Uncycled tank
- Thread starter Mikey214
- Start date
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jlk
Aquarium Advice Addict
If your at all fearful, start by vac'ing half the tank the 1st wk, followed by the other half the following wk with running the vac over the surface regularly to suck stuff up. Follow this routine for a couple of weeks. The bacteria is pretty sticky on surfaces so i wouldnt worry too much. 
So I vacuumed some of the gravel today and it wasn't to dirty , but I did rinse my hang on back filter in a bucket of tank water and it was disgusting ! I left the sponge filter in the tank and did not touch it . . . What was all the gunk from the hang on back filter ? :thinking:
Mumma.of.two
Aquarium Advice Obsessed
Mikey214 said:
Fish poop, old food, algae, bits of dead plants and all sorts of lovely slimy stuff! A perfect home for your BB
Mumma.of.two said:Fish poop, old food, algae, bits of dead plants and all sorts of lovely slimy stuff! A perfect home for your BB
Rinsing out all the media and removing all of this **** in a bucket of tank water won't affect my BB , will it ? :thinking: thanks for the help again !
Mumma.of.two
Aquarium Advice Obsessed
Mikey214 said:
I swish and gently squeeze my media in a bucket of tank water and it's never affected it.
As long as you don't go over board it'll be fine.
Mumma.of.two
Aquarium Advice Obsessed
Mikey214 said:
Your welcome
Checked my levels today
Ph- 7.0
Ammonia- 0 ppm
Nitrite- 0 ppm
Nitrate- 10 ppm
My levels are looking pretty good . . . This is my current stock and was wondering if my nitrate level is good . . . I have a java fern and onion plant currently . . . Are these plants suppose to remove nitrates from the water as well? TIA
Ph- 7.0
Ammonia- 0 ppm
Nitrite- 0 ppm
Nitrate- 10 ppm
My levels are looking pretty good . . . This is my current stock and was wondering if my nitrate level is good . . . I have a java fern and onion plant currently . . . Are these plants suppose to remove nitrates from the water as well? TIA
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jlk
Aquarium Advice Addict
Your numbers look great!!! Plants do help to remove nitrates from the water but you still need to do weekly maintence water changes regardless of your plants. Im glad everything is going well!
jlk said:Your numbers look great!!! Plants do help to remove nitrates from the water but you still need to do weekly maintence water changes regardless of your plants. Im glad everything is going well!
Thank you ! Do they remove a small amount of nitrates or a larger amount of nitrates ? I'm just curious ! Thanks alot!
jlk
Aquarium Advice Addict
Im not an expert on plants but i am guessing with only a few plants, they are probably not removing a large amount of nitrates. I know some plants are better nitrate absorbers than others. Heavily planted tanks actually have to be dosed nitrates in order to feed the plants but i dont know what the 'magic' number of plants this has to be to do this. Still learning!
librarygirl
Look It Up
I agree with Jlk. Some plants are better at absorbing nitrates than others but you would need a slew of live plants to make any noticeable decrease in nitrate. Your levels look great, btw. As long as you keep nitrate <20 it's fine.
So I have a 29 gallon freshwater aquarium with a 50 gallon aquaclear filter. The tank was properly cycled in January of 2012 using pure ammonia. My current stock is 1 bristle nose pleco, 2 black skirt tetra, 2 white skirt tetra, 5 candy cane tetra, and 4 cherry barbs. My water is around 78 degrees. I do water changes once a week. I haven't tested my water in a while and since I was running to PetSmart I had them test it. I brought a bottle of water from before I did a water change this morning. They said everything was fine but I had a tiny bit of ammonia which I thought was weird so I went home and tested it myself. My readings just now were pH ~ 7.4 , ammonia ~ 0 , nitrite ~ .50 , and finally nitrate ~ 10. Any thoughts on what's going on ?
jlk
Aquarium Advice Addict
Hi Mikey! This is a bit odd. Have you changed anything recently (filter media, substrate, water conditioner, food, skip a grav vac, etc)? Are there any dying plants or missing fish? anyone spray anything in the room where the tank is (aersol spray like febreeze, lysol, etc)? Last (and what I would check first) is your tap water- test your parameters & see if anything has changed. Is it possible that perhaps your municipality flushed the system recently or maybe changed amount or type of disinfectant being used? Running through possibilities here!!
jlk said:
Haven't changed any filter media, I rinsed my filter media out in a bucket of old tank water a couple weeks ago during a water change. I also did change my tap water conditioner to treat the tap water when I do water changes that was by accident though. No dying plants I lost a fish about a week or so ago besides that water is clear and everyone seems happy in the tank.
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