Haven't posted here in a while, but I just figured something out and thought I'd come share my stupid mistake in the hopes that maybe someone else out there will be able to avoid it. I worked on fishless cycling for about 8 weeks and then my pH started crashing daily. I had gotten some mature media from a generous member of a local fishkeeping group, and even that hadn't cycled the tank. Once the pH was crashing daily I got frustrated and decided to try Seachem Stability since several people recommended it from personal experience. That did actually cycle my tank in a week and I've now started stocking the tank. It was still driving me nuts that I couldn't figure out why my tank just wouldn't cycle normally, and today I finally found the answer.
My heater doesn't have a temperature indicator on it -- you just have to tweak it until your (separate) thermometer tells you the temperature is right. If I'd realized that when I was buying the heater, I'd have gotten a different one, but I didn't and by the time I realized it my baby was down for a nap and I was too impatient to wait to go return and exchange it the next day. Definitely a mistake. The thermometer is a little glass one that sits in on the bottom of the tank. The way the temperatures are indicated, it's a little confusing trying to figure out which line goes with which temperature. I was just looking at the thing today and suddenly realized that I've been reading temperatures 10 degrees lower than they actually are. So I thought I had the tank at 85F to cycle, but it was actually at 95 -- I can't imagine that was a very friendly environment for bacteria. Seachem claims that the bacteria in Stability will tolerate a much wider range of temperatures, which must be why that worked when nothing else would.
Unfortunately this means that the poor corys I added to the tank this weekend have been in 86-degree water instead of 76 like I thought. I've already started to gradually drop the temperature to something more tolerable for them. I feel awful, but at least they haven't been acting stressed. Poor things. I've been watching so closely for ammonia and nitrite, but didn't realize I was making them live in higher temperatures than they like.
Anyhow, I just wanted to share in hopes that at least I can help someone else avoid making the same mistake.
My heater doesn't have a temperature indicator on it -- you just have to tweak it until your (separate) thermometer tells you the temperature is right. If I'd realized that when I was buying the heater, I'd have gotten a different one, but I didn't and by the time I realized it my baby was down for a nap and I was too impatient to wait to go return and exchange it the next day. Definitely a mistake. The thermometer is a little glass one that sits in on the bottom of the tank. The way the temperatures are indicated, it's a little confusing trying to figure out which line goes with which temperature. I was just looking at the thing today and suddenly realized that I've been reading temperatures 10 degrees lower than they actually are. So I thought I had the tank at 85F to cycle, but it was actually at 95 -- I can't imagine that was a very friendly environment for bacteria. Seachem claims that the bacteria in Stability will tolerate a much wider range of temperatures, which must be why that worked when nothing else would.
Unfortunately this means that the poor corys I added to the tank this weekend have been in 86-degree water instead of 76 like I thought. I've already started to gradually drop the temperature to something more tolerable for them. I feel awful, but at least they haven't been acting stressed. Poor things. I've been watching so closely for ammonia and nitrite, but didn't realize I was making them live in higher temperatures than they like.
Anyhow, I just wanted to share in hopes that at least I can help someone else avoid making the same mistake.