Red_Ribbons
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
I have a 25 litre freshwater tank which I found when moving house. I started a fishless cycle on 18th of September and intended to put one Oranda goldfish and a shrimp in it (I know that doesn't sound very exciting, but I found the tank when I was moving house. It seemed a shame to throw it out and I figured that if I got on with fish keeping I could get a bigger tank and go from there.)
I dosed the tank to 4 ppm with pure house hold ammonia and have tested the water every day but it hasn't dropped (I am using an API ammonia testing kit). The tank has a Fluval 2 filter (on it's maximum setting), one freshwater plant, gravel substrate and one low ornament- so it doesn't interfere with swimming space but provides a shrimp with a dark place to hide. (Gravel and ornament are new and were washed thoroughly before being added to the tank). I used API Stress Coat to make the water safe. As the ammonia wasn't dropping I went to my local pet store and asked for some advice. They suggested adding API Stress Zyme to the water- so I did but it didn't change anything.
Today I went to my local aquatics shop to ask for help as I figured they might be a better option than the large commercial pet shop that sold me the Stress Zyme. I took a water sample and the ammonia I used but the man didn't ask to see any of it. He just said I should empty the tank, refill it (without ammonia) and put my fish in ten days later. Although I understand that I have a little tank and I wasn't going to be the worlds most interesting fish customer I found it really interesting reading about how fish tanks work and feel a bit embarrassed that he was so dismissive of me. Even if I'm just going to buy one Oranda I would like it to be happy one.
If anyone could help me get my cycle started that would be much appreciated. If my tank is too small to deal with the whole process then I am more than willing to get a new one, I would just like to try and get it going without hurting anything. If Orandas are tough and could handle the cycling process themselves then I am happy to try that but I have read that fish can have damaged immune systems after being used for cycling and I would like to be a responsible fish keeper even if I do just have one fish.
Thank you for reading my post.
P.S:
* We have very hard water in our area and suffer with lime scale.
* I haven't started testing for NiTRITES or NiTRATES as I thought I should wait for my ammonia levels to drop first.
* I haven't done any water changes or changed the filter medium since starting the cycling process.
* Our tap water tested at 0ppm ammonia.
I dosed the tank to 4 ppm with pure house hold ammonia and have tested the water every day but it hasn't dropped (I am using an API ammonia testing kit). The tank has a Fluval 2 filter (on it's maximum setting), one freshwater plant, gravel substrate and one low ornament- so it doesn't interfere with swimming space but provides a shrimp with a dark place to hide. (Gravel and ornament are new and were washed thoroughly before being added to the tank). I used API Stress Coat to make the water safe. As the ammonia wasn't dropping I went to my local pet store and asked for some advice. They suggested adding API Stress Zyme to the water- so I did but it didn't change anything.
Today I went to my local aquatics shop to ask for help as I figured they might be a better option than the large commercial pet shop that sold me the Stress Zyme. I took a water sample and the ammonia I used but the man didn't ask to see any of it. He just said I should empty the tank, refill it (without ammonia) and put my fish in ten days later. Although I understand that I have a little tank and I wasn't going to be the worlds most interesting fish customer I found it really interesting reading about how fish tanks work and feel a bit embarrassed that he was so dismissive of me. Even if I'm just going to buy one Oranda I would like it to be happy one.
If anyone could help me get my cycle started that would be much appreciated. If my tank is too small to deal with the whole process then I am more than willing to get a new one, I would just like to try and get it going without hurting anything. If Orandas are tough and could handle the cycling process themselves then I am happy to try that but I have read that fish can have damaged immune systems after being used for cycling and I would like to be a responsible fish keeper even if I do just have one fish.
Thank you for reading my post.
P.S:
* We have very hard water in our area and suffer with lime scale.
* I haven't started testing for NiTRITES or NiTRATES as I thought I should wait for my ammonia levels to drop first.
* I haven't done any water changes or changed the filter medium since starting the cycling process.
* Our tap water tested at 0ppm ammonia.