No ammonia levels...

[Biggen]

Hey guys,

I am cycling a 29 gallon tank using 5 zebra danios. I introduced the danios Friday afternoon and still don't have an ammonia level as of Monday morning. I guess my question is how long does it normally take for ammonia to show up in this size tank with these fish? I had assumed it would be extremely fast considering the fish are giving off ammonia as they breath.

I know I can't rush the cycle, but it is frustrating knowing the cycle won't even start until ammonia becomes present in the tank.

I do have a very faint milky white "haze" in my tank that started yesterday. I am assuming it is heterotrophic bacteria that is causing this. Unless it gets really thick, I am not going to do a partial water change. That would dilute any small amount of ammonia already there. Besides, it should go away on its own within a week or two.

 

[loganj]

You should start to see some ammonia within a week. That's not a lot of fish load for that size tank so it'll take a little while to get it started. How old is your ammonia kit? Are you reasonably sure it's accurate? My guess would be that you are correct on the bacteria bloom. What is your pH?
Logan J

 

[Biggen]

Hey Logan,

I actually have two ammonia kits and they both registered 0ppm yesterday. I only used one of them this morning and got the same reading as yesterday so I guess there still isn't enough ammonia in the tank to show up in a test yet.

The bacteria bloom actually went away over night. The water is again crystal clear. I took a pH reading about two days ago. It came out to 7.0-7.1. Fairly neutral. I actually tested my tap water before I set up my aquarium and it was the same as above. It's nice to know that my city water has a neutral pH to it.

Hopefully the ammonia will show up soon. I think for the next tank I set up, I will go the "fishless" cycle route. Looks to be fairly simple as long as I keep up with the measurements.

BTW, have you, or anyone else, had any experiences with the SeaClear 40 Gallon that fits on the Eclipse 3 system? I am thinking about putting it my business (I have a retail store). I was just curious if there where any opinions about it. Looks like a great tank. I just don't know what fish I should put in it once it is set up. Selecting and buying equipment is the easy part. Selecting the fish is a whole other story...

 

[loganj]

I think you'll start to see the ammonia pretty soon. The reason I asked about the pH is that an acidic pH will slow the cycle as the ammonia takes a different form and the bacteria doesn't grow as well.
I am not familiar with the SeaClear 40...must be a fairly deep tank though. Got any pics? Link maybe? I'd like to look at it.
Logan J

 

[francky's]

When I Cycled my 33gal tank I Used 16 goldfish. These are the most messy and inexpensive fish, and they will make your ammonia rocket up. When the cycling is done, you take the remaining fish and give them to a niece or nephew.

franck

 

[Guest]

When I Cycled my 33gal tank I Used 16 goldfish. These are the most messy and inexpensive fish, and they will make your ammonia rocket up. When the cycling is done, you take the remaining fish and give them to a niece or nephew.

We don't like to think of fish as expendable objects here

Sacrificing goldfish just to cycle your tank is not the thing to do. Living creatures deserve better than that, Franky.

In the future, please don't encourage others to cycle a tank this way.

 

[francky's]

When i did that, i didn't even know of the cycling process. This was the procedure the LFS told me to do. Beleive me, I am so stressed today because of my sick fish and will damn the day if one dies.

Be assured that I kept the remaining gold fish for a long time in my tank till i found them a new home, and I even bought a 5 gallon system for my niece just so i could give her my remainig two goldfish.

The suggestion was just to use goldfish because they are hardy and messy, so they will cycle the tank a bit faster, and if you dont want them in your system, they are easy to give.

I dont even kill a spider. I take it and bring it outside

Franck

 

[Guest]

OK Franck, that's cool. It just wasn't clear from your previous post.

I dont even kill a spider. I take it and bring it outside

I kill spiders inside, outside, I leave them be

 

[Biggen]

Here is the link to the Seaclear tank
http://www.casco-group.com/eclipsecomp.html . Yes, you are right, it is a tall tank. Two feet tall in fact. It looks like a real classy tank. Petsmart sells it for $230.00 and the Eclipse 3 Hood is around $100.00. Not bad considering the hood is also a filter and light. Three things in one... I would probably spend that on the separate pieces anyway. The hood also has twin tubes. Perfect for plants.

 

[loganj]

That's a nice looking tank. I have to wonder if 2x20w NO tubes will be enough for plants with that kind of depth though. I think you would only be able to have the plants with very low light requirements. But, I'm not the plant guy here, so don't take my plant advice as gospel. Ask corvuscorax about plants.
Logan J

 

[Biggen]

Yeah, I just found out that the max output is around 40w for this tank. Hmm...

I guess I could build a reflector that would go behind the lights. I also noticed that a lot of "retro-fit" lights are being sold to replace the stock lights that come with the Eclipse 3.

At any rate, I would have plenty of time to think about it since I wouldn't put plants into the unit until it was cycled. Should give me a month to work something out...