I have just set up a new tank it's been running for 5 days now, the filter I have on it was taken from one of my other tanks which has been running for about 6 months so the media in the filter is mature. I also added cycle to the new water in the new tank. I just did a water test using the API water test kit the KH (Carbonate hardness) reading was 240 is this water safe for fish yet all other parameters were fine.
API test results
- Thread starter SJ-78
- Start date
It's 'safe' when the ammonia and nitrites are '0' and there's a reading for nitrates. What were those particular test results? Hardess or softness of water doesn't matter in most cases. I'd be a lot more concerned about the ammonia/nitrite/nitrate than the hardness.
Cycle is worthless and the filter needs a source of ammonia in order to stay cycled.
Cycle is worthless and the filter needs a source of ammonia in order to stay cycled.
Do a basic internet search for fishless cycling. Basically you need to go to your local grocery store and buy a bottle of clear ammonia or 100% ammonia for a couple of bucks in the chemical house cleaners isle. And add that to your tank everyday at a rate of 4-6 drops per 10gallons of aquarium water. Do this until your test results show you that you have some nitrites of course your ammonia level will be really high by this point but do not worry. When you see that you have started to get a nitrite reading that means that the first part of the biological bacteria has cultured its self and is now growing in your tank and eating the ammonia and turning it into nitrite. Then you will need to drop the daily dose of ammonia drops to 2-3 for every 10g of water. And do this everyday until you get a spike in your nitrate reading. This will mean that the second part of your benificial bacteria has now began to grow and is eating the nitrite and turning it into nitrate like it is supposed to. When you see the nitrate spike and by spike i mean double to triple what it was the day before you need to do the first 50% water change to remove that nitrate. And then you need to keep daily dosing the ammonia at 2-3 drops per 10g until you can dose the tank and when you check the readings 12hours later they read 0 for ammonia and 0 for nitrite. When the readings are zero and zero for 3-4 days you have successfully cycled your tank and can now do a major water change like 80% and then stock it with fish. But you must have a source of ammonia in the tank everday so wait until the day you are going to purchase fish for the major water change.----------------------------------wow and i do not even like to type its amazing what these little brown bottles will make you do.
All your beneficial bacteria died off when you added the filter media with no fish in the tank . Some people disagree with it but i use feeders to cycle my tanks and when its cycled add the fish to get rid of them lol . But you need a test kit that reads ammonia , nitrates and nitrites . when you have 0 amm, 0 nitrites and some nitrates your good to go . Good Luck