Fishless cycle: ammonia 4 ppm, nitrite finally 0?!

[Captain Stress]

My tank cycled. Ammonia 0 and Nitrite 0 in 24 hours after adding 3ppm of ammonia. Yay!

I still have an issue with pH dropping considerably after each dosage, though. I had to do a 50% water change almost every day. The pH should stay more stable with fish, I hope!? I never added crushed coral or anything.

Now the guide says to do a 90% water change. I'm scared of damaging the bio filter with this. With so much water to refill, I'm going to use my drinking water hose to refill instead of buckets. I have chloramine in my water. I intend to add the Prime to the 10% of water left before filling. Hopefully this doesn't hurt the bacteria this way.

Thanks for your help!

 

[jlk]

As long as you temperature-match & properly condition the water, your bb will be fine! Has your tank been steadily zeroing out amm/nitrite for a couple of days now? If its only the first day this happened, I would continue to dose amm for a few more days just to be positive your tank is fully cycled.

 

[Ram8349]

You do not have to do one 90% water change. You can do 30%~50% each time but several times in a row. The whole idea of doing water change after the cycle is completed is to lower the nitrate, because the nitrate must be enormous after all those ammonia being converted. You must use water conditioner on the new water before adding to the tank, or you may risk killing the bacteria with chlorine and chlormaine.

 

[librarygirl]

Congrats! I'd keep dosing ammonia for another couple of days or so to make sure it goes down each time. Watch the PH too. Once you have fish the PH should be more stable as the bacteria won't have to convert as much ammonia. Post pics of your fish when you get them! What fish are you going to get?

 

[Captain Stress]

Here's my current 36 gallon bow stocking plan. It changes daily.

Initially...
6 cherry barbs
6 glowlight tetras
3 platys (maybe 3 more)
6 white clouds (maybe too similar to barbs to be interesting?)

Eventually also...
5 false julii corys (maybe oto's or 1 bushynose pleco instead)
2 dwarf gourami
5 cherry shrimp (it is ok if the gourami eat them from time to time)

 

[Gish]

Like ur stocking ideas. You could probably have bigger schools of fish if you wanted to. My lfs has a sign near the barbs stating that they can be 'nippy'. That may be an issue with the gourami. If it is it may be mitigated by hiding places for the dwarves

 

[Captain Stress]

I managed to get six cherry barbs (2 M, 4 F) after going to about five pet stores in the area. The stores had low stock and some were just nasty with algae and dead fish--not just at chain stores either. Seriously, I found dead fish at every single local fish store except one, the one where I bought the barbs. Do the employees not monitor their own tanks?

Anyway, the cherry barbs look happy. Are they enough to keep the bio filter going in my 36 gallon while I wait for new stock and get time to go to stores farther away from my house?

 

[jlk]

These guys will keep your biofilter going but it will likely adjust down to the lower amount of ammonia present. Just take your time & stock gradually while monitoring your water parameters when you add new fish.