Help cycling!

[kurtyboh]

I wasnt promoting peeing in your tank merely saying its certainlynot the first ive heard of it. I personally wouldnt do it and was kinda saying watch out for the unscrupulous lfs

 

[Fird]

Ammonia is the ****! I dosed my tank on sunday and got a reading of 8.0. Today I have my ammonia is at 0, my nitrite is at 5.0 and my nitrate is at 160. My guess is I'll be completely cycled by the weekend.you guys said I needed some nitrate...how much is some?

 

[Deckape]

No some lfs' will say pee in the tank wait two weeks buy fish...

Never do that

 

[Henry405]

"some" nitrate is a sign that the tank went through the nitrogen cycle. 160ppm of nitrate with 5ppm of nitrite left is quite high. I'm not sure if high nitrate would stall the cycle or not, lets wait and see what others think

 

[Fird]

"some" nitrate is a sign that the tank went through the nitrogen cycle. 160ppm of nitrate with 5ppm of nitrite left is quite high. I'm not sure if high nitrate would stall the cycle or not, lets wait and see what others think

Figured out why my nitrate was high. I was running no filtration system... Oopppsss! I just filled my media basket with floss, purigen and chemi-pure. Hopefully my nitrates are down tomorrow.

 

[Henry405]

the reason your nitrate is so high is due to the amount of ammonia that you dosed. Ammonia is converted to nitrite and then converted to nitrate

 

[Fird]

As soon as the nitrite is gone I'll do a big water change and ill be fine.

 

[Fird]

Yesterday I filled my media basket and todays levels are:

Ammonia .25 ppm
Nitrite .25 ppm
Nitrate 10 ppm

Any thoughts? I think I'm ready. Tomorrow ill do a big water change and add a clean up crew.

 

[hackteck]

i would give it another week dont want to rush into anything and lose money on livestock

 

[Deckape]

Yesterday I filled my media basket and todays levels are:

Ammonia .25 ppm
Nitrite .25 ppm
Nitrate 10 ppm

Any thoughts? I think I'm ready. Tomorrow ill do a big water change and add a clean up crew.

Not quite mate. Your ammonia and trites need to be at 0....

 

[mlanda]

Patience is a virtue.....why did you want to rush into the cycle?? You need that time to develop your biological natural filtration.........at the end you will get paid with your equilibrated system!!! That is priceless......for other hobbies use master card!!!! LOL.....

 

[jsmith]

Patience is a virtue.....why did you want to rush into the cycle?? You need that time to develop your biological natural filtration.........at the end you will get paid with your equilibrated system!!! That is priceless......for other hobbies use master card!!!! LOL.....

I like it.. should be for anything else buy a betta.

 

[Henry405]

how did your nitrate went from 160ppm one day to 10ppm the next day?

 

[Fird]

Purigen and chemi-pure... They work marvels. All I had to do was drop them into my media basket.

 

[kurtyboh]

Id you use chemicals to lock up nitrite and ammo your not adding beneficialbacteria. The bacteria will do that and your not allowing them their food by using that stuff. It takes time but itll be worth it or youll have to add that stuff everyday to keep normal levels.

 

[Fird]

No the nitrite dropped on its own, my nitrate was sky high and I had to tame it. All the nitrite had already been processed but I had nothing to take care of the nitrate.

 

[kurtyboh]

You tame nitrate with a pwc

 

[Deckape]

You tame nitrate with a pwc

Yep NitrAtes are the end result. If you have plants they may consume some nitrates but all you have to do is a pwc to lower them by however percent to keep them under 40. Under 20 is bettter.

 

[lilladybug05]

I dunno how the chemi pure and purigen pulled your nitrates down so fast... Ive had my tank up and running for about 5 weeks. Added shrimp 4 weeks ago had two mini cycles and my nitrates were super high , did a 40% water change brought them down some , but still around 60 -80 and I added chemi pure, rowa phos and pura complete and none of those did anything for my nitrates. They did help phosphates though. Also my ammonia and nitrites were at 0 before I added the chemicals.

Just be careful not to move to quickly. I still have a week or two of doing water changes before I get to add a fish. Its a long process. That makes for 6-7 weeks of cycling for me.

 

[Deckape]

IMO y'all do not need those chemicals, just PWCs