Fishless Diary: Newbie in all senses !

[Singhstyle]

interestingly..i tested my tap water and that is 20ppm in nitrates

 

[Singhstyle]

just done another 59% change. hopefully nitrites become readable now.

 

[Singhstyle]

nope they are still high but at least the drops go blue a bit before going purple...more water changes?????

 

[Singhstyle]

done it ! yea!

 

[Singhstyle]

really funny by the guy at the lfs was not impressed when i told him i did a 90% water change. said i mucked up the cycle... but following the near complete guide it says this ..? i trust the guide as it has not let me down!

 

[librarygirl]

So your nitrItes dropped to 0 on their own and stayed that way for a few days without water changes? If so then congrats on completing the cycle! The large water change prior to adding fish is to get nitrates as low as possible. What fish did you get? Keep testing every day for a week or so just to ensure everything stays stable. If so a 50% weekly water change is good maintenance with substrate vac. Post pics of your fish when you can! Enjoy!

 

[Singhstyle]

yep. i did a 50% a week ago as you were right as the nitrates were sky high. I then did nothing and jut waited and kept testing.

I also got a nitrate dipstick to keep me same to see how high and it showed it dropping and then one morning ..down and gone. I didnt believe as i must have done loads of nitrite and nitrate to double check.

I then did a few days of putting in ammonia (4ppm) and watch it convert to nitrate. The seneye is a great way as it tests every 30mins for nh3 so i could see it going down.

So far i put in 6x zebra danios, 6 white cloud minnow, 12 neon tetras and 6 harlequin rasbora.

I will wait for a week and then prob add 3x pearl gourami and then others 6 dwarf rainbow fish, 3 molly. 3 platy and 2/3 oto - one school per week etc

ta for the advice on the lfs.

 

[tiger terror]

I'd space out the new additions giving your bio-filter time to adjust..to many additions at once can really strain the bio-filter...

 

[Singhstyle]

what would you advise? wait for 2 weeks and then space it out every two weeks?

 

[tiger terror]

Did you add the current stock all at one time?

 

[Singhstyle]

yep on same but once school at a time. i been testing my water and current readings are 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, ph 7.98 and nitrates 40 (but could higher but not more than 80) . my tap water is 7.5 ph and has 20ppm in nitrates

The ammonia and nitrites have been stable all day. I tested last night and this morning as well to keep an eye. The fish have been in the tank for 24hrs now and zipping around. I fed them twice using the two pinches and remove uneaten bits after 5mins. I plan to do a 20% water change at end of week, I do a count everytime i look being a nervous newbie!

 

[Singhstyle]

some pics

some pics

 

[tiger terror]

You're doing a good job, when you're comfortable enough to add stock check params before adding new occupants..

 

[librarygirl]

SInce your tank was able to convert 4 ppms of ammonia in 24 hours it's as strong as it's going to get, so you could add the rest of the fish now. If you don't, what happens is that the biofilter will adjust down to the fish you have in there now, so when you add more spikes can happen. It's up to you, but thought I'd let you know. You may want to add some nitrate-sucking plants to your tank, hornwort is one, there are others. Nitrates of 40 is pushing it a bit IMO (there are varying opinions on this though) although with your tap at 20 it could be a bit hard to keep them low. There are things like Purigen that you can add to your filter to help reduce nitrates. Nice tank by the way.

 

[Singhstyle]

just done a 25% water change and they are at 20ppm. i will get some plants and more fish. Juts got to the that lfs again... the lfs guy really put me off !

 

[Singhstyle]

yep done . thanks for the advice ! i added the rest !