Love_MyFish
Aquarium Advice Freak
So should I clean the rocks and start over? or what should I do? I seeded the tank from a LFS and thought I was on the right track...... But now my reading are weird (AM) 4 (NIT) 0 (NITRATES) 0
Those readings look like you just started your cycle. Seeding the tank isn't an instant fix. You're just introducing the beneficial bacteria instead of waiting for them to show up from the air. If you have fish in the tank, do a few 50% PWCs to get the ammonia below 0.25ppm. If you're fishless cycling, leave the tank alone for a while.
What are you using to test your water? If its the API kit, it's pretty difficult to distinguish between 4ppm and 8ppm.
If you have fish in the tank, do a few 50% PWCs to get the ammonia below 0.25ppm. If you're fishless cycling, leave the tank alone for a while.
What I meant is it's easy to misread the ammonia test at higher levels. What you see as 4ppm might really be 8+ppm.
Try a few massive water changes (80-90%) and see if that doesn't get your ammonia levels down.
I don't advocate such large PWCs on a healthy tank, but this isn't a healthy tank. Lowering the ammonia to acceptable levels is most important right now and with the use of dechlorinator, I don't really see any harm done to the small biological filter that exists in the tank now.
I don't advocate such large PWCs on a healthy tank, but this isn't a healthy tank. Lowering the ammonia to acceptable levels is most important right now and with the use of dechlorinator, I don't really see any harm done to the small biological filter that exists in the tank now.
Bacteria is the guarantee of successful aquarium setup, isn't it? When you do such a large water change you may kill bacteria again and again.
Nope. Very few bacteria live in the water column. The vast, vast majority live and colonize the filter, with some colonizing the substrate, plants, decorations, etc.
Under normal circumstances, as I believe BigJim stated, such massive changes are not necessarily recommended, however, frequent water changes are. However, in this case, the ammonia level is so high that the danger of ammonia poisoning outweighs the dangers of massive water changes.
(Я вижу, что вы живёте в Москве! Я изучаю русский язык в университете. Очень приятно, и простите меня за мои ошибки -- уже поздно, и я устала. Но, мне надо было практиковаться потому что у меня была возможность! )