Uh Oh....update 5/14

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Well, what seems on taking FOREVER, I may have turned a corner.

I returned from a business trip way late on Friday evening, so first thing Saturday I took a water reading. Still around 4.0 ppm. :?

So I did a partial water change and vacuumed only one general area of gravel as not to disturb the whole tank again like last time. I did notice some very small specks of brown algae starting, but not really worth mentioning too much at this point.

Sunday's water test proved some encouraging results: Ammonia appear to have hit a color mark somewhere between 2.0-4.0ppm so at least I was under 4! Nitrite reading went down too...from 0.25ppm to a lighter shade...I'm guessing .15-.20ppm. I thought I was supposed to get a Nitrite spike after the ammonia spike. Nitrate's climbed just above 5.0ppm.

No water change on Sunday, and one feeding at night.

Monday morning...(today)...only had time to do an ammonia test. Results look even better, but I guess I'm still a little skeptical. Appears to now be between 1.0 and 2.0ppm. If I were to guess....maybe 1.5.

I'll test Nitrites and Nitrates tonight, and maybe do a 1 gal water change. I guess the next few days will tell if my Ammonia portion/cycle has stopped. Any idea why my Nitrites went down instead of up?
 
Sounds like the tank is cycling and maybe your nitrite spike was small, or occurred when you weren't taking a reading. Since you have nitrates, that means your bacteria are establishing and you are well on your way!!
 
Yeah, Gosh I hope so....I've been so patient and so want to get a new fish!!

This mornings readings show Ammonia hovering right around 1.0ppm (that is....if my eye sight is going buggy....those colors all start to look the same after a while)

NitrItes are reading 0.0!!! (first time ever).

Nitrates seem to be possibly climbing, again hard to tell after a while, but it looks darker than 5.0, yet lighter than 10.0ppm, but probably closer to the later.

I'll probably do a cleaning this weekend...vacuum gravel that is.
 
Well, I took my water test yesterday and:

Nitrites: 0ppm
Nitrates: 10ppm
Ammonia: 1.0ppm and holding. Been stalled here for the last few days. Just did some water top off over the weekend from evap, but will probably hold off until tomorrow to do a water change.
 
Water changes are going to be what brings that ammonia down. Since your nitrites are at zero, the bacteria are present, but may not tbe keeping up with the demand.
 
This mornings test still shows 1.0ppm for ammonia.

Did a partial water change Monday night.

Wasn't home last night.

Water change later today along with my first brown algae cleaning (thank god it's very small, but still unsightly).

Week 8 starts tomorrow.

:|
 
Well, last night I came home and did a good vacuuming of about 35% of the gravel towards the front of the tank and using an algae scraping sponge, I cleaned off the walls of my tank where this brown substance appeared to be growing.

As I approached and 'wiped' this brown stuff, it seemed to disenegrate like powder. Was this really algae? I was expecting more like a plant like substance. What does a bacteria colony look like, if it's even visible?

As I vacuumed my gravel I discovered something else!!! Well, I guess I now know why one Danio hoveres near the bottom of the tank and chases away all others. It appears in my dump water I counted at least 17 small (talking 2-3 millimeters) swimming things, which I assume are new Danio babies 8O

With this vacuuming came a lot of buried debri and I ended up replacing about 20% of the water last night.

The good news: My Ammonia dropped from 1.0ppm where it's been the last few days to now somewhere between 0.25 - 0.50ppm, probably closer to the former. YEA!!!! Maybe I can finally get some new fish this weekend. (More on that in a second)

The bad/confusing news: My Nitrites went from 0 to 0.25 overnight. I'm assuming it's because I vacuumed up some good bacteria? Anyone else know why? Does vacuuming 30% of gravel really take out enough bacteria to result in a rise in Nitrites?

Now to my fish question: If I am lucky enough by Sunday to add some more fish, I was going to go with everyone's advice here and go for the Lamp Eye Tetra's. But how many should I introduce at a time. I know 6 is a schooling number, but I think 6 may prove harsh on the Bio-load. So maybe 2? 3?
 
Ok... I've skimmed through all the replies and believe I can offer some good advice for you. Just some humble suggestions and comments from my experience.

Ammo-Lock is a terrible product for the most part in that it can result in false readings for ammonia AND it makes it harder for the beneficial bacteria to eat the ammonia. You can't trust your ammonia tests after putting that stuff in. That is why you showed a "spike" to levels above 4 after you put it in. There was no spike.... it was the ammo lock. Please throw that stuff away.

In your panic after the ammo lock incident you made the problem worse by aggressively vacuming the gravel. Very bad during cycling. NEVER vacum the gravel or mess with the filter media during cycling.

Cycling In General

Cycling is much easier than some peeps make it out to be. Start with a low bio load (maybe 1/4 of the fish you will end up with). Simply test water every few days until levels are detected then test every day and perform water changes to keep levels around 0.5 for both ammonia and nitrites. Change as much water each day as needed to get the levels down that low (but not to 0... just to 0.5). Don't gravel vacum or mess with filter media. Continue until levels are at 0 (could take 3-6 weeks) and Nitrates begin to build up. That is all you really need to do. :wink:
 
I stopped using ammo-lock weeks ago after I received the initial 'Tsk-Tsk' from all here. :)

Yes, and I learned my lesson not to gravel the 'whole' tank. Now when I vacuum, it is no more than 25-35% of the surface area of the gravel in question, and I alternate the areas. Other than yesterday's gravel cleaning, the lst one I did was more than a week ago, maybe closer to two weeks, and that was probably only about 15% of the footprint....a small corner in the back.

I had initially a .25ppm on Nitrites since tank inception 8 weeks ago. It dropped down to 0.0ppm about 2 weeks ago and has remianed that way until this morning, after the gravel vacuum, diatom scrapping, and 20% water change. Perhaps the Nitrites are double cycling?

I'll test again when I get hoem later tonight and see if anything changes. :wink:
 
jaysono said:
I stopped using ammo-lock weeks ago after I received the initial 'Tsk-Tsk' from all here. :)

It unfortunately can have an effect for many weeks. :(

Must have missed the earlier reply about ammo lock (I was looking to see if anyone addressed it)... maybe in that other thread? :?

Anyway... good to hear things are starting to get under control. :)
 
Drum Roll Please..............................

After 8 weeks and 2 days, this past Saturday showed my tank finally cycled!!!! :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

Just to make sure, I retested again yesterday, and again this morning.

Ammonia: 0.0
Nitrites: 0.0
Nitrates: 10ppm
8) 8)

Yea!!!!! I can get some new fish finally.

Now I just need to decide: Lamp Eye Tetra or Neon Dwarf Gourami :?:
 
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