First post, been reading these forums for a little while now, just want to get that right out of the way!
Ok, so I’ve got an established 5 gallon (which is overstocked but stable and cycled). Recently I purchased a 36 gallon bowfront and set it up over the weekend. Saturday I decorated and filled up with water, did my first dose of Stability along with prime to get rid of chlorine. I already have an idea of what I wanted to stock the tank with, some cory cats, dwarf gourami, and a couple angelfish. As the subject states…impatient… I swung by the local pet store and picked up a couple angelfish- ok, I know these are delicate fish…I wasn’t thinking, that’s beyond the point because they are in the tank already. I had read somewhere to kickstart a cycle you can also put in a used filter in new tank, so I grabbed the one out of my 5 gallon, it’s been in there for about 3 weeks now so it was nice and mucky.
So here is a breakdown of what has been going on followed by my questions.
Saturday – Filled tank, first dose of stability and a dose of prime for new water.
Sunday – Added two angelfish, normal dose of stability, added used filter media
Monday – Water begins to fog, dosed stability, test strip shows no nitrate/nitrite, ammonia alert shows nothing. Added a little prime just in case I was missing something in the readings.
Tuesday – Water is milky, dosed stability, test strip shows nothing, no ammonia
Today – Water cleared up pretty good, looks like by this evening it will be back to normal.
Side note, fish didn’t eat first few days and I might have over fed, there is some clearly uneaten food on the bottom.
I’ve not done any water changes yet; the plan was tonight to pull roughly 10% and add a little more prime to decholrinate along with the daily dosage of stability.
All that being said…
1. With the used filter and small bioload is this enough to start a cycle?
2. Is stability and prime masking my readings giving me false positives?
3. Is it safe to add some more fish this weekend? Was thinking of 4 cory cats next.
Hope this enough detail to get a good understanding of what’s going on.
Ok, so I’ve got an established 5 gallon (which is overstocked but stable and cycled). Recently I purchased a 36 gallon bowfront and set it up over the weekend. Saturday I decorated and filled up with water, did my first dose of Stability along with prime to get rid of chlorine. I already have an idea of what I wanted to stock the tank with, some cory cats, dwarf gourami, and a couple angelfish. As the subject states…impatient… I swung by the local pet store and picked up a couple angelfish- ok, I know these are delicate fish…I wasn’t thinking, that’s beyond the point because they are in the tank already. I had read somewhere to kickstart a cycle you can also put in a used filter in new tank, so I grabbed the one out of my 5 gallon, it’s been in there for about 3 weeks now so it was nice and mucky.
So here is a breakdown of what has been going on followed by my questions.
Saturday – Filled tank, first dose of stability and a dose of prime for new water.
Sunday – Added two angelfish, normal dose of stability, added used filter media
Monday – Water begins to fog, dosed stability, test strip shows no nitrate/nitrite, ammonia alert shows nothing. Added a little prime just in case I was missing something in the readings.
Tuesday – Water is milky, dosed stability, test strip shows nothing, no ammonia
Today – Water cleared up pretty good, looks like by this evening it will be back to normal.
Side note, fish didn’t eat first few days and I might have over fed, there is some clearly uneaten food on the bottom.
I’ve not done any water changes yet; the plan was tonight to pull roughly 10% and add a little more prime to decholrinate along with the daily dosage of stability.
All that being said…
1. With the used filter and small bioload is this enough to start a cycle?
2. Is stability and prime masking my readings giving me false positives?
3. Is it safe to add some more fish this weekend? Was thinking of 4 cory cats next.
Hope this enough detail to get a good understanding of what’s going on.