Update: Values 0 For 3 Days!

[iluvguppies]

hi,

I've just got my mature media fm a lovely member on here ( thanks, glolite ) as I live almost 50miles away fm where we met I was in such a hurry to get going so it wasn't out of O2 water long that I forgot to asdk exactly what to do with it. Do I just sit it in tank or does it need to be squished into filter itself?

Many thnx

Nikki

 

[Harlequins]

i would squish whatever mature media you can into your filter,

 

[Macko1968]

Needs to go in your filter.

 

[iluvguppies]

thanks guys!! Will do that now.

Nikki

 

[swampey]

I had some one state that the filter they had given me had mature media inside --- funny as I watched them wash the filter under the cold tap... yeh thats going to do the bacteria alot of good isnt it now

 

[waterdrop]

I had some one state that the filter they had given me had mature media inside --- funny as I watched them wash the filter under the cold tap... yeh thats going to do the bacteria alot of good isnt it now

Yes, once you understand what's going on you would never do this. However its also interesting to know how tough the autotrophic bacteria can get. Assuming the media is quite mature, its good to know that some percentage of them might, and often will, survive a dousing in tap water.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[iluvguppies]

Update !!!!

tested tank water today after adding mature media yesterday (did NOT change water yeserday). Results this afternoon before w/c were:

Ammonia 0
Nitrites 0.5 normally after water change it only drops to 0.25 BUT

This morning, after water change, I got readings of 0 for both ammonia and nitrite for the FIRST TIME EVER and nearly 8 hrs later they are both holding at 0 for the FIRST TIME EVER (normally readings shoot back up after a few hours).
Let's hope the end is in sight!

Thanks for everyones help

Nikki

 

[sjolliff]

Update !!!!

tested tank water today after adding mature media yesterday (did NOT change water yeserday). Results this afternoon before w/c were:

Ammonia 0
Nitrites 0.5 normally after water change it only drops to 0.25 BUT

This morning, after water change, I got readings of 0 for both ammonia and nitrite for the FIRST TIME EVER and nearly 8 hrs later they are both holding at 0 for the FIRST TIME EVER (normally readings shoot back up after a few hours).
Let's hope the end is in sight!

Thanks for everyones help

Nikki

 

[Harlequins]

 

[OldMan47]

It looks like you got a nice clone going there Iluvguppies.

 

[iluvguppies]

Tested the results 3x over the course of the day. Haven't done any water changes and my readings are still at 0 for both ammonia and nitrites !!!!!!
Nitrates are b/n 10-20 and pH is 7.8. I'm so pleased I've been doing a little jig after each result, lol!! My other half is very amused/bemused by how chuffed I am, lol.

Thanx for all the support. I'm going to be upgrading to a custom built 220 UK gallon tank in September so need to start planning what I need and what to stock it with (community).............yes!! I got bitten by the "fish bug" badly,

Any suggestions gratefully received ( I have thread in hardware about it) or post on here.

Nikki

 

[OldMan47]

Keep an eye on it until it is time for your regular water change. You may finally be seeing the end of a cycle.

 

[iluvguppies]

Looks like I spoke too soon. Using API liquid master test kit.

My tanks suddenly have both nitrites (one at 0.25 and one at 0.5) and ammonia (not sure if ammonia is above 0 if so then only b/n 0 and 0.25...color is pale yellow rather than the bright yellow on the chart) again. All I can think is it's due to the food that got tipped in by one of my kids....I scooped out what I could but obviously couldn't get it all. This happened on tuesday night and when I checked water on weds I got these results. I immediately changed 50% water in each tank and results after were ammonia 0 and nitrites not quite 0 but not 0.25 color either (insted of bright light blue it was slightly darker blue). An few hours later I did the same and the result was the same ( I expected it to both be 0) and last night I did another 40% change for each.

In the tank that has the lower readings (!) we have a new fish (rescued violet goby)...my fry tank and male guppy live there. We completely changed substrate in that tank to sand last night and added some salt as we are slowly changing to brackish and this morning I've done a 90+% w/c as again readings were at 0ish (pale yellow not bright) for ammonia and 0.25 for nitrites. Should I not feed at all for a few days? At moment I'm feeding 2x per day in fry tank and 1x per day in other.
I need to go buy more dechlor and then I will do 90+% w/c on other tank.

In the tank where I've just done 90+% w/c water stats are now 0 for ammonia and nitrites.....was this just a blip due to the food and should this hold or has something gone awry where they were newly cycled tanks ...maybe not really fully cycled or something (0 readings held for 3 days without any waterchanges prior to food being tipped in).
These tanks were started off cycling on 1st july so quite a while ago and things have been up and down since.

Any help appreciated

Nikki

EDITED TO ADD: ammonia is at 0...retested and looked under natural light but nitrites were as I said.

 

[iluvguppies]

Now done both tanks 90+% waterchange. Fry tank is showing values a few hours later both at 0. Main tank is showing ammonia at 0 and nitrites at slightly above 0 possibly...the blue color isn't sky blue...it's very pale but more of a very pale violet blue but nowhere near as dark as the 0.25 color. Maybe works out at 0.05 or 0.1 for nitrites.

The fish seem ok.....very active......as this nitrite spike seems to be quite tenacious is it likely that the spike was NOT due to the food spillage or is it normal for it to take so long to go back down?

Thnx for any replies,

Nikki

 

[OldMan47]

One of the ways that people can do a fishless cycle is to just let some fish food rot in their tank. The first day or two they don't get much ammonia but after that it can be quite dramatic how well it works. By dumping way too much fish food into a tank, you are temporarily going to see a huge increase in the bioload. Once the rotting food is effectively cleaned out, that spike should stop and the water should improve. I see you are adding salt to start moving towards a brackish tank. Make sure that you use sea salt, not typical aquarium salt. Brackish water, in nature, is a mix of ocean water and river water so you want to use the same salt that is used to make ocean type water for a reef tank to mix up your brackish conditions. By the time you get significantly brackish conditions, the guppy will be very uncomfortable in that tank. If you want a traditional freshwater fish in there, try a pet shop molly. They can tolerate salt all the way up to pure saltwater.