I've made ALL the mistakes!

[Territoons]

so, this morning, after dosing with 10ml of ammonia last night, my ammonia is NIL and I still have no2 up the ying yang! Should I put in MORE ammonia?

my no3 is higher this morning, by quite a bit. is this a good thing?

Last night, before adding ammonia:
AM - .25
No2 - between 2 - 5 ppm, it's hard to tell the color difference
No3 - 5.0

dosed with 10ml of ammonia last night, after those readings

this morning, 10 hours later:

AM - 0
No2 - between 2 - 5 ppm, it's hard to tell the color difference
No3 - 40ppm

Sent from my iPad, "Flicker"

 

[huma-huma]

You're almost done! your first step of bb is established and set, just need the trites to fall to 0 as well and you'll be set. I couldn't imagine it being too much longer. Your patience is paying off immensely

 

[Territoons]

So if my 4ppm of ammonia is being swallowed up to a level of .25 in about 3 hours, should I feed it more ammonia?

 

[huma-huma]

What's your trites at?I wouldn't really dose back up every 3 hours, even though your bb is chewing through it quick, I wouldn't wat to overload it. Hopefully your trites are 0

 

[Territoons]

My trites are HIGH.. Deep magenta/purple test results..either 2 or 5 ppm depending on who is reading it. My trates are at about 5ppm...and my ammonia is low---@.25

I had great fun today. I made a visual chart for my 3 to 6 year old class, so they could understand the "poisons" NH3, NO2 and NO3, and the "invisible germs" that eat the poisons. Then I let them read the testing instructions and count the drops as I tested the waters with the API FRESHWATER MASTER TEST KIT. I showed them the color chart, and explained that certain colors meant we had no poison in the tank, and certain colors meant we still had poison in the tank and so we couldn't put the fish in yet.

The first test was ammonia, and we all got excited when the test tube came back almost yellow, indicating very little of that poison! YAAAYYYY!

The second test was NO2.... and we all counted the five drops and oooohhhhhhhhhhh! What a pretty color PURPLE....but, alas, it is a bittersweet moment when we all realized that PURPLE meant LOTS of NO2, which meant that we can't move our fish to their new home, yet. Sighhhh....

We are learning Patience.....

But the kids really enjoyed the testing, so when I tested again this afternoon they were ALL excited. But we got the same results.....

I want to video my kids doing the water test, it's really cute, AND impressive, with how much they really DO understand if you just explain it to them correctly. And I will also attach the visual chart I made, when I post the video, in case there are any other teachers out there that might want to use it.

 

[huma-huma]

id dose back up to 4ppm again and then watch it closely, we should start seeing a drop in your No2 and a rise in No3.... and thats amazing im glad to hear that the kids are just as excited as you are. like i said before, i know its near impossible to wait, but itll be well worth it when your tank is completely ready for fish, its kinda like their house is being repainted and refurnished and they need to wait till the paint dries before moving in. if you need to ask me a questio, you can always inbox me if needed, i usually get to those quicker good luck

 

[Territoons]

so..while I sit here staring at my empty, fishless cycling aquarium..imagining fish darting here and there through the plants and rocks that I have lovingly planted in their places...
and then I look at those darn little test tubes, sporting the same colors, day after day after day after day after day....
and the frustration mounts...

then I glance over at my over-crowded 10 gallon tank, with the multiple live bearers bearing multiple lives after lives after....

yes, I am getting sooooo many new babies, in my little tiny 10 gallon tank. The silver mollies, the mickey mouse platies, and the guppies are all reproducing at almost an alarming rate, even while over-crowded in my li'l tiny 10 gallon tank. It seems like every morning when I turn on the light I am greeted by several brand new teeny weeny babies...species unknown until they grow up a little start forming some of the identifying characteristics of their parents... so cute!

so..anyhow...I actually had a question come to mind.....

if my big 55G ever DOES cycle, and I start moving my fish over from the 10G to the 55g..and I end up using my 10G as a QT tank..don't I need to keep some permanent residents in my QT tank to keep the chemicals balanced?

 

[huma-huma]

That's where another decision will come into affect. I've noticed some people will buy a small hob filter for their qt and what they do is run it on their display tank, therefore letting the beneficial bacteria grow and sustain in the filter, then if and when the time comes, you simply add some old tank water along with new tank water to the qt 10g, and place the hob filter on it....along with a few pvc pipes for hiding.. Ta da qt tank setup and don't have to worry about cycling. In a qt/pital tank, its best not to add substrate or rock, go as minimal as possible. In terms of the cycling, I know that it seems like its not going anywhere and its taking forever, but its moving along. Adding fish isn't quite an option, what would likely happen is you'd start adding fish, and everything would seem fine, then after 4i5 days or a week, you'd have a big ammonia spike....all because the bacteria you've been growing isn't present enough to handle the fish waste.. What's the latest reading look like?

***edit**** I know you patience is prob running low so I figured I'd add this, when I first started out with my 20g fw tank, I thought just like 95% of people doin that I could buy a tank, add water, then add fish.... I've prob gone through every bit of 300 dollars in fish because I didn't cycle properly...now that I have a better understanding of this hobby, I've lost 1 fish due to impulse buy..... You're patience will reward you greatly

 

[FishieMomma]

This is a great thread. I'm a teacher too working on getting a tank at school. I just wanted to note that my understanding is that the ph can lower a lot near the end of the cycle and that can stall it. So a pwc near the end to get it back to normal is good. The BBs don't hang out in the water anyway.

 

[Territoons]

before this mornings dose of ammonia (14 hours after the last dose of 20ml that got it up to 4ppm) my reading are:

Amm - .25

Nitrites are either 2.0 or 5.0, its so hard to judge. It might be my imagination but i'm thinking they MIGHT be leaning more toward 2? I hope I hope I hope!

Nitrates - 5.0ppm

PH is 8.2

SO, do you think a water change might help wake up those lazy Nitrobacter?

A "hob" filter is Hang On Back?

 

[Territoons]

also..I am getting a bit of algae growth on the leaves of some of the plastic plants of the 55...should I be concerned?

 

[huma-huma]

not unless it really overtakes everhthing.

 

[huma-huma]

hob does stand for hang on back, if your ph is 8.2 a pwc isn't gonna do anything. You're taking more steps, looks like the trites are coming down. Once trites hit 0, the ammonia should follow and then ta da! Cycle finished the reason we are being so adament about having 0 ammonia is because it kills quickly and it doesn't really take much. Almost there I promise

 

[Territoons]

my ammonia goes down every day to .25 or lower. I dose it up to 4ppm and 12 hours later it is down to .25 or lower. it is the NO2 that doesn't seem to be budging.... it might be going down a tiny bit..slightly less purple, but I think it's just my wishful thinking....

 

[Territoons]

By the way...THANK YOU for all of your words of encouragement. If it weren't for those words I'm sure there would be several more fish in this world basking in a tank full of ammonia and nitrites...

 

[huma-huma]

don't mention it. I'd hate to see someone so enthusiastic about this hobby get discouraged. I'm not quite sure why your trites aren't coming down. Perhaps try doing a pwc and see if that affects it at all. It can't hurt. Even if its coming down slowly that's still a good sign. The tank could prob handle some fish but there's still the possibility of it spiking, which if hate to see

 

[Territoons]

So, I've been putting 20ml of ammonia in the tank in the mornings, and then 20 again in the evenings, which doses it up to 4ppm, but it's down to .25 or 0 ppm within 12 hours. So....the question is....when the time DOES come to transfer the fish, how many can I put in at a time, and how do I do it? It seems like it might take quite a few fish to create 20ml of ammonia in 12 hours? I don't want to starve my newly formed BB's!

Do I just net the fish out of the 10g and throw 'm into the 55? Do I put them in a baggie and float them? Do I put them in a fishbowl with there 10g's water and then add the water from the 55 to the fishbowl, til they r acclimated?

The trites aren't ready, yet. I'm just assuming it's going to happen soon and I want to be READY!

 

[huma-huma]

Your best bet is to to simply take a cup or two of water out of the 10g, dump it out, then replace it with water from the 55. Do that every 20-30 minutes when you have a free evening (I'd say for around 2 hours) then that way you just acclimated them al at once like I said earlier, you prob could add the fish now and be ok, but it may stress them and spike the tank a bit, no need to do them harm right? if your ammonia is now reading at 0 when you test, the trites should drop shortly after.

 

[huma-huma]

Just outta curiousty, could you get parameters for both the 10g and the cycling 55? I just realized that your 10g is over stocked and the parameters could possibly be higher than the 55. .. Test both and let me know what the results are

 

[Territoons]

the 55 gallon tank is still about the same readings:

AM - between 0 and .25 ppm
NO2 - between 2 and 5ppm
No3 - 10ppm


the over crowded 10 gallon is interesting...

AM - 0ppm
No2 - .50
No3 80



SO, what do you think? DO you think it would help to move the filter from the 10g on over to the 55? maybe some move some of the plastic plants from the 10 to the 55? MAybe, when I do a partial water change on the 10G, put the water into the 55?