Cycle Params

[jessebs]

pH from the tap after sitting out is the same as straight from the tap. It's been pretty stable in the 6.4-6.6 range, and if I notice it dropping, then I'll do a big water change.

I dosed last night and it's gone in 24 hours. Crossing my fingers that the same happens again.

 

[jessebs]

I believe I can say I'm safely cycled. I think I'll have to wait to get fish until after the holidays as I'll be gone for a while.

 

[librarygirl]

Great, congrats! Just keep dosing ammonia until you're ready for fish. Good luck!

 

[jlk]

Congrats!!!

 

[jessebs]

I just got back from a 2 week vacation, and my tank doesn't appear to be happy. I dosed ammonia, but it didnt vanish in the 24 hour period. pH is down to 6.0ish range. I didn't put coral in because everything looked okay, but I guess that was a mistake.

LFS opens in about 2 hours, so I'll pick up some coral to hopefully stabalize pH. I also just finished a 50% water change to hopefully bump it up some. I'll test again in a few hours, and do another 50% if pH is still low.

Any words of wisdom for the Coral? I'm going to put it into pantyhose and slowly add until the level stays around 7.6 which is what my tapwater is at. Also, I've got weekly calendar reminders in place for water changes so I will be more diligent with them.

 

[jessebs]

Thanks everyone for all the help. The Crushed Coral stabilized my pH at 7.4.

I just got my first fish today! I got 7 Black Skirt Tetras.

Eventually, I'll add:
1 Spiny Eel
1 Dwarf Gourami
1 Mystery Snail
and possibly a siamese algae eater if needed.

I'll need to upgrade my filtration before I can fit all these in, though.

 

[librarygirl]

Thanks everyone for all the help. The Crushed Coral stabilized my pH at 7.4.

I just got my first fish today! I got 7 Black Skirt Tetras.

Eventually, I'll add:
1 Spiny Eel
1 Dwarf Gourami
1 Mystery Snail
and possibly a siamese algae eater if needed.

I'll need to upgrade my filtration before I can fit all these in, though.

Congrats on the fish! Is this the 29 gal? Unfortunately a spiny eel won't work as they can grow up to 2 feet and need a very large tank. If you like the look of eels, you might try Kuhli loaches instead if you have good substrate (they prefer sand but I think they'd be ok with gravel as long as it's smooth, not sure on that though). Or you could do some smaller corys, pandas are super cute (again, sand is preferred but smooth gravel would work too). Also some SAE can become aggressive as they mature; if you have an algae problem, it's best to find the source and fix it. Otos are a nice peaceful fish to have if you wanted something like that.

 

[jessebs]

I'm sorry, I said Spiny eel, but I meant peacock. According to this, they wshould be fine in a 29 gallon: Peacock Eels