blueberrybubbles
Aquarium Advice Newbie
- Joined
- Dec 11, 2009
- Messages
- 2
Hi, I have read everything I could possibly find on fishless cycling and I am still having weirdness.
I have a lot of backstory to explain why this is taking me so long and happy to explain but I dont think it's necessary - basically I was keeping 2 goldfish in a 15 liter tank (yes, I was ignorant, yes, I have guilt) and it broke - so they are currently and for the last 30 days in an 80 liter bin with their filter.
Bought 119 gallon tank from ebay. turns out the filter was broke. turns out I had no money to replace it til last week.
Last week, hooked up new filter, filled the tank, and had no test strips for ammonia or nitrates/trites.
I did not add ammonia figuring I would only mess it up as I havent got the test strips yet so I plopped in fish food every day for a week. today I got the 6 in 1 test strips, not knowing they dont test ammonia so I have to get those now but anyways-
I have major hard water in my area so I dunked in a test strip anyways and much to my surprise, I see that I have 10ppm nitrite and 50ppm nitrate.
I was under the impression the cycle would take MUCH longer, in such a large tank? Is nitrates already normal?
by the way, no plants and bogwood yet. waiting on them to arrive too.
also, it's in a cold room - waiting on heaters to arrive also.
thanks in advance for any help...
I have a lot of backstory to explain why this is taking me so long and happy to explain but I dont think it's necessary - basically I was keeping 2 goldfish in a 15 liter tank (yes, I was ignorant, yes, I have guilt) and it broke - so they are currently and for the last 30 days in an 80 liter bin with their filter.
Bought 119 gallon tank from ebay. turns out the filter was broke. turns out I had no money to replace it til last week.
Last week, hooked up new filter, filled the tank, and had no test strips for ammonia or nitrates/trites.
I did not add ammonia figuring I would only mess it up as I havent got the test strips yet so I plopped in fish food every day for a week. today I got the 6 in 1 test strips, not knowing they dont test ammonia so I have to get those now but anyways-
I have major hard water in my area so I dunked in a test strip anyways and much to my surprise, I see that I have 10ppm nitrite and 50ppm nitrate.
I was under the impression the cycle would take MUCH longer, in such a large tank? Is nitrates already normal?
by the way, no plants and bogwood yet. waiting on them to arrive too.
also, it's in a cold room - waiting on heaters to arrive also.
thanks in advance for any help...