Fishless Cycle Log/Rebuild - Take II

[-Mac-]

Hm, I never thought of adding Otos and Cory's, that's interesting!

I have otos and sterbai corys. Both groups have the penchant to be extremely active in my tank; it's like they are an really good drugs, particularly the corys. So much so that I only have three because six would cause me and the rest of the tank trauma; they are spazoids . My otos went to night active but when I first got them they zipped around all day and the cory's still go nutty some times, my young male in particular. Heaven help me if I change the tank a bit; three days of lunatic fish as the cory's inspect it from stem to stern. I Love them all don't get me wrong; I spend a great deal of my viewing time laughing my face off!

 

[James_in_MN]

Ammonia is 0 AGAIN!!! WOOHOOOO!!!
NitrIte: 5
NitrAte: 160
PH: 7.6

Glad to see your continued progress in your tank Librarygirl. Hopefully you're cycle will finish pretty quickly so you can start stocking your tank.

In my experience in cycling two tanks, I had nitrIte conversion stalls when my nitrAte reached very high levels. Once I did a fairly significant PWC to get my levels down, the nitrItes started to quickly drop to 0.

I'd suggest that you consider doing the same thing, especially since your nitrAtes are even higher than where my stall hit.

I still can't help but be curious about what they're adding to your water that's safe for human consumption, hostile to bacteria, and not easily removed by products like Seachem Prime. Hopefully the aquarium community will find a solution for removing that substance before other municipalities start using it, whatever it is.

 

[librarygirl]

OMG I'M SO CLOSE!!!!!

Ammonia: 0
NitrIte: .25!!!!!!!
NitrAte: 160
PH: 7.6

Redosing!

It's only been 3 months (not counting the other tank LOL)!!!

SQUEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!

 

[barterking85]

OMG I'M SO CLOSE!!!!!

Ammonia: 0
NitrIte: .25!!!!!!!
NitrAte: 160
PH: 7.6

Redosing!

It's only been 3 months (not counting the other tank LOL)!!!

SQUEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!

That's awesome news keep up the good work

 

[eco23]

Before I joined this site, there were two things I promised myself I would never type on a forum. One was LOL (now I use it all the time :-/ ), and the other was OMG. So in honor to this moment........OMG I'm so happy for you!!!!! (Lol )

You know the routine as well as I do, so no further advice from me is necessary . You've done an awesome job, and I can't believe the commitment you showed through this.

Crazy things happen, so I won't pull out the party hats quite yet...but you might want to buy some champagne (and more Pure Life) for what will happen in the next couple days.

I'm proud of you

 

[librarygirl]

That's awesome news keep up the good work

Thanks Ryan!!

 

[zparticle]

So when are you getting fish and when will we see pics?

 

[librarygirl]

Before I joined this site, there were two things I promised myself I would never type on a forum. One was LOL (now I use it all the time :-/ ), and the other was OMG. So in honor to this moment........OMG I'm so happy for you!!!!! (Lol )

You know the routine as well as I do, so no further advice from me is necessary . You've done an awesome job, and I can't believe the commitment you showed through this.

Crazy things happen, so I won't pull out the party hats quite yet...but you might want to buy some champagne (and more Pure Life) for what will happen in the next couple days.

I'm proud of you

Wow I'm honored!

I even did the nitrite test twice thinking it was a mistake!

I was even debating doing a 50% pwc today thinking it might kickstart things and bring down the nitrates and make it easier to put the sand in....then I get a sort of blue tube.

I think I'm still going to do the water change anyway (geez I hope I don't "break" it lol; I don't have enough spring water to change it all out, but enough for about half. That way I can change over to sand too and see what happens (I'll leave some of the gravel in the tank in mesh bags) then. Plus nitrates are so high every little bit will help. Like I said I before I still have to order the stand and the rest of the silk plants since I'm not using live ones yet, so I'm just going to have to maintain the cycle until I do those things and then order the fish, so it'll be a couple of weeks yet. By then it should (hopefully) be stable and I'll have a good stockpile of water to do the water change needed before adding fish.

Yep, I said fish! Wow, never thought I would, really.

Thanks to everyone who has cheered me on and supported me throughout this whole venture. We're not there yet, but close.

 

[librarygirl]

So when are you getting fish and when will we see pics?

When my nitrites are zero. LOL

It'll be a couple of weeks yet. I have to get a new stand and fill out the decorations (ordering from ebay this weekend). Then I'm going to start with the school of CPDs but I have to order them. So, hopefully in a couple of weeks I'll have some fishy videos to share!

 

[Deckape]

When my nitrites are zero. LOL

It'll be a couple of weeks yet. I have to get a new stand and fill out the decorations (ordering from ebay this weekend). Then I'm going to start with the school of CPDs but I have to order them. So, hopefully in a couple of weeks I'll have some fishy videos to share!

The epic saga is almost over!!!!
Great job!!!!! +++++1

 

[JimmyA]

Hey LG, great to hear! Glad for you! Let us all know when you add fish!

 

[librarygirl]

Well I probably messed up....

Figured I'd do the 50% water change and add the sand. I took out the gravel with a new clean plastic tub and it went fine. I turned the filters and everything off and drained the water then added the sand.....But apparently I didn't rinse it enough as the water is now a cloudy blackish grey. Since the filters are off I put the media in plastic tubs in spring water to keep them wet. I'm hoping it'll settle soon but what if it doesn't, is it safe to turn the filters back on? If I kill my filters NOW I'm going to shoot myself. Of course if I had an unlimited supply of spring water (or could use tap) I could just keep draining water until it's clear, but of course not. lol Everything is hard for me.

Oh well, I have nothing but time I guess. I'm just concerned I'm going to blow out my filters and lose all my

 

[barterking85]

Your filters will be fine it didn't hurt mine anyways the cloudiness will settle

 

[eco23]

Yep, it'll be fine . Just takes some time to settle out. Why you even touched that thing at this point is beyond me though, hahaha! Don't worry, all is well

 

[librarygirl]

Thanks! I was just going to post and say it should be fine; did some searching on the forum and others have had the problem too. I turned the filters on and it's OK; not black where I can't see anything, just very cloudy. Also found one or two dead wormy things on the sand; I'm hoping it's just planaria. Yikes. Fished it out with my fingers. Blech. The sand looks AWESOME though, I love it already; never going back to gravel now lol.

Redosed ammonia and I'm letting it filter for a while. Then I'll do all the tests again just to get numbers after the pwc and see where we're at tomorrow.

 

[librarygirl]

A little bump today, but I expected it....

Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 2-5
Nitrate: 160-ish
PH: 7.6

I dosed ammonia a bit higher than 2 last night, so I wasn't expecting it to be 0 so I am very pleased that it is. After taking out all of the gravel and replacing with sand (looks AWESOME) and adding higher ammonia i expected nitrites to come back up and they did; I'm not worried though. Yet.

Redosing.

 

[eco23]

No worries. The point in your cycle where the nitrItes first start zeroing out is a very, very delicate balance, and by removing the substrate you'll be losing enough that it sets you back a bit. I'd bet by the end of the weekend you'll be set.

I wouldn't worry about more water changes until you're ready to stock. At that point you'll want to do a total water change, and since the no3 is so high it may even take a 90% followed by a 40-50%. You'd be surprised how high the nitrAtes can still be if you drain it to the gravel.

I just talked the wife into PFS...so I might need some pointers from you on changing it out

 

[librarygirl]

No worries. The point in your cycle where the nitrItes first start zeroing out is a very, very delicate balance, and by removing the substrate you'll be losing enough that it sets you back a bit. I'd bet by the end of the weekend you'll be set.

I wouldn't worry about more water changes until you're ready to stock. At that point you'll want to do a total water change, and since the no3 is so high it may even take a 90% followed by a 40-50%. You'd be surprised how high the nitrAtes can still be if you drain it to the gravel.

I just talked the wife into PFS...so I might need some pointers from you on changing it out

I saw your other reply about wanting sand; I'm glad your wife went for it. It looks AMAZING, never going back to gravel again. Yeah I'm definitely not doing any more water changes until this thing ends (unless I have to for some reason). You're right though it's going to take two large ones at least to get nitrates down. Last night after the pwc I did it went down to about 80-ish, tonight it's back up. Sheesh. Those BB are messy little buggers.

Better start stockpiling water.

Oh, questions before I forget:

- I have a mesh bag of a large amount of crushed coral in the tank now. What do I do with it once the tank is ready? Should I leave some in the filter and make sure it stays stable before adding fish?

- I'm assuming for the spring water I should stick to using one kind, right? Right now I admit I cheat a bit and mix the PureLife with Poland Spring, but PS has a much less PH than Pure Life does, so once fish are going in I'm assuming I'll want to keep the water the same (or will it not matter with the CC in there). Trying to find shortcuts from lugging 5 gal jugs up the stairs but I guess I can't get away with avoiding it long-term.

Um, I think that's it for questions, for now. Thanks.

 

[JimmyA]

Try hanging a long rope out your window and hoisting up the water jugs! Yahoo, you're on a roll!

 

[librarygirl]

Try hanging a long rope out your window and hoisting up the water jugs! Yahoo, you're on a roll!

Well I''m on third floor, so I'd need a hefty rope. And I think the jugs would end up pulling me down to them first. lol. I'll have to pay someone off to help me lift them!

You just reminded me of another question I had, but I promptly forgot it.

Oh, I remember now (after five minutes of sitting here lol): When I switched to spring water I also switched to Tetra AquaSafe just in case something in the Prime was hindering the cycle (small chance I know, but other than the water source it was the only thing I hadn't tried changing). Once the tank cycles should I go back to using Prime or keep with the AquaSafe? I know with spring water it might not matter much either way but I figure using it is better than not, I just don't know if it's OK to use long-term with fish (well duh I guess it would be....nevermind lol).