What are my parameters?

[eco23]

how will I know i am close to the end of a cycle?

You're ammonia and nitrIte levels are gonna spike. This is the most important time to stay on top of the pwc's because the levels will try to climb off the chart. Then one day, you'll come home and test and magically your ammonia and nitrItes are at 0 ...cycle complete!

 

[eco23]

What youre trying to do is grow large enough bacteria colonies that will eat the ammo and nitrItes for you...that is what cycling is. Once you have a big enough population to handle all of the waste your fish put out and can turn it from ammonia > nitrItes > nitrAtes in 24 hours that means the cycle is complete!

 

[eco23]

At that point you just need to do weekly pwc's to keep the tank clean and remove the nitrAtes that will build up. Once the tank is cycled, just try to keep the nitrAtes below 40, preferably below 20. The ammo and nitrItes should take care of themselves and youll never see them.

 

[Revenantwing]

awesome thanks . Is there a way to get Tannin out of water without a carbon filter? New driftwood makes my tank look yellow/brown

 

[eco23]

awesome thanks . Is there a way to get Tannin out of water without a carbon filter? New driftwood makes my tank look yellow/brown

I'm not sure about removing tannin, but carbon filters are bad news in general. They're just a way for these companies to make money because they make people think you have to replace a cartridge every month. Problem is, most of the bacteria we talked about growing live in the filters, so if you throw it away and replace it every month, you're just throwing your bacteria in the trash! You can just buy some regular filter media (usually comes in a rolled up sheet) and cut it to size to fit in your filter. Only replace it when it's literally falling apart.

You might want to start a new thread about how to remove tannin. If you do need to run a carbon filter to do it, once it's gone just take some scissors and cut the carbon out of the cartridge and stick the filter back in.

 

[Revenantwing]

Thank you

 

[eco23]

No problem, happy to help. Let me know if you have any questions

 

[ejaramillo01]

awesome thanks . Is there a way to get Tannin out of water without a carbon filter? New driftwood makes my tank look yellow/brown

The best way is to boil the driftwood at least 3 times for 15 min each (some pieces require more times). After each boiling session, remove the driftwood from the pot, and let it soak in a bucket full with water + PRIME, for at least 12 hours.

After you repeat this process, before you re introduce the piece to the tank, just rinsed with tank water and scrubbed with a new brush....

 

[Revenantwing]

thanks