Another question about the fishless nitrogen cycle

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SteveC68

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Apr 27, 2014
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4
How long after you add your first dose of ammonia do you wait before testing concentration? Is it minutes, or hours?

I have a brand new 30 gal show tank that I'm going to start cycling.

Thanks in advance,
Steve
 
Hi and welcome! I usually wait about an hour to give the water time to circulate, although it might not be needed. What you could do is test right after you add the ammonia and then test again an hour later. If there's no difference in the results, then it's probably OK to test immediately after dosing.
 
I have 3 plants in my tank. I bought all 3 at a local Petco, and 2 of them were in a little plastic tube that were located on an end cap. They come packed with the roots in some sort of water/gel stuff that is rinsed prior to planting in your tank. One is an anubias and the other a java fern. The third plant came on a piece of drift wood and I think it is also an anubias. I noticed today 2 very small snails roaming the tank which I'm guessing came from the driftwood. Not sure what species of snails they are, but they seem to be surviving my nitrogen cycle. I'm dosing up to 4.0ppm of NH3 and the snails are still alive. I guess molluscs have a higher tolerance to ammonia than fish. Should I remove the snails or let them be?

Here is a 10 second vid of my tank, (actually my 6 year old's tank). He is also the creative director behind the decorations.

 
Just checked the pH and got 8.1, does that seem a little high? This is only day 6. Ammonia was 2.0ppm, and I checked Nitrite just for grins and got 0ppm.

Also checked the water out of the tap for reference and it was 7.5 to 7.6 pH.
 
Nope, not high at all. Ammonia, actually ammonium hydroxide is what you are dosing, is a base so pH should be on the high side. The pH straight from a bottle of household ammonia is tyoically somewhere around 11.8.

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