped cartridges above the sponge. if I remember you just had the sponge and the carbon cartridge despite the instructions implying it also came with a bio cartridge.
Did you add more sponge? As long as there are plenty of places in the tank for the bacteria to live (which means filter media and the substrate etc) the filters should be OK.

I should warn you that when I did a fishless cycle, it took 7 weeks to complete........

I did yes I replaced the carbon cartridge with just normal filter sponge and if anything it improved the filter! Oh god 7 weeks lol maybe I should just shut up and get on with it then still! Haha

 

[Retired Viking]

It is good to enjoy and be excited about your fish and tank. I just picked up a sponge filter for my 30 gallon I am working on. It is a different design. Now all I need is a stand and I am ready to start cycling my "new" tank.

 

[Colin_T]

... Now all I need is a stand and I am ready to start cycling my "new" tank.

Why don't you put the new sponge on an established sponge so it starts cycling now?
That way it will be partly or even completely cycled when you get the stand.

 

[Neon1977]

It is good to enjoy and be excited about your fish and tank. I just picked up a sponge filter for my 30 gallon I am working on. It is a different design. Now all I need is a stand and I am ready to start cycling my "new" tank.

That’s fab! Happy cycling lol I think iv used the word cycling more times than I care for this past week!! Lol

 

[PheonixKingZ]

Your tank is definitely looking better. Keep up the good work!

 

[Retired Viking]

I do what is called a planted/silent cycle where I first add the plants and after two weeks or so I start adding the fish. I add one shoal of fish at a time and wait a week or two before adding the next shoal of fish. The plants take care of the ammonia so I do not have to worry about nitrates and nitrites. I just watch for any sign of ammonia and if there is I wait on adding more fish and add more plants I have done this on two tanks without seeing any ammonia reading above 0. It is a balance, the plants absorb the ammonia and add oxygen and improve the quality of the water while the fish waste feed the plants.

 

[Neon1977]

Your tank is definitely looking better. Keep up the good work!

Thanks a lot!

 

[Neon1977]

I do what is called a planted/silent cycle where I first add the plants and after two weeks or so I start adding the fish. I add one shoal of fish at a time and wait a week or two before adding the next shoal of fish. The plants take care of the ammonia so I do not have to worry about nitrates and nitrites. I just watch for any sign of ammonia and if there is I wait on adding more fish and add more plants I have done this on two tanks without seeing any ammonia reading above 0. It is a balance, the plants absorb the ammonia and add oxygen and improve the quality of the water while the fish waste feed the plants.

Thanks for that! I’m waiting for my LED light now to come before adding more plants in! Hopefully will see it improve even more so then

 

[Neon1977]

Daily journal update!

Did my usual water parameter check and the Ammo results hadn’t gone down as much as expected actually considering I didn’t feed the fish yesterday! But hey ho keep plodding!

The results were:

Ammo: between 0-0.2 (same as yesterday but colour was slightly lighter but still not 0)
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 2.5 (lighter than yesterday )

On the back of these results I did just over a 50% water change and didn’t feed my fish again so hoping for a 0 Ammo reading in the morning!! My iron water test kit came today as well so I was able to test my water for iron so I know when to add more of my liquid fertiliser in my tank! the test came out at 0 before my water change so I added a dose in!

I also found a stronger LED light suitable for my tank (well the most suitable I could find without it costing a fortune!) I tried to buy a full spectrum LED light instead of just white and blue but couldn’t come across one for a small tank other than the nano LED lights which won’t clip on to my tank as the edge around it is too thick! Anyway I purchased a 5w blue and white LED with 650 lumens (I was advised to get 10-20 lumens per litre of my tank (25l) so 650 is over my minimum amount anyway! ) I’m hoping with the new light, my iron based liquid fertiliser and my nutrition capsules to go in my sand that il have great success in my plants growing lush and green and my fish having the benefits!