New Tank With Fish :(

[troptank]

hi
well here tonight's readings.
will do water change tomorrow

also pic of tank with the light on (crappy iPhone quality camera) i know the plastic plants kinda suck but they are a temporary measure until i know exactly how i would like to plant it all

 

[Smells a bit fishy]

Have you performed a water change yet? If so I would say your tank has cycled, if not I'm still confused lol.

Lovely looking tank also

 

[troptank]

Have you performed a water change yet? If so I would say your tank has cycled, if not I'm still confused lol.

Lovely looking tank also

lol
no water change yet, will do it tomorrow, have 3 x 25l jerry cans of water warming next to the radiators overnight

will post again tomorrow night with my readings, who knows what they will be lol

 

[SaTiVa1984]

Your tank looks nice!

Also i don't know if its the camera angle or not, but on the second water test picture, the nitrite tube looks a tad darker than the first.

 

[troptank]

hi guys.
ok results are in after the water change.
did a water change of about 60l yesterday (sunday)
just tested the water now and here are the results!

 

[riogal_11]

hi
well here tonight's readings.
will do water change tomorrow

also pic of tank with the light on (crappy iPhone quality camera) i know the plastic plants kinda suck but they are a temporary measure until i know exactly how i would like to plant it all

Definitely confused... If you hadn't done the water change yet, there is no way your nitrates could be lower than in the first pic, (unless I'm missing something)as I understand it that nitrAtes can only be removed by water changes. It would make sense for it to look like that after the water change, but not before. Hopefully someone with more knowledge pops in with an explanation on that.

 

[troptank]

hi
well here tonight's readings.
will do water change tomorrow

also pic of tank with the light on (crappy iPhone quality camera) i know the plastic plants kinda suck but they are a temporary measure until i know exactly how i would like to plant it all

Definitely confused... If you hadn't done the water change yet, there is no way your nitrates could be lower than in the first pic, (unless I'm missing something)as I understand it that nitrAtes can only be removed by water changes. It would make sense for it to look like that after the water change, but not before. Hopefully someone with more knowledge pops in with an explanation on that.

i have a self maintaining tank lol

 

[Dieses Madchen]

Second pic is post water change.

You have a beautiful tank, and I am inclined to say it is cycled. 30-50% water changes once a week will take care of the high nitrates, although they weren't terribly high. You would probably do another 60l water change in a couple of days if your goal is to get them lower than 20ppm

 

[Smells a bit fishy]

I would agree that your tank has cycled. But still test daily for a week, classed as qualifying week, that's just to make sure it wasnt a fluke or false reading.

So how long did it take to cycle once you had fish in?

 

[troptank]

I would agree that your tank has cycled. But still test daily for a week, classed as qualifying week, that's just to make sure it wasnt a fluke or false reading.

So how long did it take to cycle once you had fish in?

well fish went in on friday 6th and a API test was done on monday the 9th, ammonia and nitrites were fine, just high nitrate..
so about 2-3 days lol ?

 

[Prime Ordeal]

I'm not convinced it's cycled at all.

Looking at the picture of the tank there are enough plants in there for that amount of fish, and the volume of water, for the plants to be doing all the work (at this stage). Also his tank has not been going only three days but three plus the five before any fish were added, but during which the Nutrafin cycle had been added, so eight days - and water changes have been done. I don't know, but I suspect that the Nutrafin cycle contains ammonia in some form or another to feed the bacteria while there are no fish in.

Of course, it's academic really as long as something is keeping the ammonia/nitrite in check until it really has cycled.

 

[troptank]

I'm not convinced it's cycled at all.

Looking at the picture of the tank there are enough plants in there for that amount of fish, and the volume of water, for the plants to be doing all the work (at this stage). Also his tank has not been going only three days but three plus the five before any fish were added, but during which the Nutrafin cycle had been added, so eight days - and water changes have been done. I don't know, but I suspect that the Nutrafin cycle contains ammonia in some form or another to feed the bacteria while there are no fish in.

Of course, it's academic really as long as something is keeping the ammonia/nitrite in check until it really has cycled.

as stated all the plants but 2 are plastic ones,
3 days was since the fish went in..

 

[Prime Ordeal]

I'm not convinced it's cycled at all.

Looking at the picture of the tank there are enough plants in there for that amount of fish, and the volume of water, for the plants to be doing all the work (at this stage). Also his tank has not been going only three days but three plus the five before any fish were added, but during which the Nutrafin cycle had been added, so eight days - and water changes have been done. I don't know, but I suspect that the Nutrafin cycle contains ammonia in some form or another to feed the bacteria while there are no fish in.

Of course, it's academic really as long as something is keeping the ammonia/nitrite in check until it really has cycled.

as stated all the plants but 2 are plastic ones,
3 days was since the fish went in..

Ah ok, I didn't see that most were plastic. (Edit: actually from your first post and in later postings you said you added live plants - doesn't matter though).

The fish have been in for three days but the tank has had bacteria for eight as you dosed Nutrafin cyle on day one, didn't you?

 

[troptank]

I'm not convinced it's cycled at all.

Looking at the picture of the tank there are enough plants in there for that amount of fish, and the volume of water, for the plants to be doing all the work (at this stage). Also his tank has not been going only three days but three plus the five before any fish were added, but during which the Nutrafin cycle had been added, so eight days - and water changes have been done. I don't know, but I suspect that the Nutrafin cycle contains ammonia in some form or another to feed the bacteria while there are no fish in.

Of course, it's academic really as long as something is keeping the ammonia/nitrite in check until it really has cycled.

as stated all the plants but 2 are plastic ones,
3 days was since the fish went in..

Ah ok, I didn't see that most were plastic. (Edit: actually from your first post and in later postings you said you added live plants - doesn't matter though).

The fish have been in for three days but the tank has had bacteria for eight as you dosed Nutrafin cyle on day one, didn't you?

yep that's correct nutrafin cycle from day one.
sorry yes there is 10 moss balls in there also...

 

[Fintastic!]

The only thing I want to add is that my ph was reading the same as yours (7.6) and just for kicks a couple of months ago I decided to test using the higher ph bottle and discovered it's actually 8.2. Yours might be lower but it's no harm to check. Good to know your ph as different fish prefer different ph levels.
Nice tank!