Ammonia levels

[m3drver]

I setup my 46G Bow a couple of weeks ago with some LR (45lbs) and sand ( not live ). I also have some LR rubble and some live sand in the fuge. I checked ammonia after a couple of days and got a reading of .25 . There is nothing else in the tank other than the LR ( 45 lbs) sand and some rubble and Live sand in the fuge. . i've tested everyday and ammonia level hasn't changed at all since.

Does this seem right? I would think there would be some change in the levels by now.

I also did do a PWC after the first week and been topping off with distilled water. Should I even bother to do PWC until i see higher ammonia levels? seems to me I might not get accurate readings if i continue to do PWC.

Need some advice and help here... oh and thanks
Mike

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

Sounds normal to me. A complete cycle can take anywhere between 4 and 6 weeks normally, so it's not a quick thing. Seems like it takes a while for the ammonia to start turning to nitrites.

I wouldn't do any water changes until you're done with the cycle. You want the ammonia at this point. The only time I'd recommend water changes during a cycle is if your ammonia goes sky high (like 6ppm or something) or if you have some hitchiker on your rock that you want to keep from being killed off from high ammonia levels.

 

[melosu58]

I agree. Dont do any PWC`s till the cycle is done and then do a 40% one. At the end of the cycle the tank will be full of nitrates thus the reason for the PWC.

 

[cmor1701d]

Was teh LR cured or uncured?
If it was cured you may not see a large spike. You would need to feed the tank to get some ammonia in there and get the tank fully cycled.
Does that make sense?

You need the bacteria colony to grow so it coats the sand and LR rubble, etc. In the absence of any decaying matter from the LR you need to add something.

 

[m3drver]

I wouldn't do any water changes until you're done with the cycle. You want the ammonia at this point

Kurt,
Ok Got it. no more PWC until the cycle ends.

At the end of the cycle the tank will be full of nitrates thus the reason for the PWC.

Melosu58,
Ahh I see, one big PWC after all is said and done.

Was teh LR cured or uncured?
If it was cured you may not see a large spike. You would need to feed the tank to get some ammonia in there and get the tank fully cycled.
Does that make sense?

cmor1701d,
The rock was pre-cured from Liveaquaria.com. When you say feed the tank, do you mean placing a raw shrimp in the tank or just dropping some fish food in the tank?

thanks for all the help so far!

Mike

 

[cmor1701d]

So the rock was out of water at least overnight. That should have enough die off to complete the cycle. What I meant by feeding was adding some flake food. Just a small pinch to feed the bacteria as it decays.

 

[m3drver]

yeah, the rock was shipped 2nd day air and arrived covered with wet newspaper. so it was out of the water for the amount of time it took to get to me. once i got the rocks i dipped them in a hypersalinity mix for a couple of minutes then placed them in the tank.

There was some die off since i started to notice all kinds of stuff starting to peel off the rocks after a few days.

so now i'm off to get some fish food.

Mike