Some Problems

[zombryn]

Hey everyone.

Well - I got my tank last Friday, set it all up and it's been running (fishless) since then. I'm a bit confused when it comes to the fishless cycle as I've read about adding ammonia for a week and taking readings and I've also read about adding natural bacteria which should ready your tank for fish in a few days.

So it's been running for six days with dechlorinated water - just doing nothing untill I added some Nutrafin cycle today. On the second day my readings were:

pH = 6.8
Ammonia = 0
(no nitrite or natrate readings because I didn't have the kits then)

Day 6:

pH = 7.2
Ammonia = 0
Nitrite = 0
Nitrate = ? (someone had swapped their old kit for a new one in the shop so I ended up with an old empty kit )

I added some of the natural bacteria stuff (Nutrafin cycle) today and I hope that sorts things out. I don't really know if my readings so far are good or bad. The pH level I need is around 6.8 because I want to keep tetra. The tank (63L) currently has sand substrate with some gravel, bogwood and plants. So yeah, I'm 6 days in and a bit confused as to what I should be doing at the moment (I did read all of the stickies on here but I'm still confused).

Some other things are:

Is it natural for some of my bogwood to produce a weird mucus type layer that covers it?

There seem to be a few snails in there that came with the plants, is that going to be a big problem?

Thanks in advance for any replies and advice. It'll be very much appreciated!

 

[Carl the Crimson Wonder]

Well the way fishless cylcing works as far as I know is that you add a certain amount of ammonia (depending on tank size), and do this on a daily basis I believe untill you start to show 0ppm ammonia, 0ppm nitrIte, and around 20 or so ppm nitrate. Once you have that you have cycled your tank. *feel free to correct me if i'm wrong.* If you have not done anything to you tank outside of filling it, you have not done anything to your tank. As far as the snails, If you buy live plants more than likely you will get snails. This can be a problem if you don't take care of it. All you really have to do is net them out every once in a while, or if you can buy fish that will eat the snails. (Clown loaches for example.) Personally I have found it difficult to do a fishless cycle, and while that is the best method for the fish. (and if you can do that right I would recommend doing that.) Otherwise I would just do a fish in cycle, It is hard on the fish but it is a much easier alternative to fishless cycling.

 

[zombryn]

Thanks Carl! Righto, so I need to get a bottle of pure ammonia to do this right. I'll get some tomorrow. If I can get that part right...how about the pH level? It went from 6.8 to 7.2. Is this because I pretty much just left my tank doing nothing for 6 days? If not then how is it possible to get it down again?

 

[zombryn]

Or should my tank be ok if I add the Nutrafin cycle stuff over the next three days to develope the bacteria?

 

[zombryn]

Anyone? I really want to sort my tank out properly. Am I ok sticking with this Nutrafin stuff for three days and adding fish or should I do a big water change I start adding ammonia untill the filter is cycled?

 

[Dave125]

I'm no means an expert on all this, but personally i'd stick to using ammonia rather than Cycle. It'll get you a much more stable bacteria colony established in your filter.
And it seems that it's not unusual for pH to rise during the cycle, mine has gone from 7.6 to 8 after a couple of weeks.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Okies,

you've correctly understood that you need to add ammonia to the tank because this is what the bacteria that you need feed on so having lots of food in there will get them growing. you can see why it would be a good ideal to bump start this by adding a colony of natural bacteria from a bottle like nutrafin cycle. The problem with this is unfortunately these products rarely work, bacteria is a living organism and it won't stay alive in a bottle on a shelf in the fish shop with no food for an indefinate time period. By the time it gets to you the bacteria is normally dead unfortunately. However if you've already bought the cycle then there's no harm in using it, you may get lucky and have some alive bacteria in there, ignore the instructions, just dump the whole bottle in there and then add 5ppm of ammonia and see what happens!

keep a log of your readings and if you're not sure what to do you can post them up here every day or two and we'll comment and let you know what comes next.

don't worry about the pH for now, something in the tank will have made it rise up, it's fairly common, for the cycle it's actually better for it to be higher so don't worry about that at all.

 

[zombryn]

Many thanks for the replies. Could anyone tell me of a good high street shop where I can get some ammonia?

Problems seem to be mounting up, as the plants seem to be dying now. I've just taken another pH reading, and it's gone back down to 7 (thankfully). Any ideas of what could be damaging the plants? The leaves have become brown and very transparant, though the Limnophila Sessiliflora (apprently the most awkward of what I have in the tank) is thriving.

Honestly don't know whats going wrong, as the tank has been doing brilliantly up until yesterday. Nothing has contaminated it as I wont spray any type of products in the room with it, nor has anything been dropped into it.
Still slightly worried about the mucas that is growing on only one of the bogwoods, as I can't identify what it is.

EDIT Thanks for that Miss Wiggle, as soon as I can get my hands on some safe ammonia I'll do as you suggested.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

ah forgot to reply about the mucus, this is fairly common in new tanks, just scrape it off, it may come back a few times but will eventually go. it's not harmful.

try boots or homebase for ammonia, it's usually labelled something like 'pure household ammonia' and is in the cleaning ailse. check the ingredients and make sure there's no fragrances or anything like that added too it, if you're not sure then shake the bottle then open it, it shouldn't foam up should just be like water where you get a couple of bubbles which quickly go. if it foams it's no good.

 

[Dave125]

I got mine from Robert Dyas, it's called 'Pure Household Ammonia' made by Kilroc. Only a couple of pound for the bottle.

 

[zombryn]

Thanks for the help so far!

I'll get some ammonia when I'm in town tomorrow and will start cycling the tank properly. The only thing left that I'm worrying about is the plants. As I mentioned they're looking quite unhealthy and some of them have brown transparent leaves. The plants came from Pets At Home (unfortunately the only pet shop around here in Bradford) and already had a few brown marks on them. Is whatever this is contagious and if so would it be a good idea to get rid of the unhealthy plants?

Thanks again for all the help and advice, take care!

 

[Miss Wiggle]

P@H the only fish shop in bradford........ pfffffftttttt

QSS on Wakefield Road is an excellent shop, don't go telling me there's nothing in Bradford

edit - i haven't answered on plants really because 'why is my plant dying' is a really really big question, there's about a million different factors that can influence it, added to which I'm not particularly green fingered, my aquarium plants mostly die on me too!!

 

[zombryn]

Hehe, appologies, I'm a student here so I have no idea. I know there's a really bad one in Kirkgate market and an even worse one near the highstreet (neither sell plants).

QSS on Wakefield Road you say? Is there any chance I could get some directions? I honestly have no idea where that is, only been here for a year and a bit I'd love to go somewhere better than Pets At Home as their prices are evil and their customer service is amazingly awful (here in Bradford anyway) and their live stock often looks very unhealthy. Much thanks if you can point me in the direction of QSS!

I'll head over to the plants section of the forum to ask about that topic then, thankies!

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Oh man I'm hopeless at directions too and also don't live in bradford, my other halfs family do though so know it a bit.

go to www.maps.google.co.uk and type in 'qss wakefield road, bradford' and it'll show you on a map!!!

 

[pammy172]

Try putting the address into streetmap or multimap - that'll show you where they are

http/www.qssaquarium.com/

http/www.multimap.com/maps/?qs=bd4+7nj&countryCode=GB

hth