My Fish-In-Cycle Tank!

[Liverbird36]

Hmmm, IMO PH isnt that important, unless you are keeping a specific type of fish that needs an 'special' PH.

Id retest the water soon after a water change. You water stats look good. It should be cyled soon.

i am i needing to test everyday?

Yes

 

[manutd4life]

Hmmm, IMO PH isnt that important, unless you are keeping a specific type of fish that needs an 'special' PH.

Id retest the water soon after a water change. You water stats look good. It should be cyled soon.

i am i needing to test everyday?

Yes

cheers

Ammonia 0.25ppm
Nitrite 0ppm
Nitrate 0ppm - 5.0ppm

so i guess a 25% water change again then?

 

[Liverbird36]

Hmmm, IMO PH isnt that important, unless you are keeping a specific type of fish that needs an 'special' PH.

Id retest the water soon after a water change. You water stats look good. It should be cyled soon.

i am i needing to test everyday?

Yes

cheers

Ammonia 0.25ppm
Nitrite 0ppm
Nitrate 0ppm - 5.0ppm

so i guess a 25% water change again then?

Yes that's correct.

 

[manutd4life]

Yesterday readings!

Ammonia - 0ppm
Nitrite - 5ppm
Nitrate
- Clear/murcky water(came to conclusion did test wrong)

Did a 50% water change and cleaned the filters in the water i took out the tank!

Todays readings!

Ammonia - 0ppm
Nitrite - 2ppm
Nitrate - 5.0ppm

Is a 25% water sufficient this time round?

cheers

 

[Assaye]

25% water change will only remove 25% of the nitrite. This means you'll still have 1.5ppm of nitrite which could be lethal. The aim is to change enough water to completely reduce the ammonia/nitrite to undetectable levels. For larger amounts of ammonia/nitrite (over 0.5ppm) you need to do at least 75% water changes to get it down to a safe level. For smaller levels (under 0.5ppm) you can generally get away with 50% water changes. 25% water changes are too small, IMO, to make enough of a difference if you have elevated ammonia or nitrite.

 

[waterdrop]

Totally agree with Assaye. Well written.

The only thing you are accomplishing by doing the smaller 25% water changes during a fish-in cycle is forcing yourself to have to change water again sooner or causing your fish to be exposed to the irritating ammonia sooner in the day before you can change water again. Ammonia or nitite(NO2), either one, is much, much more stressful to fish than water changing (understanding that neither is desirable to the fish, but we're in a fish-in cycle and that's not a nice thing!)

The goal is relatively simple: Just perform your ammonia and nitrite tests twice a day, about 12 hours apart (this is to get data in your log and understand the patterns of build-up.. you may be able to get by with less testing and water changing later in the fish-in cycle if the pattern works out ok for you) and figure out the size and frequency of water changes needed so that ammonia and/or nitrite(NO2) is not hitting or going over 0.25ppm before you can be there to perform the next water change. The bacteria take about a month to grow in the filter and they are fed just fine with ammonia even when our ammonia test reads zero ppm (that's how a cycled tank keeps running!)

~~waterdrop~~

 

[manutd4life]

Hi back again,

Just done a water change and need a little advise, here are my results

Ammonia - 0.ppm
Nitrite - 0.ppm
Nitrate - 20ppm-40ppm

Thanks

 

[manutd4life]

Just done another water change and got these results.

Ammonia - 0.5.ppm
Nitrite - 0.ppm
Nitrate - 5ppm

ill do another water change tomorrow again, that should see the nitrate disappear, hopefully!

Thanks