Fishless cycling - Help please!

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Don't worry about your ph right now. Ph tends to be a bit unstable during cycling but I am wondering if something in your tank may be contributing to this. Increase your ammonia dose (if you haven't already) and lets hope for more zeroes tomorrow! :)
 
Upped the ammonia again last night and checked the water 18 hours later....

Ammo - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 80 (pretty certain about this now because it is much darker than it was earlier in the week)
pH - 8.4

Do we have another water change on the horizon? Any thoughts as to what jacked our pH up so quickly? As I mentioned before, we have very hard water here (you should see the lime deposits on the bottom of my teapot...) but it seems a little odd that our pH would rise by 0.8 in just three days. Then again, what the heck do I know?

Thanks again. I think there's a light at the end of the tunnel. Or is it just a train? :eek:
 
I wish I knew why the person "jlk" who's been helpin you out an the other person who's thread I was reading suggests adding the ammo in minor amounts and water changes, I'm in the same boat basically as you and the other person, and someone on my thread suggested don't add any ammo just leave the tank alone for a week or so then test, which one is correct? Sorry to jump on here but just lookin cycle my tank correctly with minimal problems. GL with yours it sounds like your about ready for some fish:)
 
I wish I knew why the person "jlk" who's been helpin you out an the other person who's thread I was reading suggests adding the ammo in minor amounts and water changes, I'm in the same boat basically as you and the other person, and someone on my thread suggested don't add any ammo just leave the tank alone for a week or so then test, which one is correct? Sorry to jump on here but just lookin cycle my tank correctly with minimal problems. GL with yours it sounds like your about ready for some fish:)

There isn't a 'correct' way to cycle a tank. Everyone has different approaches and methodologies just as everyone is using a very different source for their water. No two tanks will cycle exactly the same. My advice is simply based on my fishless cycling attempts, bit of science and experimentation and what I discovered worked or did not work. Do your research and figure out what will work best for you. :)
 
Upped the ammonia again last night and checked the water 18 hours later....

Ammo - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 80 (pretty certain about this now because it is much darker than it was earlier in the week)
pH - 8.4

Do we have another water change on the horizon? Any thoughts as to what jacked our pH up so quickly? As I mentioned before, we have very hard water here (you should see the lime deposits on the bottom of my teapot...) but it seems a little odd that our pH would rise by 0.8 in just three days. Then again, what the heck do I know?

Thanks again. I think there's a light at the end of the tunnel. Or is it just a train? :eek:

Looks great!! Up your ammonia some again. I am pretty sure you will have fish by Mothers Day! Have you run a test on your tap ph yet? Set out a container of tsp with an airstone/bubbler. If you don't have an extra, give the water a good stir every hour or so. After 24hrs, test your ph. Let us know what this reads and we can go from there. :)
 
I was just curious, this person seems to be on the right path, the other thread was from flv707 and he/she is good and you were the one who was helping them out I reading both of theirs as they go and applying that to mine so I'm gonna say thank you for helping me out to I feel this is the best approach for me as well
 
Hello, hello...

Well, I did the tap water pH test you suggested and, lo and behold, the pH after just 15 hours was 8.4...just like what's in the tank right now. So it looks like that's our actual tap water pH, huh? Wow. The guys at the LFS told me not to worry because their fish are bred locally in the same hard-as-nails local water, so they're accustomed to it.

Anyhoo... I upped the ammonia to 4 ppm last night and the numbers are still looking good today:

Ammo - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 80

Whoop! :D
 
Yep, then that's your actual ph. If lfs keeps their fish in the same water as yours, no worries because they should already be well adjusted to the higher ph. Tank looks great! Go ahead and redose to 4ppm.

So, when would you like to purchase fish? You will need some planning and prep for your water changes and the tank bit of time to let the ph stabilize. :)
 
Cool! We hadn't really planned on any specific date for buying fish. We just wanted to wait until everything was ready. So, if we need to give it another week or so to get it "perfect," then we'll do that.
 
I would give it atleast another day but if you would like to prep your tank on Saturday and purchase fish on Sun, your tank should be ready to go! If your not ready yet or your lfs does not have fish you are seeking, do not rush out and purchase fish simply to have fish- purchase the fish you actually want to stock. :)
 
The tank is still looking good today. No ammonia or nitrates. Nitrate still around 80. We're in no hurry to add fish, so I figured we would prep the tank correctly and then worry about adding inhabitants. So, is our next step another major water change? I see that we have some "gunk" starting to form on the substrate. Don't have a gravel vac yet, so I assume it just needs a good cleaning, huh? The glass looks good, no algae that I can see anywhere besides a little on the air line. And the water looks crystal clear. Up to this point, we tried to keep the tank decor simple....just a couple of fake rocks and a big fake tree root thingie. We're planning to use silk plants but haven't put any in there. Should we add those before we think about fish? Does it matter when those sort of things go in?

Thanks again for your help. I'm off to add tonight's dose of Dr Tim's and then heading to bed...
 
Feel free to decorate whenever you like. You really don't need to prep your tank until the day before you want to add fish. So, if this won't be for another week or so, just keep doing what you have been so far. If your temp is bumped up, start adjusting it down to what you would like the tank to run at.

For prep, same thing as before. Big wc, let it run for a bit and test. You want to drop your nitrates as low as possible. It may take more than one big wc to do this so don't be surprised! Then just let the tank run overnight and double check your numbers before heading to the lfs. Do not add any ammonia after doing the wcs. I think that's it but ask if you have questions! :)
 
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