Starting a New Tank

[ThangaMean]

Ammonia was at 3 ppm when added. And yes ammonia nitrite and nitrate all at 0 currently.


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May be I'm missing something here. So you added 3 ppm and now all zero. What happened in between? Did you see nitrites and then nitrates? Did you do water change? Where did the 3ppm ammonia go?!

BTW I'm also cycling my tank and have keen interest in understanding what happens during the cycling process.

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[ksgriff88]

I wish I could tell you I knew what happened. I put the ammonia in went to bed then work for home and tested everything at 0. After having the guppies in for about 10 hours I came home and tested again with everything at 0. Even included pictures of the tests with both strips and the master test kit.

Fish are very healthy and ate great a few seconds ago.





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[ThangaMean]

Don't mistake me, still the situation is puzzling. After 10 hours of having fish in there and no signs of ammonia? I'm no expert, but can you make sure the test kit is not expired and you are following the procedure? Recently I added too many drops for pH. Test and color changed to green. It took me few hours to realize, while all the time I ignored to verify the instructions

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[ksgriff88]

Lol that's exactly where I am just completely puzzled at the whole thing. The master test kit I'm using I just bought a week ago and the expiration date is 09/19.

I follow the instructions to the t and made sure to beat up the nitrate bottle 2 pretty good per a lot of other articles I've read.


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[ksgriff88]

EDIT: nevermind, read the post wrong.

ThangaMean is right, you should see some nitrates if cycled properly.

And I would still try to find out why your 10g's ammonia suddenly spiked before you started the 29g. That shouldn't have happened if it was established for over a year as you said. If it were mine, I would want to know why that happened so it doesn't repeat in the new tank.

Sorry I didn't see the edit. I believe it was due to a fish dying in the back of the tank. I had already planned on moving to the 29 gallon this weekend (was just finishing up the DIY stand build) or else I would have stuck with the 10 gallon and figured out what happened.

However I still hadn't unplugged the 10 gallon and had completed a 60% water change before the last fish had died. By just letting it run after this change the level was back down to 0.

I think I'm just going to continue monitoring the 29 and see what happens. I'll keep an eye out for any change in the fish behavior.


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[treemanone2003]

When I took everything down from the 10 gallon I did find some fish bones that got stuck in the back under neath the cave and I am assuming that is the reason it had shot up.

My water changes are about 40% every other week.


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That could very well explain the sudden rise. Weekly WC's would be a much better option for the fish. Smaller tanks usually fluctuate quite a bit more than larger tanks.


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[stooker]

I am setting up a new 29 gallon tank. The substrate in the tank is from a previously established tank and has been sitting stagnant for about a month and a half in a small amount of water. The decorations were taken from the 10 gallon tank a a few things from another established (over 2 years) tank.

Now that I look back, I think you pretty much started your cycle from scratch. The decorations had some bacteria on it but looks like it wasn't enough to properly seed your new tank. Bacteria grows on most surfaces, but decorations don't have the same surface area as media, sponges, etc.

Additionally, the substrate didn't have anything to offer if it was just sitting in water for a month and a half. If there was no bio load to continue the cycle, all the bacteria died off by the time you transferred the substrate to the new tank.

 

[ksgriff88]

Well another week into this enigma and all the levels are staying at 0. Added some glow light tetras and everyone is living nice and happy in there and eating no problem. I'll continue to monitor for the next few weeks but seems like everything is under control for me.