My Fishless Cycle

[Twinklecaz]

Lol you know I think it is. It would explain why it's not there when the tanks cleared it all.


I hope there's nothing wrong with my filter, I did have it lying down in the bucket of tank water for a couple of hours so maybe it is trapped air or something?

 

[Twinklecaz]

You know, it's a good job I'm clever............for a girl!

 

[waterdrop]

Congrats Caz, it sounds like you've gotten through it. Most filters can get trapped air in some way or another, so for each of us it can take some getting used to our own filter and working out tricks for gently shaking it to clear air and such.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Twinklecaz]

Hi WD

Yeah it's stopped making the noise now so I guess it was that

Also, lets hope this water change (so happy with how the tank looks now btw - so clear!) has done the trick and I'm nearly there now.

 

[waterdrop]

Can't hurt! lol, must be amazingly late (aren't you in UK somewhere? where?)

 

[Twinklecaz]

Ha yeah, I think it was about 2.30am or something. I'd been out

 

[waterdrop]

Ha! no sleep, lol. You're still online, we'll benefit from you taking the late night questions. You've beaten Si and Josh here, or have they already come and gone, lol? Are you still getting traces at 12, I forget.

 

[Twinklecaz]

I've had 2 totally clear 12 hour readings. Then the last couple of days I've had clear Ammonia and the faintest trace of Nitrite so I do think it is nearly there. I just hope the water change has helped rather than set me back, when you bear in mind that I've changed the substrate too and gave it all a proper clean algae wise. I didn't touch my filter sponges though!

I couldn't do a 12 hour reading today coz I had to redose the Ammonia straight after I'd refilled my tank and that was at 4.25pm lol. Tho I suppose I could do one now.

Do you know if those Eheim battery powered vacumes are any good? Or are they a gimmick? Coz they say they can vacume without syphoning water which may be a good compromise for me. I can use that to clean the sand and my normal syphon to change the water.

 

[waterdrop]

You have to be prepared that replacing the gravel with sand may have given you a small setback. While most of the autotrophs live in the filter, there are still a percentage that will live in the gravel and you will have removed that small percentage. Its really an unknown whether you'd really be able to even detect the setback. I think you're near the end.

The danger with any gravel-cleaning device that recycles the water back into the tank is that you'll use it as a crutch and not do as many or as effective gravel-clean-water-changes and of course its the water changes that are perhaps the most core aspect of good aquarium maintenance. Keep that in mind!

In your case though you've shown yourself to be pretty detailed (in fact overly worried sometimes) so its entirely possible you could use it as an effective additional tool if it solved a maintenance pattern you'd like to have. There's nothing wrong at all with customizing the way you do your maintenance, its the hallmark of a good aquarist I think!

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Twinklecaz]

Ok cool thanks

Lol well 21 hour test and all clear so at least it hasn't set me back THAT much. I'll dose at my normal time this evening and then do a 12 hour test tomorrow to see how it's really doing.

I didn't dose with bicarb yesterday coz my tap water PH is 7.5 I assumed that by doing a full change it would go back to being that, at least for a while. But it hasn't, it was 6.9 or so. So I've dosed now. Does that mean that's what my usual tank PH is likley to be? Will that be ok for the fish I want?

 

[waterdrop]

You won't really get a feel for your real tank pH until you've had your fish for a few months and it "settles." Your log data will tell the real truth and it will be interesting to compare that to some of the pH numbers that you record around the time of the big water change. Perhaps they'll be the same, perhaps they won't.

Either way, none of your pH numbers have sounded like a problem at all. You're in the standard range that should go quite well for your fish I think.

I used bicarb in my fishless cycle of Oliver's tank too and I based part of it on the understanding that the big water change would essentially remove all the bicarb and I'd be back to normal. Basically I still feel that's true, however, over the months and years since then I've come to feel that the bicarb does have a bit of a tendency to linger through water changes, a little like I feel nitrate does. I think it can hang better with the substrate and filter than with the outgoing water. I don't feel this is anywhere close to a problem however because enough of the larger effect is removed that you are out of danger of there being a large pH swing on the fish.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Twinklecaz]

Ok thanks. I guess it's pob my bogwood lowering it. I do have 2 quite large peices in there for the size tank I have a suppose.

 

[Twinklecaz]

Hey.

Hasn't set me back atall. Got double 0's this morning

 

[PDSimon]

 

[Twinklecaz]

Raaa today both readings were 0.25 at 12 hours!

I'm getting so peed of with this now. It didn't happen with my 24 hour tests, once it did it in 24 hours it continued to (I think) except for I think one random day. What's going on? I've now had 3 days (not together) when it's done it in 12 hours but it hasn't continued to for more than that. I think after 67 days it's fair enough I'm losing patience

I'm really thinking of doing the same as Simon is - getting some of my fish but not all. If I were to get my 3 Platys and 2 Honey Gouramis (and my plants) then that would only be about half my stocking (maybe a bit more but then my filter CAN nearly do 5ppm in 12 hours consistantly)and I really think my filter could cope with it. Then I'll just get my Pandas in a few weeks and Neons in a few months as planned.

Good idea or am I inviting lots of water changes?