Ice Man
Aquarium Advice Freak
- Joined
- Oct 5, 2011
- Messages
- 264
Recently I got 25g to replace my 10g freshwater tank.
I am one of these guys who never read "instruction manual". So, I filled my 25g with gravel, water, added some store bought bacteria, and used filter from my 10g tank as a "seed material". I assumed that after a week it will be cycled and safe to move a fish or two. In meantime I started reading about fishless cycle and joined AA forum. Here I learned about proper fishless tank cycle with use of ammonia. Yesterday, 10 days after initial setup I changed about 40% of water. Today, after my API Master Kit have arrived I have run water tests. My reading are:
ammonia 0 ppm
nitrite 0.25 ppm
nitrate 20 ppm
ph 8
I assume that there are some good bacteria developed in my tank. I was adding fish food, 3 or 4 times during these 10 days. I also had used dirty filter from my 10g tank. Water temp is kept at 74F.
My question is:
should I get ammonia, add to 4ppm and then have it tested after 24 hours to see if its gone? (just like in last step of fishless cycling),
I planing on building undergravel filter attached to power head, just waiting for my power head to arrive.
I am looking forward to buy new fish but I don't want to make any major mistakes in setting up safe tank for them.
I am one of these guys who never read "instruction manual". So, I filled my 25g with gravel, water, added some store bought bacteria, and used filter from my 10g tank as a "seed material". I assumed that after a week it will be cycled and safe to move a fish or two. In meantime I started reading about fishless cycle and joined AA forum. Here I learned about proper fishless tank cycle with use of ammonia. Yesterday, 10 days after initial setup I changed about 40% of water. Today, after my API Master Kit have arrived I have run water tests. My reading are:
ammonia 0 ppm
nitrite 0.25 ppm
nitrate 20 ppm
ph 8
I assume that there are some good bacteria developed in my tank. I was adding fish food, 3 or 4 times during these 10 days. I also had used dirty filter from my 10g tank. Water temp is kept at 74F.
My question is:
should I get ammonia, add to 4ppm and then have it tested after 24 hours to see if its gone? (just like in last step of fishless cycling),
I planing on building undergravel filter attached to power head, just waiting for my power head to arrive.
I am looking forward to buy new fish but I don't want to make any major mistakes in setting up safe tank for them.