tiger terror
Aquarium Advice Addict
Test before&after adding water. Basically use enough prime to pre-treat the water before you add it into your tank..
1st time Cycle stuck?
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Ok gotcha, thanks guys. I was thinking that the prime would lock up or remove the ammonia I just put in, so i may need to add more directly after adding new water that had been treated.
trennamw
Aquarium Advice Addict
As I understand it, prime detoxifies ammonia and nitrites while keeping them in a form that the bacteria can eat. Perhaps someone more experienced can confirm.
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Mebbid
Aquarium Advice Addict
Really?save yourself a lot of hassle and headaches and just get some hardy fish and cycle the tank the proper way.
I have yet to read any great success stories on here concerning fishless cycling, but fish-in cycling works every time.
I did a fishless cycle myself. Took about a month and I've used that same original cycled material to cycle 5 other tanks. Hard to be more successful than that.
If you're adding to the bucket then dose the amount you're adding. If you're dosing prime into the tank, then dose the full volume of the tank.so i have a question?
I may need to top off or do a wc at some point during the cycle. if im topping off i will add prime to the bucket of new water, and if I need to do a wc at any point, my plan was to turn off the heater/pump, drain, then dose w/prime and fill with fresh water.
My question is, what should i expect to see from my tests after adding prime or new water with prime? will it mess up my readings? will I have to wait for a time then test, will I have to re-does the ammonia?
Sorry a few questions in there...
Yep, you hit the nail on the head.
ok, so I am dumb here and I apologies for asking these seemingly stupid questions to you guys, but take this example..
I have dosed my tank with ammonia to 4ppm and i am waiting for it to drop, I then have to top off the water or try to replace 30% with a prime treated wc (because I fear that I may have stalled).
Will either of these actions make my ammonia readings on my master test kit drop? If so do I then re-dose the ammonia to get the readings back up to 4ppm (even though in theory the ammonia should be locked up and enough for the BB to feed on)?
If you remove water from your tank and replace it with tap water than your ammonia should drop. This is not because of the prime. It is because the ammonia is in the water and you are removing part of it.ok, so I am dumb here and I apologies for asking these seemingly stupid questions to you guys, but take this example..
I have dosed my tank with ammonia to 4ppm and i am waiting for it to drop, I then have to top off the water or try to replace 30% with a prime treated wc (because I fear that I may have stalled).
Will either of these actions make my ammonia readings on my master test kit drop? If so do I then re-dose the ammonia to get the readings back up to 4ppm (even though in theory the ammonia should be locked up and enough for the BB to feed on)?
IMO, 4ppm is more than you need anyway for a fishless cycle so I would not replace ammonia after this water change. 2ppm is more than enough to fishless cycle with.
ok thanks Dalto, I understand that the ammonia will drop when I replace water, I just wasn't sure if it would be totally eradicated from my test results as I added the prime. Now I know that it wont, I will try and get it down to more around 3ppm and dose back up if it goes below that.
OK, things are changing, On Monday 11/3 I drained 30%, turned off the heater/pump/air, stuck the python in the tank and refilled from the faucet at approx tank temp (checked w/ thermometer under the tap), while re-filling I dosed the tank w/Prime for the tanks volume (90G so about 10ml/just under 2 caps).
ran tests directly after the wc and things looked as expected with the drop in ammo, tested again last night 11/4 and got the following (attached results). It looks like I am on the road with the Nitrite rising now also. ya-hoo
Dalto, dose it look like its on track to you? nothing unusual?
ran tests directly after the wc and things looked as expected with the drop in ammo, tested again last night 11/4 and got the following (attached results). It looks like I am on the road with the Nitrite rising now also. ya-hoo
Dalto, dose it look like its on track to you? nothing unusual?
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All looks normal. The only thing that is a little odd is that ammonia didn't drop that much as nitrite was rising but that could just be a lack of precision in the color of the tubes. I would expect ammonia to start dopping in the next coupld of days if you have that much nitrite.
ok good to know, yes my eyes could be lacking in my older years. I do try to go to the strongest light, but there you go. I will post back with Changes.
Thanks for the help Dalto.
trennamw
Aquarium Advice Addict
I have really good vision, particularly with colors, and I have the worst time with the Color charts!
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Coyne
Aquarium Advice Addict
I have yet to read any great success stories on here concerning fishless cycling, but fish-in cycling works every time.
That ends today my friend!
I've successfully done Fish-less cycles on two aquariums. It took roughly the same amount of time as Fish-In cycling did for me (approx 30 days), but I didn't have to constantly do PWCs.
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ok guys, just got back from work and ran my tests, looks like ammo is sorted, nitrites are up there and no nitrates yet.
Should i do a 30% wc w/prime dosed to my tank vol to bring the nitrites down within range?
let me know and I will do it asap .. thanks for all ur help guys!
Should i do a 30% wc w/prime dosed to my tank vol to bring the nitrites down within range?
let me know and I will do it asap .. thanks for all ur help guys!
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tiger terror
Aquarium Advice Addict
This opinion differs from my success with prior fishless cycles..I never once stopped dosing up the ammo&in every case my nitrite levels bottomed out as the bacteria reached mature levels...I've only ever done one huge water change at the end of the cycle to bring the nitrates down to reasonable levels..this being my personal experience in the process I've completed without fail...remember bb needs an ammonia source which to feed on,I wouldn't go more than a couple days without dosing ammo for fear of starving the bb out that convert ammo to nitrite..the more you feed the bb the larger the colonies grow...
ok did wc, tested again, doesn't look too different so the trites must have been way over 5 ... going to leave till tomorrow and test when i get back in after work. hopefully it will start coming down in the next day or so and i start seeing the trates? will does ammo again on Sat/Sun?
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