On The 7th Day........i'm Thinking Of Throwing In The Towel

[bagu]

took me 3 weeks to fully stabalise!

good luck mate!

 

[fatheadminnow]

so on the ammonia question??? do i re-charge with 5ppm tonight or leave it until the nitrite spike has dissapeared?

I would probably do a little water change to bring the nitrite down a little, maybe down to .25 or so, and then add 5ppm of ammonia again and check it in 12 hours.

-FHM

thanks FHM i've done a 90% water change now and just waiting for ideal temp and will re-charge with ammonia.

I have also noticed some floaty kind of white worms, from these forums i think they are PLANARIA? however these are common with overfed aquaria and i'm not using any fish flake in my cycling process. should i be worried or will the fish (when they are finally added) eat these little suckers?

Phil

Do you have any plants/live rock/wood/live substrate in your tank? What I mean by live is that you got it outside, and not from your LFS.

They also can come from your water which would not be good.

They are generally harmless to your fish, but they can be unsightly.

Stir your substrate up and you might see more.

Every tank has these to some extent, usually they appear form over feeding sometimes, but since that is not the case I would try to see where they are coming from.

I am unsure if the fish will eat them, unless you have small fish they might try to...lol.

I would not worry about it, unless you do not like the site of them in your tank.

Check this out to see if you can identify the type of worm.

-FHM

 

[fishman3]

so on the ammonia question??? do i re-charge with 5ppm tonight or leave it until the nitrite spike has dissapeared?

I would probably do a little water change to bring the nitrite down a little, maybe down to .25 or so, and then add 5ppm of ammonia again and check it in 12 hours.

-FHM

thanks FHM i've done a 90% water change now and just waiting for ideal temp and will re-charge with ammonia.

I have also noticed some floaty kind of white worms, from these forums i think they are PLANARIA? however these are common with overfed aquaria and i'm not using any fish flake in my cycling process. should i be worried or will the fish (when they are finally added) eat these little suckers?

Phil

Do you have any plants/live rock/wood/live substrate in your tank? What I mean by live is that you got it outside, and not from your LFS.

They also can come from your water which would not be good.

They are generally harmless to your fish, but they can be unsightly.

Stir your substrate up and you might see more.

Every tank has these to some extent, usually they appear form over feeding sometimes, but since that is not the case I would try to see where they are coming from.

I am unsure if the fish will eat them, unless you have small fish they might try to...lol.

I would not worry about it, unless you do not like the site of them in your tank.

Check this out to see if you can identify the type of worm.

-FHM

cheers FHM they are definately planaria and i do gravel vac's everytime i change the water so this stirring of the substrate is probably bringing them out. i'm almost certain these are not coming from my tap water. i have 2 pieces of bogwood from my lfs tanks which have been through the first pH crash and the failed cycle and are still with me. I recently (saturday) added 6 new plants from P@H to give the tank some 'emotion' as the bogwood looked lonely! LOL

i have added no 'live' additions to the tank other than things from the lfs.

hey i'm not too worried they just look a bit unsightly!

any ideas?

 

[fatheadminnow]

so on the ammonia question??? do i re-charge with 5ppm tonight or leave it until the nitrite spike has dissapeared?

I would probably do a little water change to bring the nitrite down a little, maybe down to .25 or so, and then add 5ppm of ammonia again and check it in 12 hours.

-FHM

thanks FHM i've done a 90% water change now and just waiting for ideal temp and will re-charge with ammonia.

I have also noticed some floaty kind of white worms, from these forums i think they are PLANARIA? however these are common with overfed aquaria and i'm not using any fish flake in my cycling process. should i be worried or will the fish (when they are finally added) eat these little suckers?

Phil

Do you have any plants/live rock/wood/live substrate in your tank? What I mean by live is that you got it outside, and not from your LFS.

They also can come from your water which would not be good.

They are generally harmless to your fish, but they can be unsightly.

Stir your substrate up and you might see more.

Every tank has these to some extent, usually they appear form over feeding sometimes, but since that is not the case I would try to see where they are coming from.

I am unsure if the fish will eat them, unless you have small fish they might try to...lol.

I would not worry about it, unless you do not like the site of them in your tank.

Check this out to see if you can identify the type of worm.

-FHM

cheers FHM they are definately planaria and i do gravel vac's everytime i change the water so this stirring of the substrate is probably bringing them out. i'm almost certain these are not coming from my tap water. i have 2 pieces of bogwood from my lfs tanks which have been through the first pH crash and the failed cycle and are still with me. I recently (saturday) added 6 new plants from P@H to give the tank some 'emotion' as the bogwood looked lonely! LOL

i have added no 'live' additions to the tank other than things from the lfs.

hey i'm not too worried they just look a bit unsightly!

any ideas?

Did you boil the bog wood before putting it in your tank?

This would've killed anything that was living on the bogwood.

Although...I bet they most likely came form the plants.

I am not too sure how to get rid of them...but once you have fish in your tank I bet they will clear up!

-FHM

 

[fatheadminnow]

You could also just suck them out with a gravel vac.

Next time you do a water change, just agitate the substrate and when they start coming out run your gravel vac over the top of them and suck them out.

-FHM

 

[waterdrop]

Planaria are universal. But they come and go quite quickly usually and once you have fish in my experience they are gone, the fish gobble them up, great sport I believe! They are just another odd, harmless entertainment of fishless cycling, just like bacterial blooms!.

Oh, and one more thing: back there where you asked whether to top up your ammonia, as you were looking at the nitrite spike? Nitrite never plays into the process of adding ammonia. Its very simple. If your last add of ammonia dropped all the way to zero within the last 24 hours then you add ammonia at the 24 hour mark and not before. You ignore nitrite, -except- that if you want to you can fine tune your ammonia add during the nitrite spike phase: you can add only 2 or 3ppm during that time rather than 5ppm. But you must remember that once nitrite begins dropping to zero in 24 hours or less, you should begin easing your amount of ammonia back up from 3ppm to 5ppm because you always want to end on being able to drop from 5ppm for the qualification week.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[fishman3]

Planaria are universal. But they come and go quite quickly usually and once you have fish in my experience they are gone, the fish gobble them up, great sport I believe! They are just another odd, harmless entertainment of fishless cycling, just like bacterial blooms!.

Oh, and one more thing: back there where you asked whether to top up your ammonia, as you were looking at the nitrite spike? Nitrite never plays into the process of adding ammonia. Its very simple. If your last add of ammonia dropped all the way to zero within the last 24 hours then you add ammonia at the 24 hour mark and not before. You ignore nitrite, -except- that if you want to you can fine tune your ammonia add during the nitrite spike phase: you can add only 2 or 3ppm during that time rather than 5ppm. But you must remember that once nitrite begins dropping to zero in 24 hours or less, you should begin easing your amount of ammonia back up from 3ppm to 5ppm because you always want to end on being able to drop from 5ppm for the qualification week.

~~waterdrop~~

right well today is full of hope and optimism, i added 5ppm of ammonia last night (late) and tonight both the ammonia and nitrites are 0 so it looks like the blip has been just that. will make sure that this is still the case for the next few days (under 12 hours) and start my qualification week again!

on a brighter note i bought some plants (fake ones) from a member on here and have spent the time planting the aquarium up to look more homely for my guests when they finally get here!

see what you guys think........marks out of 10 but be kind it's my first tropical tank setup so maybe i should ask for effort grades and attainment grades seperately

http/s654.photobucket.com/albums/uu265/p...t=IMG00182a.jpg

Phil

 

[fatheadminnow]

Looks really good! I like all the plants you got going on in there!

And glad to hear that your parameters are better now!
Hopefully it will stay that way so you can add fish soon!
-FHM

 

[waterdrop]

sounding and looking good fishman3!

oh, and by the way.........

<...>planting the aquarium up to look more homely for my guests when they finally get here!

dictionary:
homely: "lacking in physical attractiveness; not beautiful; unattractive"
homey: "comfortably informal and inviting; cozy; homelike"

I think you mean "homey"!

~~waterdrop~~

 

[fatheadminnow]

sounding and looking good fishman3!

oh, and by the way.........

<...>planting the aquarium up to look more homely for my guests when they finally get here!

dictionary:
homely: "lacking in physical attractiveness; not beautiful; unattractive"
homey: "comfortably informal and inviting; cozy; homelike"

I think you mean "homey"!

~~waterdrop~~

-FHM

 

[fishman3]

sounding and looking good fishman3!

oh, and by the way.........

<...>planting the aquarium up to look more homely for my guests when they finally get here!

dictionary:
homely: "lacking in physical attractiveness; not beautiful; unattractive"
homey: "comfortably informal and inviting; cozy; homelike"

I think you mean "homey"!

~~waterdrop~~

-FHM

now now guys

homely Adjective[-lier, -liest] 1. simple, ordinary, and comfortable 2. a. Brit (of a person) warm and friendly b. Chiefly US & Canad (of a person) plain or unattractive

tis a mere translation from across the pond issue!!!

for me a homey is my friend (slang)

anyhow you both knew what i meant!!!!!

 

[Christi_22]

Just read through the thread, and noticed a few similarities with my recent experience

1) Cycling a 20L with 10% Ammonia for a Betta - everything perfect, after waiting 5 weeks when all readings ideal, did the "final" water change using Prime - Suddenly got readings for Ammonia, checked out the Prime Website and found out that the readings are "false" Due to the locking away of the Chloromines in the tap water, which gives a temporary false reading for Ammonia.

2) Planaria - found some of these worms in the tank whilst cycling. Only place they could have come from, along with a giant water Nymph and zillions of Snails - the plants from Pets at Home !!

Hope this helps

 

[fatheadminnow]

for me a homey is my friend (slang)

That means the same thing over here as well...slang of course...lol

-FHM

 

[fishman3]

Just read through the thread, and noticed a few similarities with my recent experience

1) Cycling a 20L with 10% Ammonia for a Betta - everything perfect, after waiting 5 weeks when all readings ideal, did the "final" water change using Prime - Suddenly got readings for Ammonia, checked out the Prime Website and found out that the readings are "false" Due to the locking away of the Chloromines in the tap water, which gives a temporary false reading for Ammonia.

2) Planaria - found some of these worms in the tank whilst cycling. Only place they could have come from, along with a giant water Nymph and zillions of Snails - the plants from Pets at Home !!

Hope this helps

thanks christi although i had a nitrite spike rather than an ammonia one there are similarities.

I'm pretty sure that p@h are responsible for my last snail invasion as well although i had a pH crashin my fishless cycle which meant it killed everything off, including my plants!!!!

i think i need to learn how to dip plants before putting them in my tank

thanks for sharing it just shows you how many are actually in the same boat!!!!!

feels pretty lonely at times or loney as our friends from across the pond will prob point out later

 

[fatheadminnow]

feels pretty lonely at times or loney as our friends from across the pond will prob point out later

You just couldn't resist...lol

-FHM