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nejohnrob

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Aug 1, 2021
Messages
12
Hello!
My name is Nicole and we just bought a 10 gallon tank for my 7 year old daughter. No fish yet! We are cycling the tank but I definitely feel like I have no idea what I am doing. I look forward to learning a lot from you guys!
 
Advice

Thank you for the welcome and the links to the resources. I definitely need some advice!

So, I am attempting to do a fishless cycle using fish food flakes and brine shrimp cubes. I've been doing this for the past month and my ammonia levels haven't reached the 2 ppm-3ppm levels. I thought I was really putting in enough fish food! I finally decided to buy Dr. Tim's ammonium chloride but I haven't used it yet. I also have a couple of plants in the tank and some bulbs under the substrate but they have not started growing, so I'm a little worried about that. I definitely want a tank with lots of plants but I didn't want to add too many just yet, until I got the hang of what I was doing.

Now, my tank has lots of fuzzy growth on the substrate and the decor which I thought was a good sign. I guess I'm wondering now if I should just put the ammonium chloride in, should I completely start over with new water and put the ammonium chloride in. I also have API Quick Start that I was going to use once the ammonia levels were up.

I would love any thoughts or feedback. Thank you all so much!

Nicole
 
Personally, i dont like the idea of using fish food as an ammonia source as its difficult to know how much to feed to raise your ammonia to a good level for cycling, especially if you havent done it before. Ammonium Chloride for me all the way.

Are you seeing any nitrite and/or nitrate?

I dont think you need to start over, just raise ammonia to 2ppm with the ammonia chloride when you need to. Test daily, if ammonia drops below 1ppm dose it back to 2ppm. When after 24h you are seeing 0ppm nitrite and nitrate you are cycled.

API quickstart might help. Its not the magic bullet it claims to be but might speed things up.

Plants often take a while to acclimate. Are you seeing any leaf melt? That's normal. You want to be looking for new growth. What plants do you have? I cant help you with your bulbs, not something ive ever tried. Perhaps a new thread about your plants can get you some directed advice on that.

Fuzzy growth? Probably biofilm establishing. Possibly diatoms. Again maybe worth a dedicated thread with photos.
 
I was trying to do a fish less cycle when I started my 10 gallon... and after 3 months of no progress, my boyfriend came home with 2 golf ball sized mystery snails!
Within about 2-3 weeks, the water FINALLY was showing signs of the cycle! I did MANY MANY water changes. And the snails were even mating!! (I also was still feeding the tank (and the snails during this time) So I think they were fine and they made it through the whole thing and I still have them today! I truly believe they helped cycle my tank! So if you are considering snails, I would try a couple mystery snails! :)
Best of luck!
 
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